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Pure Bollocks Issue 22_027
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* R E V I E W S *
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AN APPRECIATION OF "THE ORB"
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By Mr. Orb
__________
To fully appreciate this kind of music one must first understand it's nature.
I, myself, used to enjoy Tangerine Dream's music but found them becoming more
and more formula based, each piece more or less sounding like the last. This
was a shame as at their greatest they created wonderfully atmospheric
soundscapes in such LP's as 'Rubycon' or 'White Eagle', in comparison their
most recent work 'Rockoon' sounds shallow and clinical (or is my CD player
broken?).
Enter Alex Paterson who, in association with the KLF's Jimi Caulty created
a new style of music: 'Ambient House'. Caulty was the first to release an LP in
that style. Similar to the Orb's subsequent Ultraworld album, with it's cover
picture of Battersea power station, the KLF paid homage to Pink Floyd with a
grazing sheep, a parody to the Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. [By a spectacular
coincidence, "Ultraworld" also pariodied a Floyd album cover. (Animals) -
<Genie!>]
Alex first bite of fame was as a roadie, humping gear and taking stick from
Killing Joke, who included his old school chum Youth, now transformed in the
premier re-mixer/producer and responsible for many of the groups more ambitious
tracks.
On the surface the music seems repetitive, shallow and avoiding any musical
composition: The usual well mapped structure of Verse, Chorus, Verse, Middle
Eight and Bridge is replaced in their pieces with a much longer narrative flow
taking samples from obscure sources; 'B' Movies, Radio Interviews (Little
Fluffy Clouds), Space noises, Humpback Whales, and even Hammond organ music
(The end of 'The Peel Sessions').
Most notable of The Orb's style of music is that to accommodate the almost
free-form musical experimentation tracks are rarely less than 10 minutes long.
The single 'Blue Room' which, allegedly, is dedicated to the rumoured ultra-
secret extra-terrestrial holding tank at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in Ohio
clocks in at an impressive 40 minutes , and holds the record for longest
single. [Just 1 second under the maximum continuous running time for a single
as laid down by Gallup regulations. Apparently, it was done as a response to a
radio interview with Flowered up, who, upon the release of their 13 minute
single "Weekender, were going along the lines of: "blah blah 13 minutes blah
blah uncommercial blah blah real music blah blah..." "Weekender" never even got
near the charts, whilst "The Blue Room" made the top 10! - <Genie!>]
(An interesting aside. The Blue Room CD costs 4.00 and contains 40 minutes
of music, simple math follows that one is paying 10p per minute. My point is,
how can record companies justify charging nearly 15 for Beatles CD's which are
even shorter ?)
Discography:
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(Note: This follows my collection of CD's and in no way is a full or complete
review)
The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld. (Double LP) 17.99
Tracks:
CD 1 CD 2
Little Fluffy Clouds Perpetual Dawn
Earth (Gaia) Into The Fourth Dimension
Supernova At The Edge Of The Outlands
Universe
Star 6 & 7 8 9
Backside Of The Moon A Huge Evergrowing Brain
Spanish Castles In Space That Rules From The Centre Of
The Ultraworld
Interestingly I bought this LP after hearing an excerpt of 'A Huge Evergrowing
Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld'. A text-book example of
ambient house: it clocks in at over 20 minutes, takes samples from almost
everywhere, and has a repetitive nature that, far from becoming tedious, is
incredibly soothing.
The album also contains the Track 'Little Fluffy Clouds' which as an
introduction to the groups music does it's job very well and introduces the
listener to this style of music.
The Orb Aubrey Mixes (Orb Remixes Geddit?) 12.99
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Tracks
Little Fluffy Clouds: Cumulo nimbus mix
Backside of the moon: Under water deep space mix
Spanish castles in space: Castles in goa mix
[It sounds not too unlike Pink Floyd's "Saucerful of Secrets" - <Genie!>]
Outlands: Fountains of ellisha mix
A huge evergrowing pulsating brain that rules from the centre
of the ultraworld: Aubrey mix mk 11
Perpetual dawn: january mix 3
Spanish castles in space: extended youth mix
When this CD was released, as a marketing ploy it was to be deleted on the next
day. Suffice to say I was extremely pissed when I couldn't find any copies.
Several months later in a small Woolworths not only did I find it, but at
5.99.
The Orb Perpetual Dawn (US Import) 8.99
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Tracks
Perpetual Dawn (Solar youth mix)
Perpetual Dawn (Solar flare extended)
Perpetual Dawn (Ultrabass I)
Perpetual Dawn (Ultrabass II)
Star 6 & 7 8 9 (Phase II)
The orb's very commercial effort to attain chart success in the U.S.
The Orb Peel Sessions 8.99
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Tracks
A huge evergrowing pulsating brain that rules from the centre
of the ultraworld (loving you)
Back side of the moon (tranquility lunar orbit)
Into the fourth dimension (essences in starlight)
The tracks on this CD consisted the sessions that The Orb recorded for John
Peels radio program from 3.12.89 to 2.10.90 [NOTE- As far as we at PBHQ can
tell, the version of "A Huge Evergrowing...." is more or less the ORIGINAL
version. It was recorded with Jimi Cauty and didn't even have the title when it
was first broadcast on Peel's show, and was called something like "'Loving you'
Orbital Mix" when it was first repeated- <Genie!>]
The Blue Room Cd Set (2 CD's) 3.99 each
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Tracks
CD 1 CD 2
Blue Room Blue Room (Radio)
Blue Room (Excerpt)
Towers Of Dub (Mad Professor Remix)
Between this period I was given a tape of 'Coldcut versus the Orb' recorded one
wintry October afternoon from Kiss-FM. The Orb's efforts consist of various
remixes of UF-ORB tracks (to be included in the UF-Aubrey Mixes?)
UF-ORB (or U 12.99
------ F
ORB)
Tracks
O.o.b.e
U.f.orb
Blue Room
Towers Of Dub
Close Encounters
Majestic
Sticky End
More conventional than the original Ultraworld LP it contains some fantastic
music, notably U.f.orb which has a brilliant drum track and bass line.
Nominated for a brit award it lost to Annie Lennox's souless 'Diva' LP.
Oldfield Versus The Orb: Sentinel 3.99
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Tracks
Sentinel (nobel prize mix)
Sentinel (orbular bells)
Sentinel (seven inch mix)
Following the vapid 'Tubular Bells II' (more of a flop than a follow-up) The
Orb got hold of it and produced some cracking remixes.
The Orb: Assassin (2 CD Set) 3.99 each
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Tracks
CD 1 CD 2
Assassin (The oasis of rhythms mix) Radio 7
U.F.ORB (Bandulu remix) Another live version
Chocolate hills of bohol mix
At the time of writing this constitutes The Orb's last release. [Wasn't there a
12" released in the last couple of months called "Mother of Pearl"? It seemed
to be some sort of collaboration as well- <Genie!>]
In conclusion The Orb represent a taste of the way that conventional music will
sound in a thousand years time. I can imagine Han Solo sticking U.F.orb on the
Millennium Falcon's DCC or Minidisc player.
[FINAL THOUGHT- In January 1989, I taped a very strange piece of house music
off the John Peel show. It was just under 5 minutes long, with some guy
chanting a mantra over an acid bassline, and a strange sample of some French
guys going "Zee Roof! Zee Roof! Ze roof is on fi-errrr!". It was by some beat
combo called Mr Orb. I wonder whatever happened to them? - <Genie!>]
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LATEST ORB NEWS - taken from Melody Maker- The Paper That Likes To Say "Suede"
** The Orb's US tour is postponed for the moment because of a legal wrangle
between WauMrModo Records and Big Life Records. Apparently WauMrModo thinks
it's now independent from major label Big Life records, who have up until
now distributed their records, including their main act- guess who? However
Big Life don't quite agree on this, so there's a big of a legal tussle
going on....
** There's a major campaign in Stirling University to get The Orb elected as
Honarary Presidents of their Student Representative council, and The Orb
have agreed to stand. The main points in favour of the candidates from the
Ultraworld are, according to the campaign leaflet, that:
a) They have a pet sheep called Fluff.
b) The "Huge Evergrowing Brain that Rules From The Centre of the
Ultraworld" quite obviously is a pointed reference to Stirling
university.
Methinks this campaign team must be completely Into The Fourth Dimension,
but they'll probably win, and anyway I'd rather have The Orb win the
position than some tosser like bloody Johnny Ball!!!!
** Their latest piece of music is around 63 minutes long. Thus, under Gallup
chart rules, it is technically a 1 track album.
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