The Orb
Encyclopedia
Throughout 1989, the Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house
through the use of a diverse array of samples
and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel
on BBC Radio 1
. The track, then known as "Loving You," was largely improvisational and featured a wealth of sound effects and samples from science fiction
radio plays, nature sounds, and Minnie Riperton
's "Lovin' You." For its release as a single on the record label Big Life
, the Orb changed the title to "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld
." Upon the single's release, Riperton's management forced Big Life to remove the unlicensed Riperton sample, ensuring that only the initial first-week release of the single contained the original vocals of Minnie Riperton; subsequent pressings used vocals from a sound-alike. Despite its running time of 22 minutes, the sample-laden single reached #78 on the British singles charts
. Soon thereafter, the Orb was commissioned by Dave Stewart
to remix his top-20 single "Lily Was Here
." The group obliged and was soon offered several more remix jobs from artists including Erasure
and System 7
.
In 1990, Paterson and Cauty held several recording sessions at Cauty's studio, Trancentral. When offered an album deal by Big Life, the Orb found itself at a crossroads: Cauty preferred that the Orb release its music through his KLF Communications
label, whereas Paterson wanted to ensure that the group did not become a side-project of The KLF. Because of these issues, Cauty and Paterson split in April 1990, with Paterson keeping the name the Orb. As a result of the break-up, Cauty removed Paterson's contributions from the in-progress recordings and released the album as Space on KLF Communications. Also out of these sessions came The KLF
album Chill Out
, on which Paterson appeared in an uncredited role.
Following the split, Paterson began working with Youth on the track "Little Fluffy Clouds
". The group incorporated samples from Steve Reich
's Electric Counterpoint
and vocal clips from an interview with Rickie Lee Jones
in which she recalls picturesque images from her childhood. While Reich was flattered by the Orb's use of his work, Jones pursued the issue in the legal system. Big Life chose to settle
out of court for an undisclosed sum of money for use of her voice on the Orb's recording. "Little Fluffy Clouds" reached #87 on the British singles chart; however, due to Glover's other production obligations (and subsequently rejoining Killing Joke), he did not become a permanent member of The Orb. According to an interview on The South Bank Show, Reich demanded twenty-five percent of royalties from the use of his "Electric Counterpoint" (performed by guitarist Pat Metheny
) on all sales of "Clouds."
. Steve Hillage
, whom Patterson had met while DJ-ing in London, also joined as a contributing guitarist. Along with producer Thomas Fehlmann
, The Orb completed several additional tracks for its first album, The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
. At least six studios and twenty outside musicians were used during the three weeks of recording. Falconer's and Weston's technical abilities and Hillages's guitar work allowed the group to craft panoramic sounds portraying aspects of space travel, most notably the launch of Apollo 11
. Adventures sold well in the United Kingdom and received praise for its balance of ambient music, house music, and sampling. Retrospectively, Adventures is considered ground-breaking for changing the way musicians view sampling and as a seminal work for the genres of ambient and dance music. The completion of Adventures saw the departure of Andy Falconer, whose last contribution was to one of the Orb's Peel Sessions. To promote the release of an edited single-disc version for an American release on Mercury Records
, the Orb embarked on their first tour of the United States beginning in Phoenix, Arizona
, in October 1991.
In late 1991 and early 1992, Paterson and Weston wrote their next single, "Blue Room". Assisting with the recording was bassist Jah Wobble
, keyboardist Miquette Giraudy
, and guitarist Hillage. Despite its playing time of almost 40 minutes, "Blue Room" entered the British charts at #12 and peaked at #8, making it the longest track to reach the charts. The Orb promoted this single with a "legendary avant-garde" performance on Top of the Pops
where Patterson and Weston played a game of chess
in space suits while footage of dolphins and an edited version of "Blue Room" ran in the background. In July 1992, U.F.Orb
was released featuring "Blue Room" and, in the US release, The Orb's next single, "Assassin". Weston integrated his technical and creative expertise with Paterson's Eno
-influenced ambience on U.F.Orb, combining "drum and bass rhythms" with "velvet keyboards" and "rippling synth lines". U.F.Orb reached #1 on the British album charts to the shock of critics, who were surprised that fans had embraced what journalists considered to be progressive rock
. Despite The Orb's success, Paterson and Weston preferred to avoid personal publicity and instead allow their music to be the focus of attention. Because of this partial anonymity and The Orb's rotating membership, they are often recognised as more of a musical collective than a "band".
Over the next year and a half, Paterson and Weston continued to produce new material, but releases stalled when Paterson began to feel that Big Life was trying to dictate the direction of The Orb's music. This led to intense disagreements with Big Life and The Orb soon left the label to sign a deal with Island Records
. Their first release on Island Records was the live album Live 93, which gathered highlights from The Orb's recent performances in Europe and Asia. It featured The Orb's live crew of Paterson, Weston, producers Nick Burton and Simon Phillips
, as well as audio engineer Andy Hughes
, who had stepped in previously when Weston had decided to stop touring. The Orb's first studio production on Island Records was Pomme Fritz
, a chaotic EP noted for its heavy use of strange samples and its lack of conventional harmonies. Though Pomme Fritz reached as high as #6 on the British charts, critics panned it as "doodling". Even Island Records "hated it" and "didn't understand it at all", according to Paterson. Soon after production finished on Pomme Fritz, Paterson, Weston, and Orb contributor Thomas Fehlmann joined with Robert Fripp
to form the group FFWD
as a side project. FFWD released a single self-titled album on Paterson's Inter-Modo label, which Fehlmann later described as "an Orb track which became so long that it became a whole album!". Due to this aimlessness, FFWD lacked an artistic goal and disbanded after a single release. Soon after the release of FFWD in August 1994, Weston suddenly quit The Orb. Paterson claimed that Weston's departure was due to Weston's desire to have more control in The Orb. However, in an interview with i-D
, Weston attributed the split to Paterson, saying that Paterson "didn't do his 50 per cent of the work." Paterson reaffirmed the status of The Orb saying, "The Orb is The Orb, and nothing can change that" and continued work with Hughes and Fehlmann.
—the process of which saw a return to their spacy sounds. Though Orblivion was recorded in May 1996, it was not released until almost a year later, due to Island Records' desire to promote it as a follow up to U2
's techno-rock album Pop. Orblivion sold well in Europe as well as the United States, where it reached the Billboard Top 200. The first Orblivion single, "Toxygene
", was the highest charting single by The Orb, reaching #4 in the United Kingdom on 8 February 1997. Despite high sales, Orblivion received a lukewarm reception from the British press. As with Orbus Terrarum, Orblivion was better received by American critics, including Rolling Stone, who praised its "contrast of chaos and euphony". Meanwhile, the stresses of touring sat heavily on Paterson; he considered retiring The Orb, but ultimately continued touring and producing.
Paterson and Fehlmann, along with usual collaborators Hughes, Burton, and Phillips, wrote and produced Cydonia
for a planned 1999 release. Featured on the album were appearances from Robert Fripp, John Roome (Witchman), and Fil Le Gonidec, one of The Orb's live performers. Singers Nina Walsh and Aki Omori appeared on two tracks each, providing vocals and co-writing lyrics with Paterson. Paterson felt that this new direction of songwriting for The Orb was more similar to the experimental work of Orbus Terrarum than to the techno-pop of Orblivion. As Island Records was in a period of restructuring due to its recent purchase by Universal Music Group
, Cydonia was not released until 2001. Upon release, critics noted that Cydonia merged together pop, trance, and ambient-dub music, which they felt to be a conglomeration of bland vocals and uninventive ambience that lacked the appeal of The Orb's earlier work. NME
harshly described it as "a stillborn relic, flawed throughout by chronically stunted ambitions" and describing its only appropriate audience to be "old ravers" seeking nostalgia. Not only did the album receive poor reviews, but The Orb was generally regarded by the British press as past their prime and an "ambient dinosaur" out of place in the current dance music environment. After the release of Cydonia, Hughes left the group for undisclosed reasons, becoming "another acrimonious departure from The Orb" according to The Guardian.
In 2001, Alex Paterson formed the record label Badorb.com
as an outlet for Orb members' side projects. To promote both Badorb.com and Cydonia, The Orb toured internationally, including their first visit to the United States in four years. NME described The Orb's tour as "charming" and that The Orb was "freed from the Floydian
pretensions that dogged the band throughout the mid-'90s.
The Orb, now composed of Paterson, Phillips and Fehlmann, with guest John Roome, accepted an invitation to join the Area:One concert tour with Moby
, Paul Oakenfold
, New Order
and other alternative and electronic artists. Though The Orb was paired with more mainstream artists during the tour such as Incubus
, Paterson and Fehlmann chose to make their next releases a series of several low-key EPs for German label Kompakt
in 2002. The Orb found critical success on Kompakt; however, Badorb.com collapsed soon after releasing the compilation Bless You. Badorb.com had released fourteen records over the course of fourteen months from artists including Guy Pratt
(Conduit), Ayumi Hamasaki
, and Takayuki Shiraishi, as well as The Orb's three-track Daleth of Elphame EP
. Though Badorb.com was an internet-based record label, they only sold vinyl releases (with one exception, the aforementioned Orb EP), which Paterson later remarked was a poor idea because "not many people... have record players".
Though their musical style had changed somewhat since the 1990s, The Orb continued to use their odd synthetic sounds on 2004's Bicycles & Tricycles
, to mixed reviews. The Daily Telegraph
praised Bicycles & Tricycles as being "inclusive, exploratory, and an enjoyable journey"; however, other publications dismissed it as "stoner dub" and irrelevant to current electronic music. Like Cydonia, Bicycles & Tricycles featured vocals, including female rapper MC Soom-T who added a hip hop twist to the album. The Orb left Island Records and released the album on Cooking Vinyl
and Sanctuary Records
. To promote the album, the band began a UK tour with dub reggae artist Mad Professor
. Though The Orb still pulled in large crowds, The Guardian
noted that they lacked the intensity found in their earlier performances.
and delays
made him the center of Okie Dokie production and, according to Pitchfork Media
, made it "difficult to say where [Paterson] is in the picture". The Orb's releases with Kompakt gained The Orb back much of their musical credibility with the press and showed that The Orb could "age gracefully".
In August 2006, the founders of The Orb - Paterson and Cauty - released Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God
, their debut album as the Transit Kings
with Guy Pratt
and Pratt's associate, Dom Beken. The album featured appearances from The Smiths
guitarist Johnny Marr
and comedian Simon Day
. Beken described Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God as "self-consciously musically written and less sample-based" compared to the members' previous work. Living had been in production since 2001, but due to members' other obligations, it was delayed for several years. The album received mixed critical reactions, with reviewers such as The Sun
comparing the album favorably to the music of DJ Shadow
and Röyksopp
while other publications, such as The Times
, called it "Orb-lite" and proclaimed it to be "Deep Forest
-style sludge". Soon after the album's release, Cauty left the Transit Kings on "extended leave", leaving the project in indefinite limbo. Paterson and Beken would reunite in 2008 as High Frequency Bandwidth, an ambient hip hop group on the Malicious Damage label.
. The album features more of a return to The Orb's sounds of the early 1990s, with peculiar vocals and playful samples. The Orb also brought in jazz and house music singer Juliet Roberts
and guitarist Steve Hillage
. The Orb's live band currently consists of Paterson, The Corpral (vocals), Keith York
(drums/percussion), Fil Le Gonidec, and Glover.
After July 2006 re-release of The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld 3-CD Deluxe Edition, 2007 and 2008 saw releases of expanded 2-CD editions of the band's subsequent regular studio records: U.F.Orb, Pomme Fritz EP, Orbus Terrarum, Orblivion and Cydonia. In Autumn of 2008 a double-cd compilation of BBC Radio 1
sessions called The Orb: Complete BBC Sessions 1989-2001 was released.
In May 2009, the British Malicious Damage Records (run by the members of Killing Joke
) announced the release of The Orb's ninth regular studio album Baghdad Batteries (Orbsessions Volume III)
on September 11, 2009. A reunification of Paterson and his long-term collaborator Thomas Fehlmann who last worked together on Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompakt, the album was promoted with a launch party with Paterson and Fehlmann performing the whole album live at The-Situation Modern in Clapham
, England on 10 September. A track "Chocolate Fingers" was uploaded onto the label's MySpace
profile. The 11-track album is said to be the third in the Orbsessions series, although unlike the first two outtakes parts composed of brand new material, recorded at Fehlmann's Berlin studio.
March 2010 saw Internet station Dandelion Radio
broadcast a seventeen and a half minute long Orb session track by Patterson and Fehlmann on the Andrew Morrison show. This new track was titled 'Battersea Bunches' and was a remixed version of the soundtrack to a short movie, also entitled 'Battersea Bunches' by Mike Coles and Alex Patterson - a film installation to be seen at London’s Battersea Power Station on 1 June 2010 as part of an evening of art and music. The film and its soundtrack (together with remixes) were later released as the CD/DVD album C Batter C
on 11 November 2011.
In the summer of 2010 Alex Paterson
teamed up with Youth aka Martin Glover
to compile a retrospective compilation album of tracks from the WAU
! Mr Modo label. The album titled Impossible Oddities is set to be released on CD and double Vinyl on 25 October 2010 via Year Zero records.
The Orb released Metallic Spheres
in October 2010. It featured David Gilmour
, of Pink Floyd
fame, and was released by Columbia Records
.
, Alice Cooper
, Prince
, Kraftwerk
, and T.Rex. Among these, Paterson cites Kraftwerk as one of the most important, claiming they created the foundation from which all modern dance music has been built. While in Brixton
with Martin Glover as a teenager, Paterson was also exposed to a large amount of reggae music, such as The Mighty Diamonds
, The Abyssinians
, and Bob Marley
. The reggae influence on Paterson and The Orb can readily be heard in tracks such as the single "Perpetual Dawn" and U.F.Orbs "Towers of Dub". The earliest ambient influences of The Orb came in 1979 during Paterson's roadie days with Killing Joke. While with the band in Neuss
, Paterson listened to Brian Eno's Music for Films
while on LSD
and watched "the Ruhr
steel works explode in the distance", noting that "[t]he scene seemed to be taking place in the music as well". That same night, Paterson was also inspired while listening to Cluster
's Grosses Wasser
and found that the steel works' "huge metal arms were crushing molten rocks in time to the music", which was something he'd "never seen, or heard, anything like it before". Along with Cluster and Kraftwerk, Paterson was also influenced by other German experimental music from Can
and composer Karlheinz Stockhausen
. Modulations
calls Paterson's music a "maximal" version of Brian Eno's "minimal" ambience, though according to Paterson, Eno resents Paterson's use of his music as an influence.
The Orb has often been described as "The Pink Floyd of the Nineties", however, Paterson has stated that The Orb's music is more influenced by experimental electronic music more so than progressive rock of the 1970s. He has noted though that the Pink Floyd album Meddle was influential to him as a child in the 1970s. The psychedelic prog-rock similarities have led critics to describe The Orb as hippie
revivalists; however, Paterson has strongly rejected the tag, claiming that even as a youth, he was "one of those punks who hated hippies".
During production of Cydonia and Bicycles & Tricycles, Paterson's biggest influences were drum and bass
and trip hop
music, as seen on the tracks "Ghostdancing", "Thursday's Keeper", and "Aftermath". The Orb's more recent influences consist largely of German techno producers, such as Triola, who themselves were inspired by The Orb's earlier work. Paterson cites the music of Kompakt as one of his primary modern influences and claims it to be among the best modern ambient music.
, including a 2003 interview with The Guardian, during which interviewer Will Hodgkinson noted the assorted "hash
-smoking paraphernalia" around Paterson's Battersea
apartment. Drug references often turn up in tracks, such as "72," from Orblivion, which features a clip from Hair
proclaiming, "The youth of America on LSD
!" Another notable case is on "Little Fluffy Clouds," which features the odd nasal tonality of Rickie Lee Jones
' influenced voice, though Jones said it was the result of a heavy cold.
's and Philip Glass
's film Koyaanisqatsi
as a primary influence to their concert imagery.
The Orb is also been noted for their original album art, which features much of the same imagery as their live act. Noted graphic design group The Designers Republic
created the cover art for The Orb's earlier work, including Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, U.F.Orb, and the singles from those two albums. For their next album, The Orb poked fun at their Pink Floyd comparisons with the cover of Live 93 featuring a floating stuffed sheep over the Battersea Power Station
, which had appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals. The artwork found in Badorb.com releases was similar to The Orb's odd artwork of the mid-1990s, as it was stylistically similar and contained little writing. Paterson has also dabbled in the creation of cover art himself, designing the cover of Okie Dokie It's The Orb on Kompakt.
. These have included The Orb's use of samples from serious sources such as NASA
transmissions to comedic clips from films like Woody Allen
's Sleeper
. U.F.Orb especially expressed a fascination with alien life with its bizarre sound samples and in the album's title itself. The title of its most popular single, "Blue Room", is itself a reference to the supposed Blue Room of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
, which was heavily investigated as a possible UFO evidence holding room. Their 2001 album, too, is named for a space-related subject, specifically the Cydonia Mensae region of Mars. Due to Paterson's focus on science fiction and astronomical phenomena, The Guardian described Paterson as "pop [music]'s primary spokesperson on aliens".
was mainly recorded on a Mitsubishi 48 Track digital machine running in sync with an Otari 24 Track analogue machine. The majority of the parts regardless of bass, drum loops etc. were recorded to tape for the entire time available (15 minutes as limited by the Otari analogue machine) without a break. As well as parts committed to tape there would invariably be other elements running "live" from Akai Samplers, triggered from an Atari 1040 computer synced to tape. Once all parts were assembled a mix would be built up by Falconer. Having completed this multiple mixes would be run off to DAT. It was also normal at this stage for Paterson to free form extra material and effects from either CD, Vinyl or DAT as a live source being combined with the final mixes. After Falconer had completed an initial "safe" mix, Weston would then take over the mixing desk and produce multiple mixes and would in turn be followed by Paterson. Once multiple mixes produced, a final mix would be edited together by Falconer from the source DATs. This was done by transferring the required elements to a 1/4" analogue tape machine and editing them together with a razor blade to produce the final version.
In The Orb's early DJ events in the 1980s, Paterson and Cauty performed with three record decks, a cassette player, and a CD player all of which were mixed through an Akai
12-track mixer
. They used their equipment to harmonise recorded music and sound effect samples into an "endless sound continuum" for audiences of worn out dancers. Even after The Orb began producing original material, they kept the same sample-heavy model for live acts by spontaneously integrating obscure samples into their pre-recorded tracks. During promotional tours for Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld and U.F.Orb, The Orb performed using a digital audio tape
machine and experimented with other media sources such as dubplate
s. The tape machines held individual chords, rhythms, and basslines for each composition, allowing The Orb to reprocess them and mimic the act of DJ-ing. Members could then easily improvise with these samples and manipulate them using sound effect racks
. Often, The Orb had a live musician accompanying them, such as Steve Hillage on guitar. Their shows in the early 1990s would often be three hours of semi-improvised, continuous music featuring a wealth of triggered samples, voices, and pre-recorded tracks which were barely identifiable as the original piece.
The Orb began performing regularly at the Brixton Academy in the early 1990s, where they used the high ceilings and large space for their "well-suited amorphous sound", frequently performing their newest and more experimental pieces there. Andy Hughes took Weston's place at live performances after the 1993 tour, though Weston did reappear for The Orb's concert at the rainy Woodstock '94
. The Orb played for late night raves on the first two nights of Woodstock '94 in addition to artists including Aphex Twin
, Orbital
, and Deee-Lite
. The next year, The Orb's touring group consisted of Paterson, Hughes, Nick Burton on percussion, and Simon Phillips on bass. This ensemble of live performers and electronic music created a "cacophony" of "gigantic, swarming sounds". Though The Orb's performances use much onstage equipment and many props, Paterson prefers to present The Orb as "a non-centralised figure of amusement on stage".
The Orb used ADAT
recorders for performances from 1993 to 2001 and utilised large 48-track decks, which Paterson described as basically being a "studio onstage". They hooked synthesisers, such as the ARP 2600
, to MIDI interfaces to recreate specific sounds that appeared on their albums. The Orb's methods of studio music creation changed as well. For more recent albums such as Cydonia, The Orb used inexpensive equipment such as Korg
's Electribe
products, which Paterson described as employing more of a "bedroom techno" approach. Despite their use of laptops during performances and in-studio computers, Paterson says that he still cherishes vinyl and does not find purchasing CDs or downloading music to be nearly as satisfying.
's "Oxygene 8" from Oxygene 7-13
. However, The Orb "obliterated it" and reassembled only a few fragments for their remix, much to the chagrin of Jarre, who reportedly refused to release it; The Orb released the track themselves under the name "Toxygene", which further irritated Jarre, to whom Paterson retorted "The French are always five years behind us, anyway." In statements made after the release of "Toxygene", however, Jarre denied that he rejected the original remix because of disliking it.
Other artists have become agitated due to The Orb sampling their work, though Paterson jokingly suggests that "[t]hey don't know the half of it." Paterson says that he finds a "beauty" and a "cleverness" with slipping unlicensed samples into compositions without anyone recognizing it. Even though fans often try to guess the origins of many of The Orb's samples, Paterson states that they are rarely correct and that they would "die" if they discovered, for example, where the drums on "Little Fluffy Clouds" originated from. He has said that record labels have cautioned him, "Don't tell anyone where you got your samples until we get them cleared!".
The Orb has used a wide variety of audio clips from sources ranging from McCarthy era speeches to prank phone calls by Victor Lewis-Smith
to David Thewlis
' apocalypse-driven rant from the film Naked
. Paterson obtains many samples from recording TV and radio for hours at a time and picking out his favorite clips. He and other members of The Orb record nature sounds for use on albums, most notably on FFWD and Orbus Terrarum. The Orb's combination of ambient music and sampling from lower fidelity audio sources often creates a "fuzzy texture" in the sound quality, depersonalising The Orb's music. The Orb is lauded for their "Monty Python-esque levity" in their use of audio samples, though NME asserts that Paterson "sabotage[s] his majestic soundscapes" with "irritatingly zany" sounds.
The Orb has been a prolific remixing team, having completed over 80 commissioned remixes since 1989. Even during periods of label conflict and contractual limbo, The Orb found steady work remixing for artists including Depeche Mode
, Lisa Stansfield
, and Front 242
. Though The Orb's remixes from the early and mid-1990s feature a large number of comical samples, Progressive-Sounds
describe them as "ahead of their time" and NME notes them as "not entirely incompatible with contemporary chilling." However, some pieces, such as their Bee Gees
cover collaboration with Robbie Williams
, received criticism for being "beyond a joke" for their use of strange noises. The Orb's remix of Nine Inch Nails
' "The Perfect Drug
", too, was described as "silly", as they made it sound like Trent Reznor
was "drowning in his bathtub". Though Paterson maintains that much of The Orb's remix work is done to support other artists, he admits some of their remixes for major artists were performed so that The Orb could "pay the bills".
Ambient house
Ambient house, a music genre that first emerged in the late 1980s, is a sub-genre of house music, combining elements of acid house and ambient music...
through the use of a diverse array of samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
. The track, then known as "Loving You," was largely improvisational and featured a wealth of sound effects and samples from science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
radio plays, nature sounds, and Minnie Riperton
Minnie Riperton
Minnie Julia Riperton was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You". She was married to songwriter and music producer Richard Rudolph from 1972 until her death in the summer of 1979. They had two children - music engineer Marc Rudolph and actress/comedienne Maya...
's "Lovin' You." For its release as a single on the record label Big Life
Big Life
Big Life was a record label established in 1987 by Jazz Summers and Tim Parry. It featured hundreds of releases from artists such as The Orb, Stare, Yazz, Junior Reid, Coldcut, and De La Soul....
, the Orb changed the title to "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld
A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From the Centre of the Ultraworld
"A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld" is a single by the ambient house group The Orb. It was originally released in October 1989 and made the UK Singles Chart in 1990, peaking at #78. The 'Peel Session' version was also voted into #10 place in John...
." Upon the single's release, Riperton's management forced Big Life to remove the unlicensed Riperton sample, ensuring that only the initial first-week release of the single contained the original vocals of Minnie Riperton; subsequent pressings used vocals from a sound-alike. Despite its running time of 22 minutes, the sample-laden single reached #78 on the British singles charts
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. Soon thereafter, the Orb was commissioned by Dave Stewart
David A. Stewart
David Allan Stewart , often known as Dave Stewart, is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics. He is usually credited as David A. Stewart, to avoid confusion with other musicians named "Dave Stewart".-Early life:Stewart was born in Sunderland,...
to remix his top-20 single "Lily Was Here
Lily Was Here
"Lily Was Here" is a single, released in November 1989, from the soundtrack of the Dutch movie De Kassière.The main theme of the film was about Lily, who was the lead character in the movie and played by Marion van Thijn . David A...
." The group obliged and was soon offered several more remix jobs from artists including Erasure
Erasure
Erasure are an English synthpop duo, consisting of songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke and singer Andy Bell. Erasure entered the music scene in 1985 with their debut single "Who Needs Love Like That"...
and System 7
System 7 (band)
System 7 are a British ambient dance band. Due to the existence of another band called System Seven, they were initially marketed as 777 in North America...
.
In 1990, Paterson and Cauty held several recording sessions at Cauty's studio, Trancentral. When offered an album deal by Big Life, the Orb found itself at a crossroads: Cauty preferred that the Orb release its music through his KLF Communications
KLF Communications
This discography lists the key British and notable international releases of The KLF and the other pseudonyms of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. It also details the other releases on their independent record label, KLF Communications, by KLF-spinoff Disco 2000 and Space...
label, whereas Paterson wanted to ensure that the group did not become a side-project of The KLF. Because of these issues, Cauty and Paterson split in April 1990, with Paterson keeping the name the Orb. As a result of the break-up, Cauty removed Paterson's contributions from the in-progress recordings and released the album as Space on KLF Communications. Also out of these sessions came The KLF
The KLF
The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
album Chill Out
Chill out
Chill out may mean:*Chill out music, a laid-back style of music*Chill Out, an album by KLF*Chill Out *Chill Out, an album by John Lee Hooker...
, on which Paterson appeared in an uncredited role.
Following the split, Paterson began working with Youth on the track "Little Fluffy Clouds
Little Fluffy Clouds
"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the English ambient house group The Orb. It was originally released in July 1990 on the record label Big Life and peaked at #87 on the UK Singles Chart. The Orb also included it on their 1991 double album The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld...
". The group incorporated samples from Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
's Electric Counterpoint
Electric Counterpoint
Electric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition written by American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast", "Slow", and "Fast"...
and vocal clips from an interview with Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
in which she recalls picturesque images from her childhood. While Reich was flattered by the Orb's use of his work, Jones pursued the issue in the legal system. Big Life chose to settle
Settlement (law)
In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a legal case, reached either before or after court action begins. The term "settlement" also has other meanings in the context of law.-Basis:...
out of court for an undisclosed sum of money for use of her voice on the Orb's recording. "Little Fluffy Clouds" reached #87 on the British singles chart; however, due to Glover's other production obligations (and subsequently rejoining Killing Joke), he did not become a permanent member of The Orb. According to an interview on The South Bank Show, Reich demanded twenty-five percent of royalties from the use of his "Electric Counterpoint" (performed by guitarist Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
) on all sales of "Clouds."
1991–1994: Paterson & Weston
In 1991, Paterson invited freelance studio engineer Andy Falconer to join the Orb and was closely followed by energetic studio engineer Kris "Thrash" WestonKris Weston
Kris Weston is a British electronic musician, record producer and remixer best known for his work as a member of The Orb....
. Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s...
, whom Patterson had met while DJ-ing in London, also joined as a contributing guitarist. Along with producer Thomas Fehlmann
Thomas Fehlmann
Thomas Fehlmann , is a Swiss-born composer/producer who currently lives in Berlin, and has been active in electronic music as far back as the 1980s. He is currently active on the Kompakt record label based in Germany...
, The Orb completed several additional tracks for its first album, The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld is the seminal 1991 ambient house-concept debut album by the electronic music collective The Orb. The album's framework is of a two-hour psychedelic trip through music genres and studio electronics, produced to "push the threshold" of live stage performance...
. At least six studios and twenty outside musicians were used during the three weeks of recording. Falconer's and Weston's technical abilities and Hillages's guitar work allowed the group to craft panoramic sounds portraying aspects of space travel, most notably the launch of Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
. Adventures sold well in the United Kingdom and received praise for its balance of ambient music, house music, and sampling. Retrospectively, Adventures is considered ground-breaking for changing the way musicians view sampling and as a seminal work for the genres of ambient and dance music. The completion of Adventures saw the departure of Andy Falconer, whose last contribution was to one of the Orb's Peel Sessions. To promote the release of an edited single-disc version for an American release on Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
, the Orb embarked on their first tour of the United States beginning in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, in October 1991.
In late 1991 and early 1992, Paterson and Weston wrote their next single, "Blue Room". Assisting with the recording was bassist Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
, keyboardist Miquette Giraudy
Miquette Giraudy
Miquette Giraudy is a keyboard player and vocalist, best known for her work in Gong and with her partner Steve Hillage. She and Hillage currently form the core of the ambient band System 7.-Film:...
, and guitarist Hillage. Despite its playing time of almost 40 minutes, "Blue Room" entered the British charts at #12 and peaked at #8, making it the longest track to reach the charts. The Orb promoted this single with a "legendary avant-garde" performance on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
where Patterson and Weston played a game of chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
in space suits while footage of dolphins and an edited version of "Blue Room" ran in the background. In July 1992, U.F.Orb
U.F.Orb
-Disc 1:# "O.O.B.E." – 12:51# "U.F.Orb" – 6:08# "Blue Room" – 17:34# "Towers of Dub" – 15:00# "Close Encounters" – 10:27# "Majestic" – 11:06# "Sticky End" – 0:49-Disc 2:# "Blue Room " - 3:09# "Blue Room " - 7:37...
was released featuring "Blue Room" and, in the US release, The Orb's next single, "Assassin". Weston integrated his technical and creative expertise with Paterson's Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
-influenced ambience on U.F.Orb, combining "drum and bass rhythms" with "velvet keyboards" and "rippling synth lines". U.F.Orb reached #1 on the British album charts to the shock of critics, who were surprised that fans had embraced what journalists considered to be progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
. Despite The Orb's success, Paterson and Weston preferred to avoid personal publicity and instead allow their music to be the focus of attention. Because of this partial anonymity and The Orb's rotating membership, they are often recognised as more of a musical collective than a "band".
Over the next year and a half, Paterson and Weston continued to produce new material, but releases stalled when Paterson began to feel that Big Life was trying to dictate the direction of The Orb's music. This led to intense disagreements with Big Life and The Orb soon left the label to sign a deal with Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
. Their first release on Island Records was the live album Live 93, which gathered highlights from The Orb's recent performances in Europe and Asia. It featured The Orb's live crew of Paterson, Weston, producers Nick Burton and Simon Phillips
Simon Phillips (producer)
Simon Phillips is an artist. He was a music producer as a member of The Orb and founding member of Prayerbox. He was threatened with legal action by artist Damien Hirst over his ownership and the content of http://www.damien-hirst.co.uk/.-References:...
, as well as audio engineer Andy Hughes
Andy Hughes
Andy Hughes was an English electronic music producer from Harrow, Middlesex . He is most known for his work with The Orb, where he helped mix and produce Orbus Terrarum, Orblivion, and Cydonia, as well as The Orb's singles from this period. Hughes left The Orb during the production of Cydonia,...
, who had stepped in previously when Weston had decided to stop touring. The Orb's first studio production on Island Records was Pomme Fritz
Pomme Fritz
-Side one:#"Pomme Fritz " – 9:04#"More Gills Less Fishcakes" – 8:05#"We're Pastie To Be Grill You" – 7:15-Side two:#"Bang 'Er 'N Chips" – 7:47#"Alles Ist Schoen" – 7:17#"His Immortal Logness" – 2:03...
, a chaotic EP noted for its heavy use of strange samples and its lack of conventional harmonies. Though Pomme Fritz reached as high as #6 on the British charts, critics panned it as "doodling". Even Island Records "hated it" and "didn't understand it at all", according to Paterson. Soon after production finished on Pomme Fritz, Paterson, Weston, and Orb contributor Thomas Fehlmann joined with Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
to form the group FFWD
FFWD
Fast Forward Weekly is a news and entertainment weekly which provides news, alternative viewpoints, entertainment information, review articles and specialized advertising. It is distributed throughout Calgary, Banff and Canmore. It is owned by Great West Newspapers, LP...
as a side project. FFWD released a single self-titled album on Paterson's Inter-Modo label, which Fehlmann later described as "an Orb track which became so long that it became a whole album!". Due to this aimlessness, FFWD lacked an artistic goal and disbanded after a single release. Soon after the release of FFWD in August 1994, Weston suddenly quit The Orb. Paterson claimed that Weston's departure was due to Weston's desire to have more control in The Orb. However, in an interview with i-D
I-D
i-D is a British magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art and youth culture. i-D was founded by designer and former Vogue art director Terry Jones in 1980. The first issue was published in the form of a hand-stapled fanzine with text produced on a typewriter...
, Weston attributed the split to Paterson, saying that Paterson "didn't do his 50 per cent of the work." Paterson reaffirmed the status of The Orb saying, "The Orb is The Orb, and nothing can change that" and continued work with Hughes and Fehlmann.
1995–2001: Paterson, Fehlmann & Hughes
Following Weston's departure from The Orb, Thomas Fehlmann joined as a full-time studio member, though he would not always participate in live performances. Paterson, Hughes, and Fehlmann then finished producing the album Orbus Terrarum, on which Paterson and Weston had been working. Orbus Terrarum, released in 1995, featured more "earthbound" and "organic" sounds than their previous trippy science fiction themed music. Orbus Terrarum suffered, as Paterson described it, "a good kicking" at the hands of the British press, who described it as "generic" and a low point for Paterson's creativity. Orbus Terrarum alienated many of the group's fans, causing the album to only reach #20 on the British charts. American critics, however, gave it great acclaim including Rolling Stone who made it their album of the month, citing the album's symphonic flow coupled with The Orb's "uniquely British wit". After a long world tour, The Orb, with Andy Hughes and Steve Hillage, settled down to produce their next album, OrblivionOrblivion
Though Orblivion was recorded in May 1996, it was not released until almost a year later, due to Island Records' desire to promote it as a follow up to U2's techno-rock album Pop. Orblivion sold very well in Europe as well as the United States, where it reached the Billboard Top 200...
—the process of which saw a return to their spacy sounds. Though Orblivion was recorded in May 1996, it was not released until almost a year later, due to Island Records' desire to promote it as a follow up to U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
's techno-rock album Pop. Orblivion sold well in Europe as well as the United States, where it reached the Billboard Top 200. The first Orblivion single, "Toxygene
Toxygene
"Toxygene" is a single by electronic music artist The Orb. It was released in 1997 as the first single from the album Orblivion."Toxygene" was originally commissioned as a remix of Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygène 8" from Oxygène 7–13...
", was the highest charting single by The Orb, reaching #4 in the United Kingdom on 8 February 1997. Despite high sales, Orblivion received a lukewarm reception from the British press. As with Orbus Terrarum, Orblivion was better received by American critics, including Rolling Stone, who praised its "contrast of chaos and euphony". Meanwhile, the stresses of touring sat heavily on Paterson; he considered retiring The Orb, but ultimately continued touring and producing.
Paterson and Fehlmann, along with usual collaborators Hughes, Burton, and Phillips, wrote and produced Cydonia
Cydonia (album)
Cydonia is the fifth studio album by the Orb, released on Island Records in the UK and MCA Records in the US. Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann, along with usual collaborators Andy Hughes, Nick Burton, and Simon Phillips, wrote and produced Cydonia for a planned 1999 release...
for a planned 1999 release. Featured on the album were appearances from Robert Fripp, John Roome (Witchman), and Fil Le Gonidec, one of The Orb's live performers. Singers Nina Walsh and Aki Omori appeared on two tracks each, providing vocals and co-writing lyrics with Paterson. Paterson felt that this new direction of songwriting for The Orb was more similar to the experimental work of Orbus Terrarum than to the techno-pop of Orblivion. As Island Records was in a period of restructuring due to its recent purchase by Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
, Cydonia was not released until 2001. Upon release, critics noted that Cydonia merged together pop, trance, and ambient-dub music, which they felt to be a conglomeration of bland vocals and uninventive ambience that lacked the appeal of The Orb's earlier work. NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
harshly described it as "a stillborn relic, flawed throughout by chronically stunted ambitions" and describing its only appropriate audience to be "old ravers" seeking nostalgia. Not only did the album receive poor reviews, but The Orb was generally regarded by the British press as past their prime and an "ambient dinosaur" out of place in the current dance music environment. After the release of Cydonia, Hughes left the group for undisclosed reasons, becoming "another acrimonious departure from The Orb" according to The Guardian.
2001–2004: Paterson, Fehlmann & Phillips
Badorb.com
Badorb.com was a record label created by Alex Paterson of The Orb in 2002. Though it was an internet label, its releases were vinyl only, which Paterson believed was the reason the label failed and closed in 2003. It had featured fourteen releases from artists including The Orb, S.E. Berlin and...
as an outlet for Orb members' side projects. To promote both Badorb.com and Cydonia, The Orb toured internationally, including their first visit to the United States in four years. NME described The Orb's tour as "charming" and that The Orb was "freed from the Floydian
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
pretensions that dogged the band throughout the mid-'90s.
The Orb, now composed of Paterson, Phillips and Fehlmann, with guest John Roome, accepted an invitation to join the Area:One concert tour with Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
, Paul Oakenfold
Paul Oakenfold
Paul Mark Oakenfold is a British record producer and a trance DJ.-Early Career: 1979–84:Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew...
, New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
and other alternative and electronic artists. Though The Orb was paired with more mainstream artists during the tour such as Incubus
Incubus (band)
Incubus is an American rock band from Calabasas, California. The band was formed in 1991 by vocalist Brandon Boyd, lead guitarist Mike Einziger, and drummer Jose Pasillas while enrolled in high school and later expanded to include bassist Alex "Dirk Lance" Katunich, and Gavin "DJ Lyfe" Koppell;...
, Paterson and Fehlmann chose to make their next releases a series of several low-key EPs for German label Kompakt
Kompakt
Kompakt is a Cologne-based electronic music record label and vinyl/CD distributor, owned by Wolfgang Voigt, Michael Mayer and Jürgen Paape. They specialize in microhouse and minimal techno, and are known for their Total compilation series which reached its eleventh installment in 2010.Kompakt...
in 2002. The Orb found critical success on Kompakt; however, Badorb.com collapsed soon after releasing the compilation Bless You. Badorb.com had released fourteen records over the course of fourteen months from artists including Guy Pratt
Guy Pratt
Guy Pratt is a session bassist and also a songwriter, actor and comedian. He is the son of actor Mike Pratt. In Kensington and Chelsea, London, in 1996, Pratt married Gala Wright, the daughter of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright...
(Conduit), Ayumi Hamasaki
Ayumi Hamasaki
is a Japanese singer-songwriter, record producer, model, lyricist, and actress. Also called "Ayu" by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the "Empress of Pop" because of her popularity and widespread influence in Japan and throughout Asia. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen to...
, and Takayuki Shiraishi, as well as The Orb's three-track Daleth of Elphame EP
Daleth of Elphame EP
Daleth of Elphame EP is a 2002 EP by The Orb released on Badorb.com. It was the only EP/single released by Badorb.com on CD.-Track listing:#I Am The Red Worm #Cool Harbour #Outer Space...
. Though Badorb.com was an internet-based record label, they only sold vinyl releases (with one exception, the aforementioned Orb EP), which Paterson later remarked was a poor idea because "not many people... have record players".
Though their musical style had changed somewhat since the 1990s, The Orb continued to use their odd synthetic sounds on 2004's Bicycles & Tricycles
Bicycles & Tricycles
Bicycles & Tricycles is the sixth studio album from the Orb. It brought together The Orb's style of the early 1990s with current electronic music to mixed reactions...
, to mixed reviews. The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
praised Bicycles & Tricycles as being "inclusive, exploratory, and an enjoyable journey"; however, other publications dismissed it as "stoner dub" and irrelevant to current electronic music. Like Cydonia, Bicycles & Tricycles featured vocals, including female rapper MC Soom-T who added a hip hop twist to the album. The Orb left Island Records and released the album on Cooking Vinyl
Cooking Vinyl
Cooking Vinyl is a UK-based independent record company, founded in 1986. Its original orientation was toward contemporary folk music—notably Billy Bragg, and Michelle Shocked's Texas Campfire Tapes, recorded on a Sony Walkman, one of its first releases...
and Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world...
. To promote the album, the band began a UK tour with dub reggae artist Mad Professor
Mad Professor
Mad Professor is a dub music producer and engineer known for his original productions and remix work. He is considered one of the leading producers of dub music’s second generation and was instrumental in transitioning dub into the digital age. He is a prolific producer, contributing to or...
. Though The Orb still pulled in large crowds, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
noted that they lacked the intensity found in their earlier performances.
2004–2007: Paterson & Fehlmann, The Transit Kings
After two more EPs on Kompakt, The Orb (now composed of only Paterson and Fehlmann) released Okie Dokie It's The Orb on Kompakt, which featured new material in addition to tweaked versions of their previous Kompakt output. By this stage, the Allmusic observed, Thomas Fehlmann had become the primary creative figure in The Orb, "inhibiting Alex Paterson's whimsical impulses". Because of this, Okie Dokie was considerably more focused and less "goofy" than Cydonia and Bicycles & Tricycles. Fehlmann's trademark hypnotic loopsMusic loop
In electroacoustic music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections of material can be repeated to create ostinato patterns...
and delays
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
made him the center of Okie Dokie production and, according to Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
, made it "difficult to say where [Paterson] is in the picture". The Orb's releases with Kompakt gained The Orb back much of their musical credibility with the press and showed that The Orb could "age gracefully".
In August 2006, the founders of The Orb - Paterson and Cauty - released Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God
Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God
Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God is the debut album by the Transit Kings. It featured guest appearances from The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and comedian Simon Day...
, their debut album as the Transit Kings
Transit Kings
The Transit Kings are a British electronic music group consisting of Alex Paterson, Guy Pratt and Dom Beken. Jimmy Cauty, co-founder of The Orb with Paterson, was involved in initial recording sessions but does not take part in live sessions. He is currently on "extended leave". The Transit Kings'...
with Guy Pratt
Guy Pratt
Guy Pratt is a session bassist and also a songwriter, actor and comedian. He is the son of actor Mike Pratt. In Kensington and Chelsea, London, in 1996, Pratt married Gala Wright, the daughter of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright...
and Pratt's associate, Dom Beken. The album featured appearances from The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
guitarist Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse...
and comedian Simon Day
Simon Day
Simon Day is a British comedian most famous for his roles in the sketch show The Fast Show, sitcom Grass and a series of comedic adverts for Powergen.-Life and career:...
. Beken described Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God as "self-consciously musically written and less sample-based" compared to the members' previous work. Living had been in production since 2001, but due to members' other obligations, it was delayed for several years. The album received mixed critical reactions, with reviewers such as The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
comparing the album favorably to the music of DJ Shadow
DJ Shadow
Joshua Paul Davis better known as DJ Shadow is an American music producer, DJ and songwriter. He is considered a prominent figure in the development of instrumental hip hop and first gained notice with the release of his highly acclaimed debut album Endtroducing....., which was constructed...
and Röyksopp
Röyksopp
Röyksopp is a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø, formed in 1998. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland....
while other publications, such as The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, called it "Orb-lite" and proclaimed it to be "Deep Forest
Deep Forest
Deep Forest is a musical group consisting of two French musicians, Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet. They compose a style of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance beats or chillout beats...
-style sludge". Soon after the album's release, Cauty left the Transit Kings on "extended leave", leaving the project in indefinite limbo. Paterson and Beken would reunite in 2008 as High Frequency Bandwidth, an ambient hip hop group on the Malicious Damage label.
2007–present
The Orb's next studio album, The Dream was released in Japan in 2007 and the following year in the United States and United Kingdom. Fehlmann is absent on The Dream and Paterson was instead reunited with Martin Glover and joined by Tim Bran of DreadzoneDreadzone
Dreadzone are a British band whose music is an eclectic fusion of dub, reggae, techno, folk and rock. They have so far produced six studio albums and two live albums.-Career:...
. The album features more of a return to The Orb's sounds of the early 1990s, with peculiar vocals and playful samples. The Orb also brought in jazz and house music singer Juliet Roberts
Juliet Roberts
Juliet Roberts is a British jazz, rock and house music singer of Grenadian descent.-Career:She originally recorded as Julie Roberts in 1982, and performed on the 1983 Top 10 hit single, "It's Over" by the Funkmasters...
and guitarist Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s...
. The Orb's live band currently consists of Paterson, The Corpral (vocals), Keith York
Keith York
Keith York is a professional session drummer who has toured and sessioned throughout the world and worked with a range of bands, including Pitchshifter, The Lightning Seeds, Bivouac, Ladytron, and Esoteric, Bentley Rhythm Ace , Broadcast and Love Amongst Ruin...
(drums/percussion), Fil Le Gonidec, and Glover.
After July 2006 re-release of The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld 3-CD Deluxe Edition, 2007 and 2008 saw releases of expanded 2-CD editions of the band's subsequent regular studio records: U.F.Orb, Pomme Fritz EP, Orbus Terrarum, Orblivion and Cydonia. In Autumn of 2008 a double-cd compilation of BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
sessions called The Orb: Complete BBC Sessions 1989-2001 was released.
In May 2009, the British Malicious Damage Records (run by the members of Killing Joke
Killing Joke
Killing Joke are an English post-punk band formed in October 1978 in Notting Hill, London, England; other sources report the band formed in early 1979.Related news articles: Founding members Jaz Coleman and Geordie Walker have been the only constant members.A key influence on industrial rock,...
) announced the release of The Orb's ninth regular studio album Baghdad Batteries (Orbsessions Volume III)
Baghdad Batteries (Orbsessions Volume III)
Baghdad Batteries is the ninth studio album released by ambient techno group The Orb in September 2009.-Track listing:...
on September 11, 2009. A reunification of Paterson and his long-term collaborator Thomas Fehlmann who last worked together on Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompakt, the album was promoted with a launch party with Paterson and Fehlmann performing the whole album live at The-Situation Modern in Clapham
Clapham
Clapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
, England on 10 September. A track "Chocolate Fingers" was uploaded onto the label's MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
profile. The 11-track album is said to be the third in the Orbsessions series, although unlike the first two outtakes parts composed of brand new material, recorded at Fehlmann's Berlin studio.
March 2010 saw Internet station Dandelion Radio
Dandelion Radio
Dandelion Radio is an internet radio station founded in June 2006 with the aim of pursuing the musical legacy of the popular and influential BBC Radio 1 disk jockey John Peel...
broadcast a seventeen and a half minute long Orb session track by Patterson and Fehlmann on the Andrew Morrison show. This new track was titled 'Battersea Bunches' and was a remixed version of the soundtrack to a short movie, also entitled 'Battersea Bunches' by Mike Coles and Alex Patterson - a film installation to be seen at London’s Battersea Power Station on 1 June 2010 as part of an evening of art and music. The film and its soundtrack (together with remixes) were later released as the CD/DVD album C Batter C
C Batter C
C Batter C is a video album by ambient techno group The Orb, released in November 2011, featuring a short film titled Battersea Bunches , its soundtrack, and remixes.-Track listing:...
on 11 November 2011.
In the summer of 2010 Alex Paterson
Alex Paterson
Alex Paterson is an English musician and co-founder of the ambient group The Orb, in which he has worked since its inception....
teamed up with Youth aka Martin Glover
Martin Glover
Martin Glover, also known as Youth, is a record producer and a founding member and bassist of the UK band Killing Joke. He is a member of The Fireman along with Paul McCartney. Glover was born in Africa.-Early career:...
to compile a retrospective compilation album of tracks from the WAU
Wau
Wau is a town in Papua New Guinea, in the province of Morobe. It has a population of approx 5,000 and situated at an altitude of around 1100m. Wau was the site of a Gold rush during the 1920s and 30's when prospective gold diggers arrived at the coast at Salamaua and struggled inland along the...
! Mr Modo label. The album titled Impossible Oddities is set to be released on CD and double Vinyl on 25 October 2010 via Year Zero records.
The Orb released Metallic Spheres
Metallic Spheres
Metallic Spheres is the tenth studio album released by ambient techno group The Orb in October 2010 and features Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.- Track listing :# Metallic Side ## Metallic Spheres## Hymns to the Sun## Black Graham...
in October 2010. It featured David Gilmour
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
, of Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
fame, and was released by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
.
Inspiration
The Orb's members have drawn from an assortment of influences in their music. The Orb's central figure, Alex Paterson, had early musical tastes and influences which included King TubbyKing Tubby
King Tubby was a Jamaican electronics and sound engineer, known primarily for his influence on the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s...
, Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, and T.Rex. Among these, Paterson cites Kraftwerk as one of the most important, claiming they created the foundation from which all modern dance music has been built. While in Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
with Martin Glover as a teenager, Paterson was also exposed to a large amount of reggae music, such as The Mighty Diamonds
The Mighty Diamonds
Mighty Diamonds are a Jamaican harmony trio, recording roots reggae with a strong Rastafarian influence. The group, which comprised Donald "Tabby" Shaw, Fitzroy "Bunny" Simpson, and Lloyd "Judge" Ferguson, was formed in 1969, and remains together as of 2010...
, The Abyssinians
The Abyssinians
The Abyssinians are a Jamaican roots reggae group, famous for their close harmonies and promotion of the Rastafari movement in their lyrics.-History:...
, and Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
. The reggae influence on Paterson and The Orb can readily be heard in tracks such as the single "Perpetual Dawn" and U.F.Orbs "Towers of Dub". The earliest ambient influences of The Orb came in 1979 during Paterson's roadie days with Killing Joke. While with the band in Neuss
Neuss
Neuss is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district and owes its prosperity to its location at the crossing of historic and modern trade routes. It is primarily known...
, Paterson listened to Brian Eno's Music for Films
Music for Films
Music for Films is an ambient album by Brian Eno. It is a conceptual work intended as a soundtrack for imaginary films.- Overview :...
while on LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
and watched "the Ruhr
Ruhr Area
The Ruhr, by German-speaking geographers and historians more accurately called Ruhr district or Ruhr region , is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With 4435 km² and a population of some 5.2 million , it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany...
steel works explode in the distance", noting that "[t]he scene seemed to be taking place in the music as well". That same night, Paterson was also inspired while listening to Cluster
Cluster (band)
Cluster is a German experimental musical group who influenced the development of contemporary popular electronic and ambient music. They have recorded albums in a wide variety of styles ranging from experimental music to progressive rock, all of which had an avant-garde edge. Cluster has been...
's Grosses Wasser
Grosses Wasser
Grosses Wasser is the seventh album by the electronic music outfit Cluster. It was co-produced by former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann...
and found that the steel works' "huge metal arms were crushing molten rocks in time to the music", which was something he'd "never seen, or heard, anything like it before". Along with Cluster and Kraftwerk, Paterson was also influenced by other German experimental music from Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
and composer Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
. Modulations
Modulations
Modulations is a multi-media exploration into the history of electronic music, consisting of a documentary film, its soundtrack album, and a book...
calls Paterson's music a "maximal" version of Brian Eno's "minimal" ambience, though according to Paterson, Eno resents Paterson's use of his music as an influence.
The Orb has often been described as "The Pink Floyd of the Nineties", however, Paterson has stated that The Orb's music is more influenced by experimental electronic music more so than progressive rock of the 1970s. He has noted though that the Pink Floyd album Meddle was influential to him as a child in the 1970s. The psychedelic prog-rock similarities have led critics to describe The Orb as hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
revivalists; however, Paterson has strongly rejected the tag, claiming that even as a youth, he was "one of those punks who hated hippies".
During production of Cydonia and Bicycles & Tricycles, Paterson's biggest influences were drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
and trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
music, as seen on the tracks "Ghostdancing", "Thursday's Keeper", and "Aftermath". The Orb's more recent influences consist largely of German techno producers, such as Triola, who themselves were inspired by The Orb's earlier work. Paterson cites the music of Kompakt as one of his primary modern influences and claims it to be among the best modern ambient music.
Drug use
As chill out DJs in the late 1980s, the Orb often played to the needs of the chemical generation (ravers of the 1980s and 1990s), making music to come down from drugs to. Paterson described the Orb's original intent as "basically about taking lots of drugs and going clubbing." Similarly, one of the Orb's early taglines was "Ambient house for the E generation." Often during interviews, Alex Paterson smoked jointsJoint (cannabis)
Joint is a slang term for a cigarette rolled using cannabis. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium among industrialized countries, however brown paper, cigarettes with the tobacco removed, and newspaper are commonly used in developing countries. Modern papers are now made from a wide...
, including a 2003 interview with The Guardian, during which interviewer Will Hodgkinson noted the assorted "hash
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
-smoking paraphernalia" around Paterson's Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
apartment. Drug references often turn up in tracks, such as "72," from Orblivion, which features a clip from Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
proclaiming, "The youth of America on LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
!" Another notable case is on "Little Fluffy Clouds," which features the odd nasal tonality of Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
' influenced voice, though Jones said it was the result of a heavy cold.
Imagery
Imagery has always been an important part of The Orb's persona. This is most prominent during live performances, where The Orb often projects surreal images against onstage screens. Common images include morphing faces, futuristic cityscapes, and ubiquitous alien references. They have long associated their act with absurd symbology with images such as floating pigs. This has carried over to their music videos, most of which are spacy, brightly coloured montages of surreal images including astronauts, clouds, and neon dolphins. Because of their use of psychedelic images at shows, The Orb's shows are frequently compared to those of Pink Floyd, who also used in-show imagery and films. Paterson cites Godfrey ReggioGodfrey Reggio
Godfrey Reggio is an American director of experimental documentary films.-Life:Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Reggio co-founded La Clinica de la Gente, a facility that provided medical care to 12,000 community members in Santa Fe, and La Gente, a community-organizing project in...
's and Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
's film Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke....
as a primary influence to their concert imagery.
The Orb is also been noted for their original album art, which features much of the same imagery as their live act. Noted graphic design group The Designers Republic
The Designers Republic
The Designers Republic was a graphic design studio, founded on 14 July 1986 by Ian Anderson, and based in Sheffield, England. It was known for its anti-establishment aesthetics, while simultaneously embracing brash consumerism and the uniform style of corporate brands, such as Orange and Coca-Cola...
created the cover art for The Orb's earlier work, including Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, U.F.Orb, and the singles from those two albums. For their next album, The Orb poked fun at their Pink Floyd comparisons with the cover of Live 93 featuring a floating stuffed sheep over the Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Battersea, South London. The station comprises two individual power stations, built in two stages in the form of a single building. Battersea A Power Station was built first in the...
, which had appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals. The artwork found in Badorb.com releases was similar to The Orb's odd artwork of the mid-1990s, as it was stylistically similar and contained little writing. Paterson has also dabbled in the creation of cover art himself, designing the cover of Okie Dokie It's The Orb on Kompakt.
Science fiction and space
Some of the more prominent motifs in The Orb's work are outer space and science fiction, including alien visitations, space flight, and mind controlMind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
. These have included The Orb's use of samples from serious sources such as NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
transmissions to comedic clips from films like Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's Sleeper
Sleeper (film)
Sleeper is a 1973 futuristic science fiction comedy film, written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, and directed by Allen. The plot involves the adventures of the owner of a Greenwich Village, NY health food store played by Woody Allen who is cryogenically frozen in 1973 and defrosted 200...
. U.F.Orb especially expressed a fascination with alien life with its bizarre sound samples and in the album's title itself. The title of its most popular single, "Blue Room", is itself a reference to the supposed Blue Room of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Greene and Montgomery counties in the state of Ohio. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wright Field and Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot. Patterson Field is located approximately...
, which was heavily investigated as a possible UFO evidence holding room. Their 2001 album, too, is named for a space-related subject, specifically the Cydonia Mensae region of Mars. Due to Paterson's focus on science fiction and astronomical phenomena, The Guardian described Paterson as "pop [music]'s primary spokesperson on aliens".
Techniques, technology, live performances
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the UltraworldThe Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld is the seminal 1991 ambient house-concept debut album by the electronic music collective The Orb. The album's framework is of a two-hour psychedelic trip through music genres and studio electronics, produced to "push the threshold" of live stage performance...
was mainly recorded on a Mitsubishi 48 Track digital machine running in sync with an Otari 24 Track analogue machine. The majority of the parts regardless of bass, drum loops etc. were recorded to tape for the entire time available (15 minutes as limited by the Otari analogue machine) without a break. As well as parts committed to tape there would invariably be other elements running "live" from Akai Samplers, triggered from an Atari 1040 computer synced to tape. Once all parts were assembled a mix would be built up by Falconer. Having completed this multiple mixes would be run off to DAT. It was also normal at this stage for Paterson to free form extra material and effects from either CD, Vinyl or DAT as a live source being combined with the final mixes. After Falconer had completed an initial "safe" mix, Weston would then take over the mixing desk and produce multiple mixes and would in turn be followed by Paterson. Once multiple mixes produced, a final mix would be edited together by Falconer from the source DATs. This was done by transferring the required elements to a 1/4" analogue tape machine and editing them together with a razor blade to produce the final version.
In The Orb's early DJ events in the 1980s, Paterson and Cauty performed with three record decks, a cassette player, and a CD player all of which were mixed through an Akai
Akai
Akai is a consumer electronics brand, founded by Saburo Akai as , a Japanese manufacturer in 1929. It is now headquartered in Singapore as a subsidiary of Grande Holdings, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, which also owns the formerly Japanese brands Nakamichi and Sansui. The Akai brand is now used...
12-track mixer
Mixing console
In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer...
. They used their equipment to harmonise recorded music and sound effect samples into an "endless sound continuum" for audiences of worn out dancers. Even after The Orb began producing original material, they kept the same sample-heavy model for live acts by spontaneously integrating obscure samples into their pre-recorded tracks. During promotional tours for Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld and U.F.Orb, The Orb performed using a digital audio tape
Digital Audio Tape
Digital Audio Tape is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a compact audio cassette, using 4 mm magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As...
machine and experimented with other media sources such as dubplate
Dubplate
A dubplate is an acetate disc – usually 12, 10, or 7 inches in diameter – used in mastering studios for quality control and test recordings before proceeding with the final master, and subsequent pressing of the record to be mass-produced on vinyl. The "dub" in dubplate is an allusion to...
s. The tape machines held individual chords, rhythms, and basslines for each composition, allowing The Orb to reprocess them and mimic the act of DJ-ing. Members could then easily improvise with these samples and manipulate them using sound effect racks
Amp rack
Amp rack is short for amplifier rack and is a term used mostly in reference to professional audio applications to describe any furniture, fixture, or case where amplifiers are mounted by their faceplates or in slot grooves, mostly synonymous with rack mount....
. Often, The Orb had a live musician accompanying them, such as Steve Hillage on guitar. Their shows in the early 1990s would often be three hours of semi-improvised, continuous music featuring a wealth of triggered samples, voices, and pre-recorded tracks which were barely identifiable as the original piece.
The Orb began performing regularly at the Brixton Academy in the early 1990s, where they used the high ceilings and large space for their "well-suited amorphous sound", frequently performing their newest and more experimental pieces there. Andy Hughes took Weston's place at live performances after the 1993 tour, though Weston did reappear for The Orb's concert at the rainy Woodstock '94
Woodstock '94
Woodstock '94, often called the "commercial Woodstock" or "Mudstock", was a music festival organized to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original Woodstock Festival of 1969...
. The Orb played for late night raves on the first two nights of Woodstock '94 in addition to artists including Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin
Richard David James , best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music"...
, Orbital
Orbital (band)
Orbital are a British electronic dance music duo from Sevenoaks, England consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. Their career initially ran from 1989 until 2004, but in 2009 they announced that they would be reforming and headlining The Big Chill, in addition to a number of other live shows...
, and Deee-Lite
Deee-Lite
Deee-Lite was an American house and club/dance group, formed in New York City, United States. The group's best-known single was "Groove Is in the Heart", from their 1990 debut album, World Clique. However, Deee-Lite achieved longer lasting success on the U.S...
. The next year, The Orb's touring group consisted of Paterson, Hughes, Nick Burton on percussion, and Simon Phillips on bass. This ensemble of live performers and electronic music created a "cacophony" of "gigantic, swarming sounds". Though The Orb's performances use much onstage equipment and many props, Paterson prefers to present The Orb as "a non-centralised figure of amusement on stage".
The Orb used ADAT
ADAT
Alesis Digital Audio Tape or ADAT is a magnetic tape format used for the simultaneous digital recording of eight analog audio or digital audio tracks at once, onto a Super VHS tape that is used by consumer VCRs.- History :...
recorders for performances from 1993 to 2001 and utilised large 48-track decks, which Paterson described as basically being a "studio onstage". They hooked synthesisers, such as the ARP 2600
ARP 2600
The ARP 2600 is a semi-modular analog subtractive audio synthesizer, designed by Alan R. Pearlman , and manufactured by his company, ARP Instruments, Inc...
, to MIDI interfaces to recreate specific sounds that appeared on their albums. The Orb's methods of studio music creation changed as well. For more recent albums such as Cydonia, The Orb used inexpensive equipment such as Korg
Korg
is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
's Electribe
Electribe
Electribe is the name given to a group of electronic musical instruments by Korg. From its beginnings with the Electribe R to the ESX-1, this series includes both analogue modeling synthesizers and sampling drum machines that can be programmed the same as a drum machine...
products, which Paterson described as employing more of a "bedroom techno" approach. Despite their use of laptops during performances and in-studio computers, Paterson says that he still cherishes vinyl and does not find purchasing CDs or downloading music to be nearly as satisfying.
Sampling and remixing
One of The Orb's most notable contributions to electronic music is their idea of blurring the distinction between sampling and remixing. Albums such as Pomme Fritz, though released as a piece of original work, consist largely of manipulated samples. Conversely, The Orb's remixes typically use only small sections of the original track, most notably in the case of their single "Toxygene". "Toxygene" was originally commissioned as a remix of Jean Michel JarreJean Michel Jarre
Jean Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and...
's "Oxygene 8" from Oxygene 7-13
Oxygene 7-13
Oxygène 7–13 is a 1997 album of instrumental electronic music by Jean Michel Jarre, his ninth overall studio album. It is the sequel to his 1976 album Oxygène, and is dedicated to Jarre's former mentor, experimental musician Pierre Schaeffer...
. However, The Orb "obliterated it" and reassembled only a few fragments for their remix, much to the chagrin of Jarre, who reportedly refused to release it; The Orb released the track themselves under the name "Toxygene", which further irritated Jarre, to whom Paterson retorted "The French are always five years behind us, anyway." In statements made after the release of "Toxygene", however, Jarre denied that he rejected the original remix because of disliking it.
Other artists have become agitated due to The Orb sampling their work, though Paterson jokingly suggests that "[t]hey don't know the half of it." Paterson says that he finds a "beauty" and a "cleverness" with slipping unlicensed samples into compositions without anyone recognizing it. Even though fans often try to guess the origins of many of The Orb's samples, Paterson states that they are rarely correct and that they would "die" if they discovered, for example, where the drums on "Little Fluffy Clouds" originated from. He has said that record labels have cautioned him, "Don't tell anyone where you got your samples until we get them cleared!".
The Orb has used a wide variety of audio clips from sources ranging from McCarthy era speeches to prank phone calls by Victor Lewis-Smith
Victor Lewis-Smith
Victor Lewis-Smith is a British satirist, producer, critic and prankster. He is known for his sarcasm and biting criticism.-Radio and recordings:...
to David Thewlis
David Thewlis
David Thewlis is an English actor of stage and screen. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin, in the Harry Potter film series...
' apocalypse-driven rant from the film Naked
Naked (film)
Naked is a 1993 British film directed by Mike Leigh. Before this film, Leigh was known for subtler comedic dissections of middle-class and working-class manners. Naked was more stark and brutal than his previous works...
. Paterson obtains many samples from recording TV and radio for hours at a time and picking out his favorite clips. He and other members of The Orb record nature sounds for use on albums, most notably on FFWD and Orbus Terrarum. The Orb's combination of ambient music and sampling from lower fidelity audio sources often creates a "fuzzy texture" in the sound quality, depersonalising The Orb's music. The Orb is lauded for their "Monty Python-esque levity" in their use of audio samples, though NME asserts that Paterson "sabotage[s] his majestic soundscapes" with "irritatingly zany" sounds.
The Orb has been a prolific remixing team, having completed over 80 commissioned remixes since 1989. Even during periods of label conflict and contractual limbo, The Orb found steady work remixing for artists including Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
, Lisa Stansfield
Lisa Stansfield
Lisa Stansfield is an English singer and songwriter.-Early years:Stansfield was born to Marion and Keith Stansfield in Heywood, Lancashire, in England, where she attended Redbrook School, Rochdale. Her first television appearance was on a talent programme in the Granada TV area in 1982...
, and Front 242
Front 242
Front 242 is a pioneering Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. They are known for being the premier pioneer of electronic body music and as a major influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.-Formation:...
. Though The Orb's remixes from the early and mid-1990s feature a large number of comical samples, Progressive-Sounds
Progressive-Sounds
Progressive-Sounds is an electronic music review and news website.Founded by Chad Harnish and Simon "Progsounds" Jones, the site has featured hundreds of single and album reviews, including occasional guest reviews by artists and DJs such as Bill Hamel and Jonathan Lisle...
describe them as "ahead of their time" and NME notes them as "not entirely incompatible with contemporary chilling." However, some pieces, such as their Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
cover collaboration with Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
, received criticism for being "beyond a joke" for their use of strange noises. The Orb's remix of Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
' "The Perfect Drug
The Perfect Drug
"The Perfect Drug" or ' is a song by Nine Inch Nails. It was written for the David Lynch film Lost Highway and originally appeared on the Lost Highway soundtrack and as a single from the score in 1997...
", too, was described as "silly", as they made it sound like Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
was "drowning in his bathtub". Though Paterson maintains that much of The Orb's remix work is done to support other artists, he admits some of their remixes for major artists were performed so that The Orb could "pay the bills".
Discography
- The Orb's Adventures Beyond The UltraworldThe Orb's Adventures Beyond the UltraworldThe Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld is the seminal 1991 ambient house-concept debut album by the electronic music collective The Orb. The album's framework is of a two-hour psychedelic trip through music genres and studio electronics, produced to "push the threshold" of live stage performance...
(1991) - U.F.OrbU.F.Orb-Disc 1:# "O.O.B.E." – 12:51# "U.F.Orb" – 6:08# "Blue Room" – 17:34# "Towers of Dub" – 15:00# "Close Encounters" – 10:27# "Majestic" – 11:06# "Sticky End" – 0:49-Disc 2:# "Blue Room " - 3:09# "Blue Room " - 7:37...
(1992) - Pomme FritzPomme Fritz-Side one:#"Pomme Fritz " – 9:04#"More Gills Less Fishcakes" – 8:05#"We're Pastie To Be Grill You" – 7:15-Side two:#"Bang 'Er 'N Chips" – 7:47#"Alles Ist Schoen" – 7:17#"His Immortal Logness" – 2:03...
(1994) - Orbus Terrarum (1995)
- OrblivionOrblivionThough Orblivion was recorded in May 1996, it was not released until almost a year later, due to Island Records' desire to promote it as a follow up to U2's techno-rock album Pop. Orblivion sold very well in Europe as well as the United States, where it reached the Billboard Top 200...
(1997) - CydoniaCydonia (album)Cydonia is the fifth studio album by the Orb, released on Island Records in the UK and MCA Records in the US. Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann, along with usual collaborators Andy Hughes, Nick Burton, and Simon Phillips, wrote and produced Cydonia for a planned 1999 release...
(2001) - Bicycles & TricyclesBicycles & TricyclesBicycles & Tricycles is the sixth studio album from the Orb. It brought together The Orb's style of the early 1990s with current electronic music to mixed reactions...
(2004) - Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompakt (2005)
- The Dream (2007)
- Baghdad Batteries (Orbsessions Volume III)Baghdad Batteries (Orbsessions Volume III)Baghdad Batteries is the ninth studio album released by ambient techno group The Orb in September 2009.-Track listing:...
(2009) - Metallic SpheresMetallic SpheresMetallic Spheres is the tenth studio album released by ambient techno group The Orb in October 2010 and features Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.- Track listing :# Metallic Side ## Metallic Spheres## Hymns to the Sun## Black Graham...
(2010)