The Orb - Meesters der Ambient House

Aangezien de zoekmachien geen waardig Orb topic te voorschijn tovert, hier een nieuw topic voor alle Orb en Ambient-fans.


THE ORB


Biografie (gejat van wikipedia.org)

The group was formed in 1988 by Dr. Alex Paterson (full name Duncan Robert Alex Paterson) and Jimmy Cauty (who had played in Brilliant with Youth and June Montana, and later gained fame as one half of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and The KLF with Echo & the Bunnymen's ex-manager Bill Drummond). The Orb's first release, the acid house anthem Tripping on Sunshine.

In May, 1989, the Orb released the Kiss EP, which was heavily influenced by New York's KISS FM. Paterson began DJing around London, England at this time when he met Paul Oakenfold. At Oakenfold's behest, Paterson began DJing at Land of Oz, the chill-out room at Heaven.

Paterson's mixed samples of BBC nature recordings, NASA space broadcasts and everything in between into the music of ambient pioneers such as Brian Eno. Around this time, Paterson met Steve Hillage and Hillage later contributed guitar to the Orb's Blue Room single. In return Paterson worked on Hillage's System 7 project.

In October, 1989 the Orb released the 22-minute single A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From the Centre of the Ultraworld, which contains large chunks of Minnie Riperton's Loving You. The single managed to reach the lower end of the UK chart. Although Paterson and Cauty had been working on a debut album, the two split in April, 1990. Cauty removed Paterson's contributions to the album and released the remainder as Space.

Killing Joke's Youth, who'd recently found dancefloor success with Blue Pearl assisted with the single Little Fluffy Clouds, but existing commitments made it impossible for him to be anything more than a part-time member. In his place, Paterson recruited Kris Weston (aka Thrash), a young studio engineer who had worked on Little Fluffy Clouds and recently left Fortran 5.

In April, 1991, the Orb's debut album, Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld was released in the United Kingdom to critical acclaim. The double-album obtained a top 30 placing in the UK.

U.F.Orb was released in July, 1992. It featured the 39 minute 59 second "Blue Room" which was their third single to reach the UK charts, although the album version was only 17 minutes long. Early pressings of the album were available in two differently coloured sealed plastic packs containing an additional disc with the soundtrack from Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld(Patterns & Textures edition), a mail order only long form video released by the Orb.

During 1993 and 1994 the Orb were dismayed by Big Life's intention to re-issue some of the Orb's earlier material. As a result, Paterson and Thrash opted out of their contract and Paterson signed an international deal with Chris Blackwell's Island Records. The double-album Live '93 soon followed. It was a mix of recordings made in Glastonbury, Copenhagen and Tokyo. The album's credits included, Simon Phillips, Nick Burton, Kris Weston, Fluff and of course Paterson.

In June, 1994, they released their first studio album for Island, Pomme Fritz (The Orb's Little Album). The album reached number six on the UK, but critics hated it, even comparing Paterson to Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett.

August, 1994 saw the release of a collaboration between Robert Fripp, Paterson, Weston, and Thomas Fehlmann, hence the name FFWD or Fripp, Fehlmann, Weston and Duncan. Weston's input was already diminishing by this time and following the release of FFWD, he finally parted company with Paterson. He was replaced by Thomas Fehlmann.

Orbus Terrarum was released in March, 1995. In February, 1997, following an ambitious world tour, they released Orblivion, which features Toxygene, a remix of a Jean-Michel Jarre single from Oxygene 7-13. Apparently, Jarre rejected it as being nothing like the original.

The retrospective U.F.Off came in October, 1998 and was initially available in a Limited Edition double CD.

Cydonia, although recorded in 1999, was delayed by Island until its release in February, 2001. Several different versions of the album were leaked on the Net some time before the official release.

In 2004, they released their seventh studio album, Bicycles & Tricycles, which strongly departs from their earlier ambient sound, incorporating strong hip-hop influenced rhythms, including rap on one of the tracks.

The Orb is not to be confused with Orbital, a similarly named band that has also been very influential in the realm of electronic music. To make matters more confusing, The Orb often did remixes of other artists' songs and called the result an "Orbital Mix". But these remixes have nothing to do with the band Orbital. The Orb stopped this practice after Orbital became popular, hoping to not cause any more confusion.

Bron: The Orb's Wikipedia Page


En nu dus weer 2 nieuwe releases, te weten:

Orb Sessions - Volume One een verzamelalbum met daarop een hoop rarities die The Orb in de loop der jaren heeft gemaakt, waaronder een aantal tracks die de albums niet hebben gehaald. Een must voor iedere Orb-verzamelaar! En...

Okie Dokie It's The Orb On Kompakt (Disco)


Het nieuwe album!!! Ik heb hem gisteren (voor de helft) beluisterd en dit klinkt echt als een superalbum. Beter als de voorgaande 2 (Bikes & Trikes en Cydonia) en meer minimal techno georienteerd dan ooit tevoren. Vooral de eerste helft zit vol met stuwende ambient minimal techno ritmes en geluiden. Helaas heb ik de 2e helft nog niet echt goed beluisterd, maar als het net zo is als de eerste helft is dan zal dit album zeer waarschijnlijk heel lang in mijn cd-speler te vinden zijn!!

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Op vrijdag 4 november 2005 10:43 schreef harlingen het volgende:
Ik wist niet dat the Orb nog cd's maakte? Fantastisch!

Gelijk even gezocht op internet en ik kwam deze titel tegen die ik niet in de openingspost zag staan:

The Orb - Cydonia (2001), meer info: http://www.mp3.com/albums/464407/summary.html

Ik ga in iedergeval de nieuwe straks even downloaden om te luisteren of hij de aanschaf waard is (goede albums schaf ik altijd aan, ondanks dat ik ze al gedownload heb). Ben benieuwd!

Beter kijken!

quote:

Cydonia, although recorded in 1999, was delayed by Island until its release in February, 2001. Several different versions of the album were leaked on the Net some time before the official release.

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Op maandag 7 november 2005 13:54 schreef rheingold het volgende:
er was al een orb topic;
The Orb.

ik heb ze ook allebei;
okie dokie is echt een te gekke plaat, die even tot zijn recht moet komen omdat the orb hier ineens een hele andere weg ingaat. die kompakt sound past wel bij the orb (overigens is een van de eerste 12inches die the orb uitbracht ook al tot ons gekomen via kompakt, dus de cirkel lijkt rond)
okie dokie is in ieder geval zeer de moeite waard en is een van de hoogtepunten in het omvanrijke orb ouvre.

orbsessions vol 1 is ook cool, yungle kende ik al van een op internet circulerende eerdere versie van cydonia, en mummy don't bevat heel veel elementen uit een nummer van the klf dat in een remix van the orb ook op auntie aubrey deel 2 terug te vinden is. de rest is nieuw voor me, en prima te verteren, ik hoop op nog een paar orbsessions delen.

orbus terrarum staat bij mij ook op nummer 1. echt een supertrip.

Dja, ik wist dat er al een Orb topic was, maar met de search kreeg ik nada. Vandaar dus dit topic.

Maar Okie Dokie is idd een lekker album! Ene helft pure minimal techno en de tweede helft echte Orb ambient. Heerlijk! Dat nummer met SchneiderTM is ook geweldig. Wel jammer dat de cd niet zo'n uitgebreid boekje heeft zoals de vorige albums hadden. En ik mis toch ook wel die fijne MadArk ontwerpen...

Die 'Yungle' versie op Orb Sessions is trouwens anders dan de versie van de Cydonia demo. Hoop dat ze ook 'Freely Wheely' en 'Ralf' uitbrengen, want van de 3 vind ik 'Yungle' de meest zwakke.

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Op zondag 20 november 2005 18:08 schreef Johnny_Footballhero het volgende:
Dubbel

The Orb.

Spuit Elf geeft ook modder.

Als je het topic had doorgelezen dan zou je zien dat die comment al eens is gemaakt en ook zou je weten waarom er een nieuw Orb topic is.

Maar als dat het enige is wat je hebt bij te dragen blijf dan voortaan maar gewoon weg.

Mooi reviewtje gevonden van de laatste 2 releases, 'Orb Sessions Vol. 1' en 'Okie Dokie'.

The contribution of Alex Paterson and The Orb to electronic music over the last fifteen years is totally invaluable. Originally formed of ex-Killing Joke roadie Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty, later of KLF fame, The Orb have provided the rave generation with some of its best chill out moments, including the hypnotic A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld and Blue Room, the quirky Little Fluffy Clouds, which sampled Ricky Lee Jones and Steve Reich, and the dub-infused Perpetual Dawn. If The Orb have been through many incarnations, which have seen the likes of Killing Joke member Youth, Steve Hillage, from seventies prog rock outfit Gong and former Fortran 5 member Kris ‘Thrash’ Weston all making a mark on Paterson’s music, he has remained firmly in control of his project over the years.

From the seminal The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld and U.F. Orb albums, released in 1991 and 1992 respectively, to the more confused efforts of recent years, Paterson and his various collaborators have tried their hands at a variety of genres, enhancing the original ambient and dub template with elements of electronica, techno, drum’n’bass and pop. Orbsessions Vol. 1, which collects ten previously unreleased tracks from Paterson’s archives, provides an interesting overview of fifteen years of Orb music. Ranging from Mummie Don’t, which heavily references both A Huge Ever Growing… and The KLF’s Chill Out, to the hyperactive Yungle, the impressive Chromatik or Eurofen, which offers a clue to The Orb cuvée 2005, this album bluntly exposes and documents the different eras of the band without connecting them in any way. Yet, if this album can sometimes appear slightly disjointed, it is undoubtedly a precious testament of Paterson’s work and a necessary reminder of the ground covered so far. So clear is this journey that it is almost possible to place each track within a particular Orb era.

In recent months, fans of The Orb have been teased with a series of impressive EPs released on German imprint Kompakt, and this renewed interest is confirmed with the arrival of the band’s seventh album. Alex Paterson and long-term partner Thomas Fehlmann have ditched practically everything that had become synonymous with the band’s sound, stripped the music down to its bare essential, and recorded their best album yet. No less. Set somewhere between tempered British dub, vintage Detroit techno, Berlin’s minimal house and deep-reaching ambient, Okie Dokie is cool, collected and terribly modern and fresh.

Although at first, Komplikation, which opens the album, doesn’t seem dissimilar to classic Orb with its pneumatic beat and Perpetual Dawn-style dub environment, the pair here concentrate on the inner part of the track, developing its more subtle sections, leaving the more obvious envelope totally out. Lunik TM, which features a vocal contribution from Schneider TM, continues on a similar path, but the tone changes with the hypnotic beat and aquatic bass of Ripples, one of the standout tracks here. From there on, Okie Dokie appears to reach its cruising mood, and while the remaining ten tracks demonstrate a variety of approaches, the second half of this album reverting to more purely ambient structures, the mood manages to remains pretty constant.

The twin tracks Captain Korma and Falkenbrück perfectly demonstrate the dichotomic nature of this album. Built around the same melodic elements, the context couldn’t however be more different. While the former is based on a relentless beat and Kraftwerk-inspired attitude, the latter dives deep under water and snakes its way through waves of heavy synthetic strings. Elsewhere, while Rolo or Cool Harbour provide the listener with intricate sonic patterns layered over linear beats, swathes of warm soundwaves wash over Traumvogel, Because/Before, a collaboration with Ulf Lohmann, or Kompagna, softening the occasional statics, clicks and glitches.

Never has an Orb been so consistent, homogeneous and pertinent from start to finish. Despite being split between uplifting hypnotic dance floor gems and vertiginous descents into beatless oceans, Okie Dokie only becomes totally coherent as a whole. Take one element out of the equation, and the sum doesn’t totally makes sense anymore. Although some of the tracks included here have previously been released on a series of EPs, they all take a totally new dimension when placed in the context of Okie Dokie. This new album is far more than a return to form, it is the album that’s is likely to define The Orb for years to come.

Orbsessions Vol. 1 3.8/5 / Okie Dokie 4.8/5