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 |
