VARIOUS ARTISTS
Ambient Pop 2010
KOMPAKT77
Kompakt 2010
13 Tracks. 75mins07secs

Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series has become an unavoidable feature in the music calendar, each year delivering a new contingent of ambient tunes carved by some of the masters of the genres, yet, despite gaining much praises, these collections have at times proved something of a lacklustre affair, and this tenth edition in the series is no different. Gathering a number of Kompakt regulars (Mikkel Metal, DJ Koze, Jürgen Paape, Dettinger, Thomas Felhmann) and occasional contributors (The Orb, Triola, Popnoname), with label boss Wolfgang Voigt curating the project and contributing, this latest display delivers its fair share of hopeful twists and forgettable turns over its seventy five minutes. Continue Reading »

Alex Paterson and co are used to huge venues and festivals, playing in front of thousands of people, but it is in the intimist settings of Arch 635 in Clapham, south London, that they chose to introduce their latest effort, Baghdad Batteries, to the world, in front of a crowd of just 250. The dress code du hour was uniformist to say the least: white overalls for all, with strict instruction that they should be worn during the band’s performance, making the place look like an over-busy crime scene of Silent Witness. Support was provided by Maliscious Damage’s Able & Cane and She Is Danger, the latter sounding something like Beth Gibbons submitted to electic shocks.While not really providing anything particularly new or fresh, the girls delivered a pretty sharp electro set. Continue Reading »

THE ORB
Baghdad Batteries: Orbsessions Vol. 3 – An Illustrated Handbook With Stereo Sound
MD645
Malicious Damage 2009
11 Tracks. 53mins33secs

CD: Amazon UK | Amazon US Download: Amazon UK | Amazon US | iTunes | Boomkat

Always a fluid project, The Orb, led by former Killing Joke roadie Alex Paterson, has gone through many incarnations over the years. Twenty years on from the seminal A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld EP, The Orb are a pretty steady presence on the electronic stage, and has shown no sign of slowing down, the stream of releases remaining pretty constant through the last two decades. The band was however victim of a steady decline during the late nineties and early noughties, culminating with the somewhat lacklustre Cydonia and Bicycles And Tricycles albums. Since, Paterson and long term collaborator Thomas Fehlmann have injected some new life as The Orb joined for a moment the excellent Kompakt imprint and released a handful of EPs, followed by the excellent Okie Dokie, It’s The Orb On Kompakt album in 2005, while Malicious Damage released the first in a program of releases. Continue Reading »

THE ORB
The Dream
BFLCD84
Liquid Sounds 2008
15 Tracks. 72mins55secs

The Dream sees the reunion of long-term friends and collaborators Alex Paterson and Martin ‘Youth’ Glover, working together under the Orb umbrella for the first time in fifteen years. The pair met at school in the seventies, then, while Youth gained famed as part of post punk outfit Killing Joke, Paterson followed as a roadie for the band. The pair went on to set up W.A.U.! Records and work together, alongside Jimmy Cauty, and later on Kris ‘Thrash’ Weston, on the two first Orb albums. While they remained friends over the year, it wasn’t until Youth set up a brand new studio at the end of his garden a couple of years ago that the pair began working on a new project. Continue Reading »

THE ORB
Orbsessions Vol. 2
MD624
Maliscious Damage Records 2007
11 Tracks. 76mins01secs

The first installment in what is announced as a trilogy, delivered two years ago, delved deep into the Orb’s sonic archive, and provided, in the process, the beginning of a thread throughout the band’s career, seemingly marking various stages and incarnations of one of the most emblematic British acts to have emerged from the dance scene of the late eighties.

The Orb shot to fame during the rave revolution with the epic A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld and the seminal Little Fluffy Clouds, and rapidly became a major act alongside the likes of Orbital, 808 State and Banco De Gaia. Continue Reading »