at a glance...

Hometown: London, England
Year Formed: 1989

Core Personnel:
Dr. Alex Paterson
Andy Hughes
Thomas Fehlmann

Bands in the family :
The KLF, System 7, SLAM, Killing Joke, Gong, The Teardrop Explodes, Sabres of Paradise, Primal Scream, Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart

After the largely beatless and somewhat tiresome Pomme Fritz and Orbus Terrarum, the Orb rescued themselves from their ambient self-indulgence with Orblivion. The Orb is back, and as irreverent, dubby and virtuosic as ever! The two standouts on this album are "Delta MK II" and the single "Toxygene," both of which are brilliant examples of dance-floor psychedelia. Another memorable track is "S.A.L.T.," which has a long clip of David Thewlis ranting about the apocalypse and UPC codes from the Mike Leigh movie "Naked." Another development is that their tracks seem to be getting shorter. Their previous records are full of ten to fifteen minute long songs - "72" on Toxygene is a mere six seconds, and the longest on the album, "Passing of Time," clocks in at 9½ minutes. This makes for more transitions and helps prevent boredom.

The Orb's music has always been dense and complex - you get the sense that these guys really know how to manipulate their machines. It's also very echoey and dub-inflected. This is the music rastafarians will make when we all live in space. The Orb also like dick jokes. "Toxygene" kicks off with a chorus singing "Oh what a beauty/I've never seen one as big as that before/Oh what a beauty/It must be two feet long or even more." This is the Orb's best work since UFOrb, and is a must for all you space-traveling burners.