Not long after the release of U.F.Orb, at the height of the group's festival assault, bedazzled punters were starting pre-gig rumors that The Orb could levitate the stage. Just the sort of sillines the good Dr. Paterson would have loved.
U.F.Orb sees Paterson and co. at the peak of their creative inspiration - and at their funniest. "Towers of Dub" even begins with a prank call, wherein a delightfully proper English voice asks a security guard to tell the soon-to-arrive Haile Sellassie that Marcus Garvey will meet him in "Babylon and ting." Before you can say Far-I they're off on a 15-minute King Tubby dub excursion, complete with echoing harmonica and barking dog scratches. Proper.
Paterson's playfulness also balances out this album's proggish tendencies: ambient dub monsters "o.o.b.e" and "The Blue Room" survive their quarter-hour duration with just the right amount of disorienting samples (rambling lecturers, train whistles, bubbling water). Consider that they released a 40-minute version of the latter as a single, then played chess on "Top of the Pops" when it miraculously dented the charts, and you're some way towards understanding the self-effacing genius of The Orb.
There are even some up-tempo trance gems on this album - "Close Encounters" features input from Stuart McMillan, Scottish Don of bangin' house - just in case you need something to revive you from that last bong hit. That makes this the greatest danceable
-ambient house-dub-prog-stuffyhead-fever
-so-you-can-rest album ever, then. Nice.
If you like The Orb, check out:
The Orb The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
The Orb Orblivion
The KLF Chill Out
Sabres of Paradise Haunted Dancehall
Primal Scream Screamadelica
