The Orb - Prism (April 28, 2023)

1.  ‘H.O.M.E'
2.   ‘Why Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All'
3.  ‘A Ghetto Love Story'
4.  ‘Picking Tea Leaves & Chasing Butterflies'
5.  'Tiger'
6.  ‘Dragon Of The Oceans'
7.  ‘The Beginning Of The End'
8.  ‘Living In Recycled Times'
9.  ‘Prism

On ‘Prism’, released 28th April via Cooking Vinyl, The Orb’s pulsating discography grows ever more huge, with their 18th album, and 3rd helmed by core duo Alex Paterson and Michael Rendall. Despite the connotations of its title, here they continue to rollick freely without inhibition across ambient, house and dub, but also tangent into poetry, pop, full-blown drum ‘n’ bass and actual reggae.

To celebrate the official album announcement, The Orb are pleased to share the video for their killer new single ‘Living In Recycled Times’, released 25th January, – a blistering, ten minutes plus, drum & bass floorfiller.

The LP features electronic musicians David Harrow (whose CV includes Anne Clarke, Psychic TV, Razormaid, Adrian Sherwood and Andy Weatherall) and Gaudi (whose credits include Max Romeo, Capleton, Johnny Clarke and Desmond Dekker). Other guests include Orb regular Youth, violinist Violeta Vicci, Kompakt records alumnus Leonardo Fresco, Metamono man Jono Podmore, Guitarist and Alex’s old schoolchum David Lofts, plus vocalists Eric Von Skywalker, Andy Cain and Rachel D’arcy.

‘Prism’ begins with the epic winding journey of ‘H.O.M.E’, which features a poem by Paterson, and traverses through dark ambient into star-surfing Fingers-style house, before ‘Why Can You Be In Two Places At Once…’ kicks into a funked-up, afrobeaty chug.

With Paterson’s decades-long love for Jamaican music and output oft drenched in the dubwise, it should come as little surprise that The Orb have now gone full reggae, on the ebullient nostalgia tale of Von Skywalker’s youthful romance, ‘A Ghetto Love Story’.

The album then disappears down a wormhole of rubadub head-music called ‘Picking Tea & Chasing Butterfiles’, which sounds like Colourbox meets Popul Vuh in Shanghai, and also echoes back to Weatherall’s Ultrabass II remix of ‘Perpetual Dawn’.

Flipping the script entirely, by sprinkling a large bag of disco dust, is the slinky boogie wonderland of ‘Tiger’ (the name and nickname of Paterson’s son and late brother respectively), which juxtaposes but somehow coheres with the melodica-tinged thunderous bass music of ‘Dragon Of Oceans’ and it’s Sirius B gazing wordplay.

The expertly-executed, floaty 90s trance dance of ‘The Beginning Of The End’ works very nicely within its own familiar parameters; which contrasts sharply with ‘Living In Recycled Times’, which ignites over ten plus minutes into fully-fledged, rave-ready D&B fire, which although out of their comfort zone still sounds very Orb.

Music for the ‘Prism’ of your mind, the album ends with its title track – a big ambient epic in done in fine style – as awe inspiring as the cold, infinite expanse from whence it came.

https://orb.tmstor.es/

I wish I could be more excited about the prospect of a new album by The Orb but instead I'll just be happy for the good doctor

Can't work out if that video using just a bunch of stock footage is a clever take on the track title (everything is just being recycled) .... or just very lazy and Alex hopes we wouldn't notice !

Could be good. I like when they go all in on hypnotic sample heavy grooves. Them an Negativeland were always really great at that kind of thing. The Orb are best seen/heard live.

I remember when The Orb were good

Here's the full length version of the single. I suspect Alex's contribution was adding 'the unrelated talking samples that you can't properly hear' from around the 8 minute mark:

 Well this 10mn DnB single is no Tundra but it's still a very pleasant ride.

first track is deece actually. its too easy to hate on the orb now come on you slags

  On 2/24/2023 at 1:23 PM, dr lopez said:

first track is deece actually. its too easy to hate on the orb now come on you slags

I've every Orb album since Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld (some as multiples, eg Ultraworld and UFOrb as both the original and the deluxe reissues) though with every release Alex's role within the group mystifies me more and more (to the point of which the infamous 'Weston rant' now seems less of a rant and more of a truth-bomb (though his opinion of Fehlmann's look can get to f***)  https://web.archive.org/web/20140626033214/https://krisweston.com/index.php/rant/ ) 

Would love to come across any examples of a Paterson solo piece just to be proven wrong that he can make music though !

  On 2/24/2023 at 2:56 PM, mcbpete said:

I've every Orb album since Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld (some as multiples, eg Ultraworld and UFOrb as both the original and the deluxe reissues) though with every release Alex's role within the group mystifies me more and more (to the point of which the infamous 'Weston rant' now seems less of a rant and more of a truth-bomb (though his opinion of Fehlmann's look can get to f***)  https://web.archive.org/web/20140626033214/https://krisweston.com/index.php/rant/ ) 

Would love to come across any examples of a Paterson solo piece just to be proven wrong that he can make music though !

All I know is that other collaborators don't release anything independently that would substitute for me listening to the Orb. Even if Alex serves only as a muse, that makes a real difference and the end results just aren't matched without him IMO. I don't know if he is mostly a muse or if he plays instruments or whatever else, I've read that he definitely was involved in sourcing and playing in samples in the early days and samples are often a big part of many great orb tracks, really well chosen. Whatever he does, he definitely makes a real difference it seems.

  On 2/24/2023 at 5:01 PM, MDF said:

All I know is that other collaborators don't release anything independently that would substitute for me listening to the Orb. Even if Alex serves only as a muse, that makes a real difference and the end results just aren't matched without him IMO. I don't know if he is mostly a muse or if he plays instruments or whatever else, I've read that he definitely was involved in sourcing and playing in samples in the early days and samples are often a big part of many great orb tracks, really well chosen. Whatever he does, he definitely makes a real difference it seems.

This. I might say much of Fehlmann’s solo work is on par with the best of the Orb, but the other collaborators…um, no.

I realize Orb albums are best formatted for CD but I’d kill for a vinyl repress of their early to mid 90s output. Orbus Terrarum in particular.

  On 2/27/2023 at 5:27 AM, Friendly Stranger said:

I realize Orb albums are best formatted for CD but I’d kill for a vinyl repress of their early to mid 90s output. Orbus Terrarum in particular.

The most complete version of Orbus Terrarum is actually the 12'' - especially in comparison to the UK CD which is missing both the intro to Oxbow Lakes and the last section of Slug Dub (the US CD is just missing the Oxbow Lakes intro)

  On 2/27/2023 at 11:30 AM, mcbpete said:

The most complete version of Orbus Terrarum is actually the 12'' - especially in comparison to the UK CD which is missing both the intro to Oxbow Lakes and the last section of Slug Dub (the US CD is just missing the Oxbow Lakes intro)

I did not know this!?!?

I found an old version of orbus terrarum on vinyl a couple of years ago and I'm pretty sure Plateau is slightly longer too... Other bits too. It wasn't hugely different but it still felt like I was listening to it for the first time... Magical!

According to Discogs:

  Quote

Durations for Plateau and Slug Dub run longer than UK & European CD versions,
Oxbow Lakes is listed as 7.29 but runs for 8:18, longer than all CD versions.
Montagne D'or (Der Gute Berg) is listed as 10:42 but runs for 11:10, longer than all CD versions.
Occidental is listed as 13:35 but runs for 13:54

Just listening to this now.

It's really bad.

Hmm yeah... It's not what I was expecting. I actually really liked the first single even though it's pretty generic but the rest of it ranges from bland to cringe. To be fair I didn't quite get all the way through but I gave it a shot.

Disappointing cos the collaborations he's done on his own sub label in the last couple years have been really good.

I like it, maybe not as much as the previous one but this is fine w/ me, I didn't think it would change my life like you guys (kiddin)

7.8/10

The Orb without Thomas Feldmann is just not for me - especially when you consider that one half the duo's input is questionable.

I do like the last (title) track. The rest is utterly forgettable, IMO.

It all sounds so disjointed - Like a compilation of music Alex got asked to make for Mixmag magazine (does that still exist or am I showing my age?) rather than a coherent album.

Like Mike Rendall wanted to do another 'sincere' ambient thing like the latter tracks of the 'Abolition of the the blah-de-blah' whilst Alex went " .... I dunno - stick in some middling dub-reggae, ridge racer drum & bass, wacky samples ... that'll do"

What's up with that cover? The Orb have gone WOKE?!!?!  

The Orb aren’t The Orb without Kris Weston. Rank.