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Alex Paterson began his music career in the early 1980s as a roadie for the post-punk rock band Killing Joke, for whom his childhood friend Martin "Youth" Glover played bass. After leaving Killing Joke in 1986, Paterson met future KLF member Jimmy Cauty and the duo began DJ-ing and producing music together under the name The Orb. Paterson and Cauty's first release was a 1988 acid house anthem track, "Tripping on Sunshine". Paterson and Cauty began DJ-ing in London and landed a deal for The Orb to play the chill out room at London nightclub Heaven. Resident DJ Paul Oakenfold brought in the duo specifically as ambient DJs for his "The Land of Oz" event at Heaven. Their "Chill Out Room" act grew popular over the course of their six month stay to the point that the small room was often packed with around 100 people(weary DJs and clubbers seeking solace from the loud, rhythmic music of the dancefloor).
Throughout 1989, The Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of their musical work came towards the end of the year when The Orb recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1. The track, then known as "Loving You", was largely improvisational and featured a wealth of sound effects and samples from science fiction radio plays, nature sounds, and Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You". For its release as a single on record label Big Life, The Orb changed the title to "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld".
In 1990, Paterson and Cauty held several recording sessions at Cauty's studio, Trancentral. When offered an album deal by Big Life, The Orb found themselves at a crossroads: Cauty preferred that The Orb release their music through his KLF Communications label, whereas Paterson wanted to ensure that The Orb did not become a side-project of The KLF.[Due to these issues, Cauty and Paterson split in April 1990, with Paterson keeping the name The Orb. As a result of the break-up, Cauty removed Paterson's contributions from the in-progress recordings and released the album as Space on KLF Communications. Also out of these sessions came The KLF album Chill Out, on which Paterson appeared in an uncredited role. Following the split, Paterson began working with Youth on the track "Little Fluffy Clouds". They incorporated samples from Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint and vocal clips from an interview with Rickie Lee Jones in which she recalls picturesque images from her childhood.While Reich was flattered by The Orb's use of his work, Jones pursued the issue in the legal system.
In 1991, Paterson invited energetic studio engineer Kris "Thrash" Weston to join The Orb. Steve Hillage, whom Patterson had met while DJ-ing in London, also joined as a contributing guitarist. Along with producer Thomas Fehlmann and audio engineer Andy Falconer, The Orb completed several additional tracks for their first album. The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld sold well in the UK and received praise for its balance of ambient music, house music, and sampling. In late 1991 and early 1992, Paterson and Weston wrote their next single, "Blue Room". Assisting with the recording was bassist Jah Wobble, keyboardist Miquette Giraudy, and guitarist Hillage. Despite its playing time of almost 40 minutes, "Blue Room" entered the UK charts at #12 and peaked at #8, making it the longest track to reach the UK singles chart. In July 1992, U.F.Orb was released featuring "Blue Room", it reached #1 on the UK Albums Chart to the shock of critics, who were surprised that fans had embraced what journalists, noticing Steve Hillage, considered to be progressive rock.
Disagreements with their label , Big Life, led to signing to Island where they released a life album, Live 93, which gathered highlights from The Orb's recent performances in Europe and Asia. The Orb's first studio production on Island Records was Pomme Fritz, a chaotic EP noted for its heavy use of strange samples and its lack of conventional harmonies, the critics panned it as "doodling". Soon after, Paterson, Weston, and Thomas Fehlmann joined with Robert Fripp to form the group FFWD as a side project. FFWD released a single self-titled album on Paterson's Inter-Modo label, which Fehlmann later described as "an Orb track which became so long that it became a whole album!". Following Weston's departure from The Orb, Thomas Fehlmann joined as a full-time studio member, though he would not always participate in live performances. Paterson, Hughes, and Fehlmann then finished producing the album Orbus Terrarum, on which Paterson and Weston had been working. Orbus Terrarum, released in 1995, featured more "earthbound" and "organic" sounds than their previous trippy science fiction themed music.
After a long world tour, The Orb, with Andy Hughes and Steve Hillage, settled down to produce their next album, Orblivion—the process of which saw a return to their spacy sounds. Though Orblivion was recorded in May 1996, it was not released until almost a year later, the first single, "Toxygene", was the highest charting single by The Orb, reaching #4 in the UK. Paterson and Fehlmann, wrote and produced Cydonia for a planned 1999 release. Paterson felt that this new direction of songwriting for The Orb was more similar to the experimental work of Orbus Terrarum than to the techno-pop of Orblivion. As Island Records was in a period of restructuring due to its recent purchase by Universal Music Group, Cydonia was not released until 2001. It was not well recieved, the UK press regarded them as past their prime and an "ambient dinosaur" out of place in the current dance music environment.
Paterson and Fehlmann chose to make their next releases a series of several low-key EPs for German label Kompakt in 2002.these were were well recieved and released later, slightly remixed on the 2005 Okie Dokie album . The Orb continued to use their odd synthetic sounds on 2004's Bicycles & Tricycles, to mixed reviews. Like Cydonia, Bicycles & Tricycles featured vocals, including female rapper MC Soom-T who added a hip hop twist to the album.The Orb left Island Records and released the album on Cooking Vinyl . After two more EPs on Kompakt, The Orb (now composed of only Paterson and Fehlmann) released Okie Dokie It's The Orb on Kompakt, which featured new material in addition to tweaked versions of their previous Kompakt output. In August 2006, the founders of The Orb - Paterson and Cauty - released Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God, their debut album as the Transit Kings with Guy Pratt and Pratt's associate, Dom Beken. Living had been in production since 2001, but due to members' other obligations, it was delayed for several years. The album received mix critical reactions,
soon after the album's release, Cauty left the Transit Kings on "extended leave", leaving the project in indefinite limbo.
Think, you know enough of the Orb now ? Wrong ! Here's a very extensive article on The Orb @ Wiki
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Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld (91, 110min ^ 198mb )
Retrospectively, Adventures is considered ground-breaking for changing the way musicians view sampling and as a seminal work for the genres of ambient and dance music. The album's framework is of a two-hour psychedelic trip though music genres and studio electronics, pushing the threshold of live stage performance. Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld simulates a journey through the outer realms -- progressing from the soaring ambient-pop of "Little Fluffy Clouds" and the stoned "Back Side of the Moon" to "Into the Fourth Dimension" and ending (after almost two hours) with the glorious live mix of "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain.
Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld ( ^ 121mb )
01 - Little Fluffy Clouds (4:26)
02 - Earth (Gaia) (9:48)
03 - Supernova At The End Of The Universe (11:56)
04 - Back Side Of The Moon (14:15)
05 - Spanish Castles In Space (15:06)
Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld 2 ( ^ 125mb )
06 - Perpetual Dawn (9:30)
07 - Into The Fourth Dimension (9:16)
08 - Outlands (8:23)
09 - Star 6 & 7 8 9 (8:10)
10 - A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld: Live Mix Mk 10 (18:43)
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Orb - Orbus Terrarum (95 ^ 162mb)
Before leaving The Orb, member Kris Weston had begun work on Orbus Terrarum. However, when he left The Orb, German producer Thomas Fehlmann joined as a full-time studio member. The Orb, now consisting of Alex Paterson, Andy Hughes, and Fehlmann, finished producing Orbus Terrarum. Unlike previous albums by The Orb, Orbus Terrarum featured more "earthbound" and "organic" sounds instead of the trippy science fiction themed music they had previously written. The UK wasnt impressed unlike the other side of the big pond where Orbus Terrarum was recieved much better. Orbus Terrarum brings the mothership back to earth for a collision with some surprisingly harsh percussion and noisy synth. However the melodies and dub lines of previous Orb recordings are still in the mix.
1 - Valley (7:36)
2 - Plateau (12:49)
3 - Oxbow Lakes (7:28)
4 - Montagne D'Or (Der Gute Berg) (10:41)
5 - White River Junction (9:36)
6 - Occidental (13:54)
7 - Slug Dub (15:49)
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Orb - Okie Dokie It's The Orb On Kompakt (05, 61min ^ 143mb)
Okie Dokie marks the Orb's absolute absorption into Cologne's Kompakt label. It features new material in addition to tweaked versions of their previous Kompakt releases. Thomas Fehlmann on hometurf as the primary creative figure, "inhibiting Alex Paterson's impulses". It makes the album considerably more focused, and less "goofy" than Cydonia and Bicycles & Tricycles. There are no incongruous vocal appearances, silly spoken bits, or lumbering dubwise squibs. In fact, Fehlmann's trademark hypnotic loops and delays made him the center of Okie Dokie production . The Orb's assimilation into the Kompakt label is such that the best cross references aren't their albums of the recent past, but Kompakt's Pop Ambient series. Besides Paterson and Fehlmann, Okie Dokie featured Ulf Lohmann as a co-writer on a track as well as Schneider TM performing vocals for another.Okie Dokie It's The Orb On Kompakt gained them back much of their musical credibility with the press and showed that they are still with it..
01 - Komplikation (3:55)
02 - Lunik TM (5:50)
03 - Ripples (5:51)
04 - Captain Korma (4:13)
05 - Kan Kan (4:43)
06 - Rolo (2:36)
07 - Beatitude (2:43)
08 - Cool Harbour (5:11)
09 - Traumvogel (6:24)
10 - Because/Before (Sibirische Musik) (4:40)
11 - Tin Kan (4:31)
12 - Kompagna (Zandic Mix) (3:53)
13 - Falkenbrück (3:29)
14 - Snowbow (2:16)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
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