Send "The Orb " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 The Orb have never hidden their art-rock leanings. Their debut album, released in 1991, was a double-vinyl epic entitled, with a knowing nod to the bongs-and-blacklights crowd, Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. Despite being marketed as house music, Ultraworld was really designed to flow like those spacey prog-song suites that so captivated stoned 70s kids who gorged on sci-fi novels. (The Orb just ditched the "songs" part of the suite equation.) And though the rhythms on the new Metallic Spheres occasionally recall techno and hip-hop and other more recent inventions, this albums sounds a hell of a lot like it could have been playing in a planetarium circa 1974.Again, as much of that is due to the Orb as to special guest legend David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. The Orb's music got chillier, tighter, and altogether less shaggy as we moved away from rave's sloppy love-in and toward the precision-tooled club music of the 21st century. But over the past few years, Orb co-founder Alex Paterson has been gently nudging the group's sound back toward its techno-hippie roots. Collaborating with Gilmour feels in some ways like the Orb's coming home after a good many years spent wandering the post-rave wilderness. Their last few albums have sounded as if the band were wondering where exactly they could take their music next, while not quite sure if they truly wanted to revert to their old sound, and the master's presence feels like it gave the disciples license to go all-out retro. Mostly wordless, full of spaced-out sound effects, and making no concessions to good ol' verse-chorus-verse structures, Spheres is a trip, to use a term once unabashedly uttered by Floyd devotees and revived by Orb aficionados with more of a knowing wink. A headphones record, in other words. Light show and chemical refreshment totally optional. Over two long tracks subdivided into shorter movements, Paterson and fellow Orb-er Youth thread together a post-rave library's worth of slow-rolli ng chillout-room rhythms, referencing everything from dub to krautrock along the way, as Gilmour sweeps in and out on guitar, dropping little shiver-inducing melodic runs like it's no big deal. Though his playing here meanders by design, Gilmour sounds neither lazy nor indulgent, more like a virtuoso who doesn't want to actually seem like he's sleepwalking through his performance. The Orb, on the other hand, are showing off in the best way possible, again crafting the lush, cosmic rhythms they were once so good at, hoping to impress a long-time hero. In the process, they also manage to impress listeners who've stuck with the band through some pretty ropey recent material....full text |
| Ibiza-spotlight |
| The orb featuring David Gilmour’s Metallic Spheres is to be performed live at Café Mambo, for its European album launch. Release 11.10.2010 This inaugural event in Ibiza, titled “The Ambient Spheres Gala”, will kick off a three-city world-wide tour with a resounding bang. To celebrate the European launch of the album, the event is being held at Cafe Mambo, San Antonio at sunset on the shores of Ibiza on September 24th complete with a live set by The Orb performing Metallic Spheres in its entirety. The album’s performance will be followed by an Alex Paterson DJ set. Metallic Spheres is designed to be heard in two parts - ‘Metallic Side’ (24’48”), and ‘Spheres Side’ (25’09”). Each track, or side, consists of five movements. The album uniquely utilizes David Gilmour’s discernable electric guitar and lap steel guitar, Alex Paterson’s sound manipulation, keyboards and turntables, and Youth’s bass guitar and keyboards. The album will be available in 3 formats: standard and 2-disc deluxe versions on CD, digital download and 180-gram vinyl. The deluxe 2-CD version includes an extra disc, featuring the new ‘3D60™’ process, which allows a 360-degree sound experience on stereo tracks without any special equipment. The Orb’s Alex Paterson says, “"It's a collision that's been waiting to happen with Pink Floyd / David Gilmour and The Orb orbiting many of the same planets"....full text |
| Pinkfloydfan |
| Last month, we told you about the new collaboration between David Gilmour, and ambient wizards The Orb. The resulting album, Metallic Spheres, has really got the interest fired up amongst many of you, and we're getting a regular stream of emails asking about it. Thanks to our friends at Sony, we can now bring you the exclusive first review of the album!You might recall that last year, David had been in the studio jamming with Martin Youth Glover, who was at the time working on an ambient mix of the 'Chicago' re-recording, which was released to raise awareness of the plight of Gary McKinnon. Dr Alex Paterson (the one constant through the history of The Orb) was not involved in the sole jamming session and the only plan initially was for David to play guitar on 'Chicago'. However, the result of that jam session has now been spread across this album, released as The Orb featuring David Gilmour .Said Paterson: It's a collision that's been waiting to happen with Pink Floyd/David Gilmour and The Orb orbiting many of the same planets . Truly a match made in the heavens, both parties were clearly made for each other going by the lush and absorbing result....full text |
The Orb lyrics
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