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Made up of Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty at the time, The Orb put their mark on music founding the genre, ambient house. They both started out on the London scene, performing in various clubs. They came together in 1988, and started something that set them apart from the rest in their field, using experimental samples that were unrecognisable. They released the track “Tripping on Sunshine” on a German record compilation called “Eternity Project One”, followed by a project called “Kiss EP”. It featured sample from New York City’s KISS FM. They later landed a residency at Heaven, a nightclub in London. They would perform every Monday night, packing out the venue more and more. Eventually, they recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1. It featured a lot of experimental sounds. It was one of the longest singles to make he singles chart, peaking at number 78.
Due to musical differences, despite how far they had come, Cauty and Paterson went their separate ways, whilst Paterson maintained the title of The Orb. He started working with studio engineer Andy Falconer, and Kris “Thrash” Weston. Together they created the project, “The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld”, which is a two-house long masterpiece, containing some progressive composition. Two albums later, The Orb released a live album on Island Records entitled simply “Live 93”. Falconer had left the outfit to pursue other musical endeavours. The album went on to reach number 23 on the UK Album Chart. “Pomme Fritz”, released in 1994 might as well have been a solo album by Alex Paterson, reaching 6 on the UK charts, despite reviews claiming that it had lost its focus.
The Orb's next acclaimed album would be “Metallic Spheres”, which spent three weeks in the UK charts, making it to number 12. It was released on October 12th 2010. It was co-written by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.
The Orb are a fascinating band. They have always been ahead of the curve in terms of implementing new technology in their recordings and have been consistently interesting in editing together sounds from completely different sources. For instance they have created songs in which an acid house bass line functions seamlessly next to manic sermons on Revelations. They can even beautifully piece together a random Rickie Lee Jones interview with an excerpt of a modern classical piece by Steve Reich as they have done on “Little Fluffy Clouds”. Anything is fair game. There are no limits to their sound and the broad scope of possibility evident in their music is completely riveting. Their live performances are absolutely worth seeing as well. Sure you might hear complaints about lack of “live instrumentation”, but those who assert this seem to miss the point of the Orb. Most of the sound sources from the band’s live performance are prerecorded. But these sounds are manipulated, contorted, wetted with effects pedals into material completely original and unheard.
In a sense their instruments are their computers, samplers, and effect interfaces. They are just as apt to generate equally thrilling sounds out of these sources as they are with the standard setup of guitars, bass and drums. Anyways the point of going to hear a live show is about the whole experience and this experience is unforgettable. The crowd is floored by the performance and often engages in trance dancing and other means of self expression. The light show is subliminal, but corresponds nicely to the music. Also the Orb always bring interesting videos to back their music. It is one thing to hear the Orb on a computer with headphones, but quite another to hear them blasting up their music at a club with hundreds even thousands of erratic fans.
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