Electronic Sound Issue 63 2020

It’s been a long ride with the ever-pulsating brain at the centre of the Ultraworld we know as The Orb. Alex Paterson has steered his cosmic vehicle through several decades of sound, so much so that their ineffable mix of influences has become a genre unto itself.

Well versed in the atmospheres and moods evoked by the ambient music created by Brian Eno, Patterson shaped that calming music into a framework of Jamaican dub, a downtempo mutation of acid house and whatever else was passing at the time. The result was ideal for the post-club experience, music that filled the room, but didn’t require any athletics from its energy depleted listeners. They could drift away as The Orb’s reassuring soundscapes swaddled them in cosy pillows and little fluffy clouds. They called it chill out.

This all came at a time when sampling itself was some kind of anarchic wild west. The snippets of tunes and voices that floated across The Orb’s musical vistas – Monty Python, Ricki Lee Jones, Steve Reich, Morricone, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and many, many more, made for a listening experience by turns reassuring, funny, and slightly unsettling. With the release of the 17th Orb album, ‘Abolition Of The Royal Familia’, it seems about time to join Dr Alex in the Orbservatory and explore the stars.

Elsewhere, our new-look Front section will ease you into the whole experience, and our action-packed review section provides the perfect comedown. In the middle of all that, we visit the new Tangerine Dream exhibition in London, chat with Norwich’s Sink Ya Teeth, have a coffee in Edinburgh with The Pictish Trail, hear all about yé-yé noir outfit Juniore from Paris, and mark the reappearance of the excellent Fila Brazillia after quite an absence.

We won’t keep you, lots to read, lots to listen to.

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