Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Genre: Indie, Electronica, 8-Bit, Chip-Hop, Dub
Tracklist
1. The Bass Has Left The Building
2. 21st Century Planet Smashas
3. Berzerk Dub
4. Echobombing
5. Bruce Lee
6. SEGA Beats
7. Hail The Robots
8. It’s More Fun To Dubpute
9. Wir Rufen Die Venus
10. Impossible Mission III
11. Bit Defender
12. Love On
‘The Bass Has Left The Building’ is the long-awaited sequel to Disrupt’s debut album ‘Foundation Bit’ which appeared on the wonderful Werk Discs in 2007 and quickly became one of the classic works of modern bass culture. On this new epic voyage Disrupt pushes the genre boundaries of 8Bit-ChipHop, roots dub and old-school gaming soundtracks into one big swirling black hole of low end mayhem.
Raw, ultra-shuffling drum machine action and re-wired skanks create the gateway for a mind bending reference network of retro-SciFi movies, arcade classics and dub soundscapes in infinite loop mode. All riding on a non-stop wave of subsonic bass blasts to ensure an intense outah space blip-trip for all the 21st Century Planet Smashas out there.
The CD comes dressed in awesome bass-artwork by ex-JAMMS & KLF don Jimmy Cauty, while the limited vinyl version will have a different jacket, plus full-width fold-out poster of Cauty’s ‘Bass City Landscape’ image from the CD cover. Precision cut at Berlin’s legendary Dubplates & Mastering for ultimate low-end devastation.
The17 is a choir. Anyone can join, regardless of skills or experience. The compositions it performs don’t use any traditional form of notation; instead, its scores are written down as a set of instructions anyone can follow (and anyone can write). Usually there are 17 members. When they perform, they do so only for themselves and not for the benefit of any audience.
However, the sharp eyed among you will have noticed by now that the photograph on the left is of a book, not a company of singers. And this is true. A music review this may be, but it is one examining a choir that has no fixed line-up, makes no permanent recordings, and that I’ve never actually heard. Therefore, 17, a book by Bill Drummond about the origins and development of the choir, plus my imagination, will have to act as stand-ins for now.
The founding principle of The17 is the idea that all recorded music is dead, destroyed by the ease and carelessness with which we now access and consume it. The17 is an attempt to wipe the slate clean and return to a musical Year Zero; Pol Pot wins a prominent mention among the many people Drummond credits as influences. It is his attempt to reimagine music as if no music has gone before.
As for Drummond himself, he is probably best known as one half of The KLF, acid-house anarchists who became the world’s biggest-selling singles act in 1991 with hits such as “Last Train to Trancentral” and “3am Eternal.” Drummond’s involvement in the music industry began much earlier than this though, as a member of Seventies punk act Big in Japan. He later started his own label, became manager of Echo & The Bunnymen, and even ended up as a major label A&R man for a spell in the early eighties.
However, his involvement in the music business had been fairly minimal after The KLF retired from the industry in a riot of machine-gun fire and dead sheep in 1992. Drummond has since become known principally as an author and provocative artist, achieving notoriety in 1995 when he and KLF collaborator Jimmy Cauty burned a million pounds of their own money for a video piece titled “The K Foundation Burn a Million Quid.” Regardless of whether you like his work or not, he is rarely dull.
In common with most of Drummond’s previous books, 17 is mainly auto-biographical, serving both as a diary covering two years of him organizing friends, skeptical schoolkids, and random members of the public into new versions of The17, and as a memoir of the events in Drummond’s eventful life that led to the choir’s formation. It is also an in-your-face musical manifesto, by turns romantic, angry, exciting, provocative, and even a little dull in places (when Drummond’s obsessions get the better of his self-restraint). But most of all, the book is a manual. It is a guide not just to forming your own version of The17, but also to the creative process, detailing Drummond’s successes, failures, doubts, and triumphs as he pursues his art and ideas.
And Drummond rarely finds it easy. After all, there is an inherent problem in trying to perform music as if no music exists: it’s impossible. It’s like trying to uninvent the atomic bomb or pretend the world is flat. But both Drummond and The17 wear this contradiction on their sleeves, and carry on regardless.
When Drummond isn’t being his own fiercest critic (something that provides a healthy balance to both his polemics and rock-star myth making), there is an army of other characters in the book doing the questioning for him. These range from friends who dismiss the whole idea out of hand, to interviewers who point out the artists and composers who have done similar projects in the past (often decades ago). He even quotes schoolchildren who he has recruited to become members of the The17 when they tell him that his ideas are boring and that they do similar improvised performances “all the time” in drama class.
But Drummond records their criticisms, adjusts accordingly (or not), and moves on regardless. And this is where both the book and the choir work best: Not just as a comment on the state of modern music, but as a reminder that given a bit of guts and chutzpah, anyone can create.
Resources
The original cover of A Bible of Dreams |
What is Mark Manning and Bill Drummond’s book ‘A Bible of Dreams’ like? Stuart Young has been trying to piece it together. |
| A Bible of Dreams is an book of images by Mark Manning (Zodiac Mindwarp), largely photomontages, with a biographical introduction and plate-by-plate commentary by Bill Drummond. The authors describe it as “a visual poem composed by MS Manning”, with Drummond giving “a personal interpretation of the poem”. |
| The colour plates are reproductions of a picture collage pieced together by Manning in a scrapbook as an attempt “to keep sane” during a 1992 Scandanavian Mindwarp tour, and sent to Drummond shortly after tour ended. Drummond found himself repeatedly drawn to its contents, each perusal revealing more, “like a collection of good verse”. Manning was horrified when he suggested publishing it.The book is published by The Curfew Press, the two men’s publishing company based in The Curfew Tower, once used to house 18th-century dissenters, in Cushendall on Northern Ireland’s Antrim coast.
It’s available only in a limited edtion of 200 numbered copies, signed by Drummond and Manning, costing £500. It is bound in blue Nigerian goatskin, each page hand-printed and stitched into a calf-leather spine, and comes in a blue moire silk slipcase.
“The 47 plates include images of ejaculating penises and women having sex with dogs and donkeys. This strange and foreboding tome is described by the publishers as a book of “heavy, forbidden knowledge”, the illustrations uncovering, amongst other things, links between the rarefied world of classical art and hardcore porn, sex and religion, the battle between the sexes and buggery as a form of international policing(!).”
“Drummond’s text is a sweeping, eye-bulging piece overturning the darkest corners of his soul – fears, desires, prejudices and misogyny all thrown into the churning mix. A Bible Of Dreams is a lavish extension of the authors’ past work – Zodiac’s exploration of the sexual godhead and Drummond’s ability to taunt the cultural zeitgeist – namely the vexed issue of copyright and sex as a staple selling point.”
“Zed’s art in The Curlew Press’ A Bible Of Dreams looks like it’s deliberately fallen. The collected trash of a rock’n'roll degenerate, the collages entangle images from heavy metal, pornography, Nazi Germany and Disney.”
“Drummond’s text suggests they represent an archetypal rock’n'roll headspace: a place where sleaze, ambition, rebellion and religion meet. Zed reckons that just by sampling these images he’s raising them from the base to the divine. And there are points in his commentary where Bill finds a postitivity in porn. Maybe Zed and Drummond are examining cultural inequality. Wondering why some kinds of art are raised over others. Which is no great surprise from two men who work in rock or pop, an area of culture that is often ignored by art critics.”
Drummond and Manning undertook a series of interviews to promote the book, in i-D, Vox and GQ magazines. From these interviews, and the promotional leaflet that Curfew sent out, I have pieced together as much as possible of the images and commentary. Interestingly in one interview Zed let slip that “The text is on the Internet”. Well despite many searches no list member has ever found it. We think that this was an anti-Internet wind-up to deliberately confuse. This page is all that exists on the Internet… |
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Plate 4: Neon Crucifix Light
“Collectors of religious kitsch remind me of art students in the seventies who would always hit orgasm any time they got near one of those Roman Catholic shops that sold all that stuff. Amusing, but not for me. I loathe the celebration of religious kitsch.”I think that one of the things that must have struck Manning when he was in India was the way the Indians extravagantly expressed their Christianity. (St Thomas the Apostle reached Southern India in the first century and since then many millions of Indians have been practicing a lurid form of Eastern Orthodoxy)
“The three words together – ‘Neon’, ‘Crucifix’, and ‘Light’ – make a concise poem, each of the words hangs heavy with meaning. It’s great how the word ‘Neon’ is loaded with nostalgia for an earlier part of the 20th century when it stood for all that was modern, fast and down-town. But, for me, the most powerful part of the page is the half hidden word at the top – ‘Valid’. There is no point in even asking what precisely is valid, it is more than enough to know that it is.” |
Plate 7: The Power of Religion
“I have written so much about Elvis elsewhere, especially in Lighthouse at the Top of the World, which Manning and I have co-written and will be made public sometime else. I can’t be arsed saying it all again. It is enough to note that Elvis released the power of Dionysus for the young, white Western man after almost two thousand years of organised Christian suppression. But here we have Elvis in early adolescence, his face already heavy with sensuality; Dionysus alreaady fit to bursting across a world-wide stage, Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction peering out from the very heart of The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”The cross in the background – please, don’t make me feel I should be confronting the cross now! Stretched photocopied text making some sense but not to be articulated here. The blood is beginning to creep in noticeably at the bottom of the page.
“To the vast majority of modern men, the phrase ‘the power of religion’ is full of negative connotations regarding the suppression of thought, the starting of wars, and the cultivation of sexual guilt. That is not what Manning is dealing with here – what is going on here is the internal struggle, the power of the dialogue that goes on between oneself and that thing, that mystery, half-hidden deep within that finds form in the art that mankind has produced. It is the real power of religion that is being addressed here. And yes, all those terrible things that have happened in our history, that have been done in the name of religion, find their genesis in that same internal dialogue.
“And, of course, Elvis is part of the power of religion made manifest.” |
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Plate 15: Nice Cops
“To Manning the swastika had one overridding meaning: the Baddies. For him to find it being used in India as one of the myriad symbols used to gaily decorate taxi cabs, trucks, shop awnings and any other availible space they could enliven was a pleasant surprise.” |
| [Swastikas overlaid with images of anal sex and the seal of the US Presidency.] |
Plate 17: Nazi Assholes |
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Plate 25: Daisy
“The baby seal angel lives unclubbed and sends us dancing girls and his benedictions.” |
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Plate 26: Stolen Sweets
“The hanged man sees the world at a different angle from the rest.” |
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Plate 28: Me And My Shadow
“Iron Mike, cheered on by the posse of Spike, Jerry and all us lads.” |
| [James Bond, pop icon Madonna and a woman being fucked by a big, black dog, all together in a gold frame.] |
Plate 30: Myth |
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Plate 39: Enlightenment
“I don’t know if he had played the game himself or had just found the completed card in some Scandanavian gutter.” |
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Plate 41: Men
“Dialing an 0898 number costs the caller nine times the regular peak rate… the only person getting £500 a day is the bloke who put the ad in the paper.” |
| [tears falling down Dumbo's face next to the spunk-spattered features of a porn-girl.] or [a happy-go-lucky Dumbo flies above crucifixes dripping blood and women's faces splattered with cum.] |
Plate ?: Cathy Come Home |
Other quotes from the text
Drummond writes of porn in one section: “It celebrates, explores and expresses some of the most natural urges of life. It openly reflects, maybe, the only reason why we are on this earth: to fuck, spunk up and get in the family way.”"This book corrupts and depraves. Men are dangerous and this book makes them more dangerous. Taking pornography out of its brown paper wrapper and sticking it in a stylishly bound, expensive book that purports to be artistic expression does not make it any less dangerous… ”
Zed’s images provoke Drummond to discuss art in the context of progressive rock, pornography and fascism. “Fuck Picasso!” he writes, “Hitler was the greatest artist of the 20th Century. His Third Reich the ultimate artistic expression. But that doesn’t excuse it.” |
having been around now for quite a while the killing joke affiliated label, malicious damage label have decided to release a 2 cd showcase of the labels spread of punk, dub, reggae, ambient techno dub, leftfield pop, jam sessions by underground supergroups (the beautifully named vertical smile), and everything else in between, in a beautifully packaged release.
as the 2 cd set has been blended and put together by label associate, dr. alex paterson aka the orb (of whom drops in a great slab of dub of course) then it should come as no surprise that the best sections are where he digs into the labels reggae side, but even i cant deny a certain thrill in the bloodstream when the vibe is a little more intense via the addition of a couple of killing joke additions to the flow, though the sidetrack early on in cd 1 into the punk part of the catalogue doesn’t really gel too well, even if bloodsport is an in-joke, the results could never be described as essential.
thankfully, once the dub effects are switched on, and the woofers rattling, the compilation really takes off in a laid back, random festival sunday afternoon mood.
after all, you can never have too many trombone solos over a slab of gorgeous ambient reggae (japanese cars, by transit kings)
all of which means, that for anyone wanting to find out more about the label that revived the ever wonderful shriekback ( of whom 2 tracks are featured – both brilliantly mad and weird), while providing an outlet for a all manner of underground sounds, then this budget priced sampler, is a perfect jump off point.
set your alarms, and dive in.
side tick [cd1]
killing joke: turn to red
transmission: glade
bloodsport: bodies [feat. alex paterson on vocals + special friends]
headcount: control
killing joke: are you receiving
the orb: ba’albek
vertical smile: explode
analogue mindfield: guernica dub [subsonar mix]
beatundercontrol: electroshocker dub
transit kings: japanese cars [burning do’nuts mix]
teledubgnosis: the resurrection machine
analogue mindfield: cosmic dancehall [maya jane coles mix]
canola tenderfoot: first come first served
bob meyer: escondedo
transit kings: the last lighthouse keeper
belka & strelka: tico
running time: 1h 10m 52s
side tock [cd2]
caned & able: soul clapp
analogue mindfield: be careful out there
necessary intergalactic cooperation: driftin’
shriekback: bittersweet
the sun paulo: who i am
transmission: albion
smartyr: dark mother dub
belka & strelka: i’ll be your anything [dub mix]
rootmasters: janis joplin’s mum
the orb: sail
high frequency bandwidth: high five brother [malicious monitor]
nina walsh: bright lights & filthy nights
belka & strelka: eternalunlimitedfree
shriekback: waterbaby
caned & able: orchestra
beatundercontrol: departure
running time: 1h 10m 46s
more detail : here
Artist: VV.AA.
Title: The Clock Machine Turns You On Vol.2
Format: 2CD (double CD)
Label: Malicious Damage Records [ info {at} maliciousdamage {dot} co {dot} uk ]
Here we are with a new Malicious Damage releases. This time we have a double CD compilation which is the second volume of THE CLOCK MACHINE TURNS YOU ON series. Each CD contains 16 tracks mixed by Alex Parterson/The Orb. He got involved with the label and Killing Joke since the early years as he started as a roadie for KJ and then during the years the label released his collaborations under the name of Transit Kings, Rootmasters and High Frequency Bandwidth as well releasing the Orb stuff. For the first CD Alex followed a scheme that started with punk (”Turn to red” and “Are you receiving” from the first Killing Joke single, a Sex Pistols cover of “Bodies” he recorded with his band Bloodsport back in 1979 and never released and a track from Headcount) mixing it with the post punk ambient of Transmission then with the Orb track “Ba’albek” he started to switch to dub (but first passing from Vertical Smile’s “Explode”, an energetic mix of electronic and punk with a bass sequencer a la D.A.F.) with Analogue Mindfield, Beatundercontrol, Transit Kings, Teledubgnosis then ambient and acoustic guitar tracks (Canola Tenderfoot, Bob Meyer) then a cinematic Transit King track (”The last lighthouse keeper” contains samples of a documentary or a film that tells the story of a lighthouse keeper who spends everything to go back to the place he born and to die there keeping his family tradition alive). The second CD starts with the Caned & Able hip hop just to turn on the reggae machine with Analogue Mindfield and ambient dub/rock with Necessary Intergalactic Cooperation. Shriekback with “Bittersweet” are here with a nice ballad based on vocals, synth pad, piano and light drum sounds. With The Sun Paulo we have a mix of rock, ambient, house. Transmission are here with “Albion”, a track from their newest release I reviewed a week ago. After that we have a range of dub, rock, ambient and ethnic sounds with Smartyr, Belka & Strelka and Rootmasters. Then The Orb presents a pop electronic ambient song with female vocals titled “Sail”. Funk soul is in with High Frequency Bandwidth then we have acoustic pop with Nina Walsh. The CD ends with a mix of dub, soul, pop with Belka & Strelka, Shriekback, Caned & Able. Beatundercontrol closes the compilation with a nice melancholic orchestral instrumental titled “Departure”. This is a good catalog of what the label has to offer but if you, like me, don’t like that much dub, rock and pop you might end liking half of the offer.
Title:The Clock Machine Turns You On – Volume 2
Artist:Various
Release: Autumn 2008
Label: Malicious Damage Records
Web: www.maliciousdamage.co.uk
Some things are too huge to describe in words! The Clock Machine Turns You On – Volume 2 is one of these special things. On this absolute stunning double album with thirty-two tracks selected and mixed by The Orb’s Dr Alex Patersonare you are invited to a journey into sound. A special and bewitching sound because we are talking about the sound of the legendary Malicious Damage label that was founded thirty years ago to release the music of the underground. So be warned and invited all you “electronic purists” on this special compilation you’ll find the sound of the Eighties underground that later on ruled the world and its metamorphosis to the electronic raveolution. A rich album that brings together material of Killing Joke, Bloodsport, Analogoue Mindfield, Caned&Able and the Transit Kings… just to name a few.
And even if you hated music with drums and guitars until now lend this breathtaking double-album your ear, I swear you won’t be disappointed. This is more than a back-catalogue or history lesson this is deepness and honesty. You can feel the same energy you might have felt if you listened to the first release of this very very special label thirty years ago. Some thing never loose their magic and won’t get old even when the clock says Tick- Tock every second.
A must have – perfect ten!
Tick – tick – tick – tick – BOOM!
Malicious Damage’s output is nothing if not inventive. By eschewing a simple consecutive retrospective in favour of two CDs, mixed by Alex Paterson and Dom Beken, the record re-presents the attitude and feeling behind the label.
Disc One (billed as “Side Tick”) all kicks off with Killing Joke’s early-doors single, Turn To Red, before smashing through Paterson’s vocals on the aggressive-but-pointless run-through of his group Bloodsport’s version of the Pistols track Bodies, before heading into space with The Orb, Teledubghosts and more. That one CD can flit between fizzing punk, hallucinogen-rock and dubby soundscapes says much about the imprint, if not the minds of those behind it. Disc Two (“Side Tock”), brings more of the same, with the likes of Japanese mentalists The Sun Paulo’s insistent electrofuzz crackling into epic post-punk courtesy of Transmission (aka Youth & Simon Tong), and that mixed in skilfully to Smartyr’s Dark Mother Dub. As a mix, it’s insistent, occasionally in-yer-face, smooth when it needs to be and, above all, danceable. Just like the label, really.
After The Orb burst into the electronic music scene in the early 1990s with their sample-laden, laid back ambient and dance tracks such as “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld” and the classic “Little Fluffy Clouds”, they were heralded as innovators. Dr. Alex Patterson, the one and only constant in the band, was largely credited with helping invent chill out and ambient music.
After receiving critical and commercial success throughout much of the 90s, fickle professional critics who had lauded their earlier work began to label them irrelevant. The critical backlash was most evident on their 2001 release Cydonia, which saw Patterson and Thomas Fehlmann, the band’s two official members at the time, stray into somewhat unfamiliar territory with their first use of live vocals. Some felt this strayed too far from The Orb’s successful formula, while others felt it simply sounded too much like pop music. Still others complained that the band were stuck in a rut, rehashing similar music with subtle tweaks that lacked any real depth.
Herein lies the problem with being labeled an innovator. Should you attempt something new, critics will complain that it’s too different, but if you only stick with a proven formula critics will cite a lack of creativity. Despite the lumps and lashes it took, I found Cydonia to be a masterpiece – one of my favorite albums of 2001 – for the way it fused The Orb’s sample-heavy ambient sound with more traditional song structures. I found it an intoxicating mix of the new and the old and it still ranks as my personal favorite Orb record.
After several side projects and two more albums, 2004’s Bicycles & Tricycles and 2005’s Okie Dokie It’s The Orb On Kompakt, The Orb had begun to move into a more minimalist direction. This was largely due to Fehlmann’s influence, and fans and critics alike began to tire of the slow, plodding, hit and miss nature of the tracks.
The Dream (which had been released in Japan in 2007, then worldwide the following year) sees the departure of Fehlmann, and Patterson reuniting with Martin “Youth” Glover, a critical component in The Orb’s early success. The album is a rather welcome return to The Orb’s trippy sound. Though it still falls short of the benchmark set by Cydonia or earlier works such as Orblivion, it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
The Dream actually has a lot in common with Cydonia, though it also falls victim to some of the same pitfalls that album did. There are loads of samples, strange sound effects, but most tracks follow a much more traditional song structure, veering away from the sometimes overly long ambient pieces of the band’s past.
The major criticism however is also Cydonia’s biggest sticking point for many fans and critics alike – the use of live vocals. Though they are tolerable, and certainly nowhere near as intrusive as the atrocious sampling on Moby’s 2008 release Last Night, it is mostly true that this time around the vocals don’t fit as well. They’re not completely awful, but they aren’t completely necessary either. The early success of “Vuja De”, a rare venture in dance which features an unforgettable chorus and an upbeat vibe, isn’t sustained throughout the album and often times you’ll be left feeling that many of the songs may have been better off strictly as instrumentals.
The album covers a large spectrum of sounds. Early on it’s very R&B, reggae, and disco heavy, but eventually moves towards more familiar ambient territory towards the end. “A Beautiful Day” features a soulful chorus. “DDD (Dirty Disco Dub)” borrows the hook from the classic O’Jays track “For The Love Of Money” and puts a reggae spin on it, and the slow, melodic groove “The Truth Is…” features a rerecorded version of the vocal sample found on the band’s own seminal track “Blue Room” (often incorrectly referred to as the same sample, despite the fact that it is clearly rerecorded by the vocalists), as well as a similar tempo and tone.
The use of reggae style vocals has always been a factor in The Orb’s trippy sound (see: “Perpetual Dawn”), and The Dream is no different. “DDD”, “Mother Nature”, and “Lost & Found” all feature prominent use of reggae vocals and beats, particularly the last track which has the most laid back rasta vibe the band has ever attempted. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear bits of Keifer Sutherland’s much-maligned opening narration from the film Dark City used as a sample. Surprisingly, all these tracks are rather good, in spite of my usual dislike of the genre.
The Orb haven’t abandoned their ambient roots either. While the short pieces that bridge the gap between songs are rather forgettable, the standout “Katskills” is vintage Orb. With muted drums, rolling flutes, a heavy dose of samples, and a trippy guitar riff, this track would have fit right in on their classic Orblivion. Hot on its heels is “High Noon”, a moody piece of ambient that ranks amongst the most melodic works the band has ever put out.
The album’s final two tracks, “Codes” and “Orbisonia” are excursions straight into the depths of ambient music, but Patterson shows he is still capable of walking that fine line between boring and interesting. It’s true that the nature of ambient music is often dull and dreary, but whatever the secret to making good genre tracks is, the good Dr. Patterson still remembers it. There’s something about The Orb’s brand of ambient that has always struck me as more layered and more engrossing, enveloping the listener in its sound and transporting them to a space-age garden. Too cliché? Perhaps, but The Orb know how to create an atmosphere better than anyone. It’s also worth pointing out that “Orbisonia” uses the same sample as Hooverphonic’s “Inhaler”, the opening track on their debut A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular (named for a piece of the sample, in fact).
The biggest failing of the album is its inconsistency. While it’s hard to pinpoint any truly awful tracks, the disharmonious musical styles don’t always mesh well. The vibrant bassline of “DDD” segues into the much slower “The Truth Is…” for instance, and one can’t help but think that perhaps a shifting of the track order might have benefitted the album. Even the occasional segues don’t do much to offset the sometimes drastic changes in tone and texture between one song and the next.
Even with its flaws, it’s hard not to recommend The Dream, especially to disenfranchised Orb fans hoping the band would one day return to their former glory. Though they may never achieve the widespread critical acclaim they did upon their arrival in the underground electronic scene, The Dream is a marked improvement over the last few records, as well as a welcome surprise.
“The KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front oder auch Kings of Low Frequency) war eine einflussreiche britische Musikgruppe in den späten 1980ern und frühen 1990ern. Die Bandbreite ihrer Musik reichte von Ambient bis zu House, wobei die Gruppe eine gewisse Dreistigkeit im Umgang mit Samples bewies. Im englischen Sprachraum hat sich für die von The KLF geprägte Beimischung von Publikumslärm über House-Produktionen der Begriff Stadium House geprägt.
Überhaupt hat The KLF mit diesem Klassiker dem Genre “Chill Out”, das es davor als solches nicht einmal gab, überhaupt den Namen verliehen.” (http://www.buch.de/buch/musik/14091/108_chill_out_us_import.html)
It’s the early 90’s and electronica is slowly developing. Considering the time, most electronic albums would be a sampled orchestra or a desolate wind sound effect. What do you get to open this album? A cockerel’s crow. A chicken opening an electronica record? And the rest of the album? Oh, it’s absolute bliss! It’s a true journey; melodic synth lines, mid-tempo rhythms, bizarre speach samples and an arsenal off BBC and NASA sound effects; in 1991, The Orb created a masterpiece that is as electrifying as it is sedating. The album is, in a sense, split into four parts (on 2 discs). The first three on each disc are groovy, absorbing ambient techno. The last two on each disc are sprawling ambient pieces which take you places you’ve always wanted to go, but had never known existed. Opening with the pulsing ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ features warped, bubbling synth melodies and a stoned-sounding Rickie Lee Jones talking about her childhood. Then ‘Earth (Gaia)’ lowers you down into a faux-mysterious trip with dramatic Bible verses and wonky basses. On both discs however, the highlights every time are the concluding ambient pieces. The beautifully spacey ‘Back Side Of The Moon’ (a thinly veiled Pink Floyd reference) puts you in the position of a sattelite flying out of orbit and drifting through oblivion; then ‘Spanish Castles In Space’ slowly eases in like a perfect dream on a train through the British countryside. The ambient pieces on the second disc begin with ‘Star 6 & 7 8 9? which is like a motorbike ride on a misty country road at 6AM; but it’s the very last track that elevates this album even higher. Long by name and nature, ‘A Hugh Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld’ is a 19 minute slice of pure genius consisting a smooth riff which continues throughout the song while the rest of the mix takes you on a journey on a rough sea while fragments of the 20th Century drifting past you like shipwrecks.
‘The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld’, strangely, has barely dated at all. Its consuming rapturous sound, pulse-soothing beats, glimmering melodies and quirky sense of humour still sound as relevant today as they ever did and it’s rare that I find a record that actually sounds like the musicians had a whale of a time making it. The ambient excursions may out-balance the techno trips, but it all fits marvellously together as a cohesive and brilliant album.
Listen to this: on a long journey at night when you’re not driving.
Key track: A Huge Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld
9/10
**Do not buy the single disc US version, some serious highlights were cut out.
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