The Orb’s story is rooted in the widescreen psychedelic explorations of Pink Floyd as much as the MDMA-fuelled musical adventures of acid house. This is music to get high to, laced with all the effects, from distortion to reverb, that play with the mind and take it on a trip.
There was a time tripping for self-discovery or pure fun were not proscribed. With many drugs recognised today as beneficial, and increasingly used in therapy (as they were in the 1950s),The Orb’s music, although it’s in many ways stuck in a form of retro music that takes you on a voyage into inner space, is now part of a tradition that fuels the joy of each successive generation of party animals. This is the perennial soundtrack of an ever-renewing rave, needed to day perhaps more than ever before. The Orb’s co-founder Alex Paterson loves reggae and dub - see those great collaborations with Lee "Scratch" Perry - and there’s plenty of that lilting feelgood sound here, not least on “Dragon of the Ocean”, while “Living in Recycled Times” is driven by the febrile urgency of drum’n’bass.
“You’ve just gotta be happy!” one of the album’s cheerleaders exhorts on “Tiger”, one of the more lively tracks of a set that is above all else open-hearted and dreamy. The Orb have always introduced random vocal samples – the voices of newscasters and airline stewardesss – all of which are designed to tickle the mind in a way that surprises and draws a smile. Along with squelchy sounds, dub resonance, and swathes of seductive synths, we are taken on a gentle wonderland roller-coaster. “The Beginning of the End” rollicks and bounces along, much in the way of Dreadzone, or productions by Steve Hillage. Music that is guaranteed to lift the heart.
