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Orb Live 93


grahf

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Orb Live 93

Island Records

 

1.1 Plateau

1.2 OOBE

1.3 Little Fluffy Clouds

1.4 Star 6 & 7 8 9

1.5 Towers of Dub

1.6 Blue Room

2.1 Valley

2.2 Perpetual Dawn

2.3 Assassin

2.4 Outlands

2.5 Spanish Castles In Space

2.6 A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain That Rules From the Center of the Ultraworld

 

So, thanks to Seraph we now have reviews of almost all the classic Orb albums, which is great to see. However, there's one very important Orb album for me that he didn't cover: Live 93! This is the Orb at their absolute trippiest: the tracks are deconstructed and lengthened from their album versions, and extra reverbs, percussion, and tons of ridiculous samples are inserted, thanks to LX Paterson's DJing considerable skills. Sound quality is very good, for a live recording. All in all it's a double CD trip through the Orb's best early tracks.

 

 

1. Plateau. This starts off completely differently than the Orbus Terrarum Plateau, but with a similar drifting vibe. Slowly, over the course of the track, familiar elements are teased at the listener and then introduced. Then a sample is repeated: "We don't need no education...no dark sarcasm in the classroom" (little bit o' pink floyd homage there) and the bassline and drums from the original Plateau are introduced. Some occasional drums are sparsely woven into the mix. By the 8:30 mark, the familar drifting synth waves from the original are introduced.

 

2. Now OOBE. Similar to album version, except a minimal 4/4 beat is added under the track. The sample of some guy talking about the "noosphere" is extended, but I still dunno what he's on about. The sound of a cock crowing is introduced, and thoroughly fucked with. Near the end there is a flute introduced - again, distorted and played with for the listener's enjoyment

 

3. Little Fluffy Clouds. OK, this is starts a little ridiculous - we get some televangelist guy talking to a guy with a morphine drip...? It's really weird and random. After that familiar strains of Orb's most famous track come in. A sample tells us, "layering different sounds on top of each other." And then of course Ricky Lee Jones telling us about the sunsets and little fluffy clouds of her childhood. If I'm not mistaken, this bit is taken from Reading Rainbow! The Orb do a very funky, dancey rendition here, complete with speaker-crushing bass. Ricky's voice is chopped up, reverbed, stereo-panned...

 

4. Star 6 & 7 8 9. Starts out with a motorcycle and biplane sound coming in and out. Vroom, vroom. Umm, not much to say, not exactly my favorite Orb track. 6...7...8...9... Kinda floating and relaxing, but not much to write home about.

 

5. now we travel to the Towers of Dub... and the Hailee Sailaisee/Marcus Garvey sample is reverbed almost beyond recognition. The Orb really went over the top on this one: reverbs and overtones and tribal drums and a goofy bouncey dub beat and a dog barking flying all over place. Good way to make you head spin on some chemicals. I can only imagine what this must have sounded like at the actual concert.

 

6. OK, cool down. Have a seat in the Blue Room, we've almost made it through the first cd. Rolling tribal percussion will get you in the mood. Whoops, a car just crashed - oh well. That classic dub bassline (played by Jah Wobble) will get your head nodding. And of course the wha-wha of Steve Hillage's guitar. Another classic track you will surely recognize - but there's a lot more going on here than in the album version.

 

 

 

Track by track is fun for a while - but I think you get the idea! CD2 explores even deeper and more bizarre territory, with some slightly lesser known tracks... check out the very atmospheric Valley with massive reverberating dub bassline, and crazy Outlands with Arabian singing with Martin Luther King speech thrown on top!

 

favorite tracks (if I had to choose): Plateau, Towers of Dub, Valley, Outlands, Huge Evergrowing...

 

rating: timeless (ok fine, 9.9/10)

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never was big fan of 'dr lex.', but 'outland' is stuck in my mind. you've got the koranic chant (the arabic chant, i'm guessing), MLK Jr speech, and the mesmerizing, repetitive melody - very trippy.

 

condolence and god-speed recovery to the peoples of southern asia.

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  • 2 years later...

Very good review. These are different and almost all of them improved versions of already released Orb tracks. All of them are great, plus I have to add that I love the cover of the cd. Let me find it for you guys.

 

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Very good review. These are different and almost all of them improved versions of already released Orb tracks. All of them are great, plus I have to add that I love the cover of the cd. Let me find it for you guys.

 

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Ah yes, Pink Floyd spoof. :clapping:

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