The Orb - The Dream

[abasio]

The Orb

The Dream

Traffic Inc.

2007

 

Tracklist

 

1 The Dream (The Future Academy Of Noise, Rhythm And Gardening Mix) (6:25)

2 Vuja De (5:45)

3 Something Supernatural (0:36)

4 A Beautiful Day (6:48)

5 DDD (Dirty Disco Dub) (5:03)

6 The Truth Is... (6:43)

7 Phantom Of Ukraine (0:30)

8 Mother Nature (6:30)

9 Lost & Found (6:19)

10 The Forest Of Lyonesse (1:09)

11 Katskills (5:55)

12 High Noon (6:03)

13 Sleeping Tiger & The Gods Unknown (1:09)

14 Codes (8:13)

15 Orbisonia (5:47)

16 Let The Music Set You Free (7:01)

 

The Orb's latest release has been out for some time in Japan but I still see no release anywhere else. This is definitely one for fans of Alex Paterson. Fusing ambient dub, reggae, ragga & psychedelica in with nice basslines and some cool melodies. Interspersed with Orb style samples.

 

 

The opening track The Dream (The Future Academy Of Noise, Rhythm And Gardening Mix) has a very Orb like spoken female vocal reminiscent of Little Fluffy Clouds & Apple Tree in My Backyard. The rest though is a very tight little psychedelic dub number, the ambience floats your mind while the vocals my it trip away.

 

Vuja De meanwhile is not so dreamy, much more urban in style. Closer to pure dub but with some trippy little sounds & a female singing like it's 1990 again. Think early 90's rave infused into modern dub.

 

The short track Something Supernatural is just a collection of samples put together. Quite a trippy especially the Ohayo Gozaimus backwards one.

 

Following that comes my favourite on the album, A Beautiful Day has a tight little beat, bassline that hums through the track and some really nice singing. I'm not usually a fan of lyrics or samples but both here are very well done. It's hard not to smile at this one

 

DDD (Dirty Disco Dub) borders on damn right cheesy. The lyrics Honey Honey Honey Hooooney Honey! & come on y'all, lets go we're going down to the disco are almost unbearable in their cheesiness and it seems an odd inclusion to an otherwise good album.

 

Much more musical is The Truth Is... which has well placed samples laid subtly, melody & capable female singing. The melody comes from all different sources, guitar, piano what sounds like a harpsichord while the bassline gives it all a nice danceable quality.

 

Phantom of the Ukraine is just a sample without a song. I guess they really liked it but couldn't fit it into any tracks

 

Mother Nature is a Ragga track & as that it's quite good. Imagine that hot chick shaking her ass at super human speed as you stand behind it mesmerised. The melody played in it is actually really good. Majestic at times and better than the track around it.

 

Back to dub with Lost & Found and it's a nice track reminding me of dub clubs in London on a sunday night in summer. The girls swarming around, everyone talking & laughing with each other. The singing in the last couple of minutes is really good & gives this a special atmosphere of detachment from the world.

 

The Forest of Lyonesse is a short interlude again. A thin flute melody makes it sound very much like in a forest in some 1970's martial arts movie.

 

There is more eastern sounding flute in Katskills. The bassline is a fat one the vocals come flying at you & the beats are like relaxed D&B. A pretty cool track but very shallow. No depth, no layers.

 

High Noon digs a little deeper with a lot of psychedelic sounds flying about & a subdued bassline buzzing in the back of my mind. The piano melody is soft & dreamy and the vocals flutter nicely adding extra trippiness to the track. The track evolves very nicely with good progression keeping it interesting on repeat listens

 

Another interlude, Sleeping Tiger & The Gods Unknown is more musical than earlier interludes. A soft ambient track with a beautiful warm feeling to it. Why oh why only make this 1 minute long? The sort of stuff I'd love to hear a full album of.

 

Codes seems to follow on for a while with a nice ambient intro. Then soft beats & a softer bassline come in creating a nice magical feel. I imagine a warm summer evening just on the edge of a forest, watching the sun sink behind the trees. Such is the feeling of the music that I'm actually feeling warmer just listening to it. Really great stuff. A very psychedelic piece of ambient dub just right for chillin' in the evenin'

 

Orbisonia is ambient in the old orb style. Sample heavy making it sound random in a well organised way. Bizarre & cool stuff as always.

 

Let The Music Set You Free is a bonus track only for the Japanese release so if you want it you'll have to get the import. Seeing as the release date elsewhere seems to be nowhere in sight that might be a good idea. It's a good track as well. So damn British. It puts me in mind the early 90's. The beats, bass & repetitive lyrics all give me a nostalgic feeling. Very cool indeed with nice melody under the bass and punchy, crunchy synths

 

 

There is some good stuff here. As a dub album it's really good & the best I've heard from the orb in a while. There are hints in a few tracks that they could make a new fantastic ambient album which would please me no end. The dub/reggae tracks are cool. The singing is good & the samples as always are well placed. Only does DDD (Dirty Disco Dub) let the show down & it does in a very big way. Way too cheesy and needs to be skipped when I listen to it. Other than that though this is one of the tastiest dub albums I've heard over the last few years & the ambient tracks towards the end are superb.

[Towelie]

Its good album .. at first i hated it and thought its worse than tricycles and bicylcles (i love cydonia tho) but then it started to open .. theres few terrible tracks and some sensless recycling like one track has the vocal sample from 'blue room' and the track 'lost and found' has the bassline from youth remix of 'entheogenic - without thought' wtf? .. but still its good album

[abasio]

Now out at Saiko Sounds]

[Caffein:me]

Oh thank gawd!! i wanted to hear those samples so bad! i've been looking for Psychedelic with reggae influences for a while!

 

Thanks a ton abasio!!!

 

Well you can hear some samples here

[Snapinho]

Its good album .. at first i hated it and thought its worse than tricycles and bicylcles (i love cydonia tho) but then it started to open .. theres few terrible tracks and some sensless recycling like one track has the vocal sample from 'blue room' and the track 'lost and found' has the bassline from youth remix of 'entheogenic - without thought' wtf? .. but still its good album

I agree. The Orb haven't moved forwards, but instead it feels like they moved backwards... this album could've been made somewhere in the nineties and isn't that much worse for it either. Which is kind of a suprise, even to myself, because in most cases I would have hated it.

 

Favorite tracks right now are actually the most poppy ones... never could've imagined that! Vuja De, A Beautiful Day and Mother Nature all have similar vocals (same singer?) but I still like them. High Noon is a good dubby oldschool Orb track, and Orbisonia is nice and spun out, reminiscent of U.F.Orb. Dirty Disco Dub I don't dig at all.

 

And yes, that sample from The Truth Is... is the same on as on Blue Room. Track is still quite ok, I think.

 

Anyway, there might be a few too many vocals in this album, and a little bit overusage of the same old samples, but I still dig this. It's nice and positive, and although not too in-depth, I feel it's quite an okay effort. It won't end up as one of my favorite Orb albums, but won't end up in my worst pile either.

[skyclan]

VERY ORBILICIOUS ALBUM!!!STILL ON MY HEAVY AMBIENT ROTATION