S.o.t.D. - Ghostdancing – The Orb

Ghostdancing – The Orb

No Orb for 3 whole years?!

Always liked the slow, aching feel of this.

S.o.t.D. - Valley/Plateau - The Orb

Valley – The Orb

Plateau – The Orb

I have to put these two songs together, since they follow one another, and I don’t think I’ve ever listened to just the one. Off of what I think is possibly the best Orb release, Orbus Terrarum.

I got this the day after my 28th birthday, because I received a gift certificate for HMV. Beautiful, sunny day, so I wandered uptown, got this, popped it into my Discman, and spent a few hours wandering around in a warm and fuzzy haze, totally mesmerized by these tracks.

S.o.t.D. - Dolly Unit - The Orb

Dolly Unit - The Orb

Seems like a bit of a return to The Orb greatness of old.

S.o.t.D. – Rhythm of Time (Victor the Cleaner RMX) – Front 242

Rhythm of Time (Victor the Cleaner Remix by The Orb) – Front 242

Right from the first instance I heard Front 242 back in 1983, I became a huge fan. Still am. Loved the sound, loved the look. Incredible live show. Really liked how they wrapped everything up into a very cohesive package. Trendsetting sound, energetic concerts and the visual onslaught that went with it, the ambiguous para-military look, the graphics for the packaging and the paraphernalia. 

I think the Tyranny For You era was possibly when they were at their peak. And I think the best track off that album was Rhythm of Time. Then they let the mighty Orb loose on a few tracks. It could only get better from there.

S.o.t.D. – Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb

Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb

Absolutely classic tune, one of my all time favourites. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that this track had a huge impact on my life. I heard it in a club in Detroit and it blew my mind, but didn’t know what it was. Asked in some record stores, nobody knew what I was talking about. A few months later I was at my friend Zoë’s house on a friday night where a few of us were sittting around talking, a video show on in the background. A video for this song came on. I was elated. Now I knew what it was. Rushed out the next morning and hit every record store until I found the CD, The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. It was as mind blowing as the single. Ambienty/dubby/techno-y - just a mind boggling array of styles. It, along with Pacific by 808 State were what totally turned me on to the emerging techno scene. Then I heard Orbital, and Black Dog and several others and it just grew and grew from there.

The sample comes from a conversation between Rickie Lee Jones and Levar Burton on the children’s television program Reading Rainbow.

Burton: “What were the skies like when you were young?”

Jones: “They went on forever – They - When I w- We lived in Arizona, and the skies always had little fluffy clouds in ’em, and, uh... they were long... and clear and... there were lots of stars at night. And, uh, when it would rain, it would all turn - it- They were beautiful, the most beautiful skies as a matter of fact. Um, the sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire, and the clouds would catch the colors everywhere. That’s uh, neat cause I used to look at them all the time, when I was little. You don’t see that. You might still see them in the desert.”