The Student Playlist

Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics

REVIEW: The Orb – ‘Moonbuilding 2703 AD’ (Kompakt)

Front cover of 'Moonbuilding 2703 AD'

Front cover of ‘Moonbuilding 2703 AD’

by Ed Biggs

Those of you with very sharp musical memories might recall the early ‘90s heyday of The Orb, a cult favourite for those ravers whose favourite part of the night was the 5am chillout room. A dub-influenced ambient duo now currently in its sixth incarnation – German electronic composer Thomas Fehlmann has been working with the ever-present Orb founder Alex Paterson since the late ‘00s – they enjoyed a UK Number One album in 1992 (U.F. Orb), and used to do things like play chess in space suits during their performances on ‘Top Of The Pops’ and release 40 minute-long singles. After a six year gap since their last album of original material, Paterson and Fehlmann return with the group’s 13th album, and reviews thusfar indicate a splendid return to their glory days after nearly 15 years of divisive releases that have split hardcore fans down the middle.

As ever, Moonbuilding 2703 AD sees Paterson use The Orb to further his life-long interest in science fiction, alien life and space travel, set to lengthy backdrops of their pulsating, maximalist take on ambient music, sculpted from grainy sample loops, warm synthetics and low-key, languid rhythms of slowed-down techno. Consisting of four tracks of between 9 and 15 minutes in length, the titles thread together themes of past, future and immense distances through space and time, reminiscent of 1991’s epic debut masterpiece The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld. The first track, ‘God’s Mirrorball’, takes you straight back to The Orb’s original MO. It’s all about the build, forgoing instant gratification and anything even remotely resembling a ‘drop’ for subtle shifts in the terrain over a quarter of an hour. You simply close your eyes and let your imagination do the work and take you on a journey. In its last third, it eventually locks into a neat machine-like groove, with giant blobs of bass looming out from the mix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2YLN8ol4rI

‘Moon Scapes 2703 BC’ is much more indebted to dub, beginning with little more than cavernous bass and a singular, shuddering beat and gradually adding more layers as it mutates into a gentle rave-up. Unlike a lot of The Orb’s more recent work, this adds some heft as the album progresses. The sample-happy ‘Lunar Caves’ sounds like a bank of computers talking to itself, and is the most idiosyncratically Orb-like moment here. The closing title track sees a rather startling divergence from The Orb’s usual oeuvre, built from a booming, shuffling rhythm that resembles nothing so much as the sparse, strident hip-hop beats of J Dilla. It’s a strange contrast upon which to end the album, but not a bad one. Paterson’s music, imbued with a very slight sense of humour, has always been at its most effective when it takes you in unexpected directions, just like their epic debut. Indeed, Moonbuilding 2703 AD is the best thing they’ve released since that career peak, and is a very welcome reminder that The Orb is one of the most underappreciated acts of the last 25 years. (8/10)

Listen to Moonbuilding 2703 AD here!

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