From KEYBOARD's column "In Review" by Robert L. Doerschuk:

     The Orb, u.f.orb, (Big Life, dist. by Mercury).

     Despite the industries addiction to accessible forms, the
"concept album" concept lives on.  In fact, when tackled by Alex
Paterson and Thrash, who together form the Orb, such shopworn
elements as snare backbeats and four-beat bass drum hits
effectively mark departure and arrival points on aural journeys
that psychedelic star-trippers would appreciate.  "Towers of
Dub," for instance, juxtaposes hobo blues harmonica and cheery
dog yawps (the latter sampled from Woody Allen's Sleeper) over
a relaxed and insistent Jamaican groove; as reverb on the drum
deepens, and ray gun zaps start shooting, and the barking pooch
transforms into a kind of interstellar Cujo flaming into our
atmosphere, the listener is transported into territory left
largely unexplored since Paul Kantner grounded his Starship. 
Similar hallucinations are induced or approximated on the album's
other tracks, all of them long, from 10 to 17 minutes, except for
the 49-second finale, "Sticky End," in which a sample of an
elephant defecating, set against something resembling a stomach
rumble or Drano burbling through a stopped pipe, makes a
mercifully brief statement.  With their heads in the skies and
their feet somewhere near the Bronx Zoo, Paterson and Thrash scan
a vast horizon.  Their humor, and their ability to sustain and
evolve moods over long periods through unorthodox sampling and
arranging, allow us to share the view.


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