Comes from CMJ New Music Month March 1994

The Orb
Live '93 (Island Red-Label)

Cut the crab dip. You didn't really like (italicized) U.F.Orb
(bold). You just found yourself listening to it over and over
(well hearing it over and over) because critics wrote such
apoplectic, impenetrable praises and everyone else said it was
the hippest thing. Any record, you figured, that listed the
talents of both Steve Hillage and Jah Wobble had to have
something going on. But taking the concepts of ambient, trance
and dub to new extremes, and showing a unique fearlessness in the
face of structure, doesn't make a record listionable. In fact, it
make Cabaret Voltaire sound like Stravinsky.

But before The Orb is dropped into the embrassing hype bin of no
return, Live '93 redelivers in all the dashed expectations. Over
two long discs, from a variety of locales, Dr. Alex Patterson and
company mix samples, synths and psych-outs without reserve,
creating extended freak scenes that defy description.

Even so, bottom line, The Orb's music has two very specific
purposes: long, hot sex, or powerful, hard drugs. Or any
combination thereof. (These are not reccommendations by this
magazine or its parent company; just plain facts.)

	-- Eric Gladstone

Datalog: Release Date: Feb. 1. First single is "A Hugh Ever
Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The
Ultraworld (Loving U)."

File Under: Techno: the final frontier

R.I.Y.L: Ultramarine, the ON-U Sound Label, sound effects record