Description

On Prism, helmed by core duo Alex Paterson and Michael Rendall, The Orbs pulsating discography grows ever more huge. Despite the connotations of its title, here they continue to rollick freely without inhibition across ambient, house and dub, but also tangent into poetry, pop, fullblown drum n bass and actual reggae.The LP features electronic musicians David Harrow whose CV includes Anne Clarke, Psychic TV, Razormaid, Adrian Sherwood and Andy Weatherall and Gaudi whose credits include Max Romeo, Capleton, Johnny Clarke and Desmond Dekker. Other guests include Orb regular Youth, violinist Violeta Vicci, Kompakt records alumnus Leandro Fresco, Metamono man Jono Podmore, Guitarist and Alexs old school chum David Lofts, plus vocalists Eric Von Skywalker, Andy Cain and Rachel DArcy.Prism begins with the epic winding journey of H.O.M.E, which features a poem by Paterson, before Why Can You Be In Two Places At Oncehellip kicks into a funkedup, afrobeaty chug. With Patersons decadeslong love for Jamaican music and output oft drenched in the dubwise, it should come as little surprise that The Orb have now gone full reggae, on the ebullient nostalgia tale of Von Skywalkers youthful romance, A Ghetto Love Story.The album then disappears down a wormhole of rubadub headmusic called Picking Tea amp Chasing Butterfiles, which sounds like Colourbox meets Popul Vuh in Shanghai, and also echoes back to Weatheralls Ultrabass II remix of Perpetual Dawn.Flipping the script entirely, by sprinkling a large bag of disco dust, is the slinky boogie wonderland of Tiger the name and nickname of Patersons son and late brother respectively, which juxtaposes but somehow coheres with the melodicatinged thunderous bass music of Dragon Of Oceans and its Sirius B gazing wordplay. The expertlyexecuted, floaty 90s trance dance of The Beginning Of The End works very nicely within its own familiar parameters, which contrasts sharply with Living In Recycled Times, which ignites over ten plus minutes into fullyfledged, raveready DampB fire, which although out of their comfort zone still sounds very Orb.The album ends with its title track ndash a big, ambient epic done in fine style. The Orb Double-Vinyl is available for home delivery from Vinyl Records London, only £27 +P&P