The Orb

The Orb are a fascinating band. They have always been ahead of the curve in terms of implementing new technology in their recordings and have been consistently interesting in editing together sounds from completely different sources. For instance they have created songs in which an acid house bass line functions seamlessly next to manic sermons on Revelations. They can even beautifully piece together a random Rickie Lee Jones interview with an excerpt of a modern classical piece by Steve Reich as they have done on “Little Fluffy Clouds”. Anything is fair game. There are no limits to their sound and the broad scope of possibility evident in their music is completely riveting. Their live performances are absolutely worth seeing as well. Sure you might hear complaints about lack of “live instrumentation”, but those who assert this seem to miss the point of the Orb. Most of the sound sources from the band’s live performance are prerecorded. But these sounds are manipulated, contorted, wetted with effects pedals into material completely original and unheard.
In a sense their instruments are their computers, samplers, and effect interfaces. They are just as apt to generate equally thrilling sounds out of these sources as they are with the standard setup of guitars, bass and drums. Anyways the point of going to hear a live show is about the whole experience and this experience is unforgettable. The crowd is floored by the performance and often engages in trance dancing and other means of self expression. The light show is subliminal, but corresponds nicely to the music. Also the Orb always bring interesting videos to back their music. It is one thing to hear the Orb on a computer with headphones, but quite another to hear them blasting up their music at a club with hundreds even thousands of erratic fans.

During the house revival of the 90s in the UK, there was one musical duo who seemed to have future knowledge of its occurrence as their music and performance style seemed to be far ahead of their peers. Alex Paterson and
Thomas Fehlmann better known as The Orb were constant experimenters and with the success of 'Metallic Spheres' in 2010 there has been a revived interest in the group.

Taking to the road once again, the operation is equally psychedelic and the fans are just as prepared to step within the twisted world of the orb. The band cannot deny the affluent nature of their only #1 release 'U.F.Orb' so a large majority of the setlist includes these tracks yet tonight is a celebration of all the band's work and a collation of the discography. The new tracks are received in an equally positive manner and the crowd does not stop moving all evening. They have saved a piece of their A game for a finale of 'Perpetual Dawn' which has the whole room jumping with hands raised high to the skies.

Hi there,

I love Orb, I went last night with my friends to see the show at RFH.

But, it was great disappointment!
The concept of the so called musical concert was actually how to play the music less, streach the programe to 4.30 hours and primarly bring the viewrs to the bars..the breaks had only one aim: to make the public to buy more drinks. And even quite anonymous musicians behaved at the stage as like drunk musicians. The choice of musicians was quite strange having nothing do to with this kind of electro music to be performed alive. The atmosphere was so petty-bourgeois..After 2 hours of boring atmosphere more then half of public has left or remained at the bars!

So many bad things for a concert of famous musicians.

Unfortunately, its the same practice at other London concert halls..I went in last few months to several ones and had the same disappointment of commercialised and cheap entertainment.

How much London's music scene can fall low?

Yours,
Brandon

Terrific concert - the best I've seen Orb do yet. Well done guys! I saw them last year at the Brixton Academy, but that was too loud / too deconstructed / not dancey enough (too much dub rhythm for me) - this was much more up-tempo.

This time they totally rocked and had everyone dancing. Fantastic visuals, fantastic deconstructions of familiar tunes (particularly Little Fluffy Clouds) and a nice atmosphere at a great location. To finish with Blade Runner was brilliant and had us all leaving there on a high. I had to smile towards the end - think they blew one of the speakers as the bass from one of the speakers was making very odd noises (heh heh heh).

Well done guys - really enjoyed this gig and very much looking forward to the next one!!

Ok went to see historic idols The Orb at the Festival Hall having seen them copious times in early 90's in their pomp. I get the need to be artistic pioneers but there is a fine line between artistic expression and noodly boredom. When you come out of three hour sedentary experience incapable of discerning any peaks or highlights something ain't right!! 10 mins of mild grooving to a barely discernible beat doesn't cut the mustard. Where have the dub grooves gone that drove the astral tweaks and interspersed the lengthier ambient moments in a wonderful variation of pace and energy? Self indulgent twaddle

The Koneveljet gig was much more interesting musically.

The Orb was a duo DJ gig, and they only played three interesting songs (which had some of their old famous songs mixed in). The other songs were like from your average trance DJ playing in the local night club. There were really interesting looking visuals on the screen though. But generally the gig was a bit of a disappointment.

Stunning set amazing sound.masters of there trade.a constant rolling bass line which held you in a "back in the womb" type state.the set built pace as the tunes rolled out.we all started moving, slow at first,until the tunes took over and then everyone lifted the ceiling off.

As a DJ set this would work fine, as a concert this was not good. Fallen heroes.

Also the sound was remarkebly flat lacking mid register. And too loud for the speaker setup.