|
The Orb's "Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld"
|
View this Thread in Original format
| MrJiveBoJingles |
Do you appreciate? :)
This was probably one of the first electronic music albums I bought; that must have been about eight or nine years ago. It fascinated me from the start, and my enjoyment of it hasn't let up since. |
|
|
| Sushipunk |
| Yep, totally wicked album. I haven't listened to it in ages - I must dig it out :) |
|
|
| SMC |
A very important album in electronic music. Absolutely awesome.  |
|
|
| PETRAN |
I bought the album ages ago. Its quite cool, but to tell you the truth, i never really got it. I guess that it could have been revolutionary for its time but i never really really liked it. I presume that it was groundbreaking with all the elements it had, ambient, house, techno, dub, reggae chopped vocals from films, ethnic,classical, kraut, proto-trance. It was just too fluffy and sweet, and at times it sounded like boring Mario Bros music (well, because some Mario Bros music can be interesting!). Despite that, i dig some tunes. "Little Fluffy Clouds" is a classic with the spaced-out atmosphere, i like all the trancey lines it has over the cool housey beat and the high-on-acid female voice speaking of how cool the fluffy clouds are. "Back Side of the Moon" is a sweet ambient soundscape with angelic synth-choir on top and samples of sea-waves. Good for relaxing but it can also be a bit boring at times."Spanish Castles in Space" could actually be a looped segment of an impressionistic Debussy or Ravel tune. Thats what it brought to mind anyway. It has a nice exotic nocturne feel, guaranteing a good night sleep (heh). Other than those, the other two tunes of the first disc don't do anything at all for me.
On disc-2, the first track, "perpetual dawn" is a sympathetic and cool reggae-techno adventure. Pleasant but nothing too moving IMO. "Into The Fourth Dimension" i believe samples some baroque classical (maybe bach or mozart?) over breaks, providing an interesting result. "Stars 6 & 7 8 9" is a personal favorite of mine, a track that really stands out in the album. Extremely sweet track made with all sorts of high frequency reggae-sounding synth guitars placed on top of angelic synth-choirs (Edit: Now that i listen to it again, its more of funky kinda-jazzy rather than reggae quitar sounding synths). At some point the bass takes over and the high-pitched synth quitars play some really sweet melody. This really sounds like innocent love music from heavens! Or even a sweet track from an exotic Mario Bros level! (at least this was one of the things that always brought to mind!). Things get ever better with the ultimate IMO track of the album which is "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (Live Mix Mk 10)"- the last track which is a nearly 19-minute (!) adventure. Whilst it is very long, the whole tune is based on a repeatetive huge (cosmic!) trancey arpeggio (Edit: More like the ones that Tangerine Dream were making in their 70s Space-Kraut albums like "Phaedra" and "Rubycon"). that loops and loops with all sorts of ambient sounds added in the process. Watery sounds, angelic "ahhs", strange noises, sounds of bubbles, waves, sounds of church bells, whatever you can imagine really. Despite being in some way proto-trance, it lacks a clear four-tothe-flour beat. You can clearly get lost in this thing and i guess it would be very strong if it was accompanied by some illegal substances such as...acid (i can actually imagine high-on-acid early 90s ravers dancing off their asses to it without even noticing that there is no beat!). Other than that, this track can also be a powerfull relaxant.
As i said before, this album could be innovative. It is just that it can be too boring for my tastes. At times all these little chopped voice samples can be disturbing but then, people were probably mad of sampling during that era. At other times, the tracks are tooo long without actually having any real content (at least for me!). It is a classic album though, and everyone should definitely give a listen. |
|
|
| Mr Moss |
/me appreciates
though their discography is kinda overwhelming its he main ORB album I know from them and apparently a landmark in ambient..
the vocal sample on Perpetual Dawn is just lolerific, one of my favourites to drop in the car to mess with non-edm people.. along with Mystery of the Yeti and The KLF's 'Chillout'
all 3 are profound in their own right I guess |
|
|
| Mr Moss |
| ah PETRAN owns the hell out of these IDM/ambient type threads |
|
|
| MrJiveBoJingles |
| quote: | Originally posted by PETRAN
"Into The Fourth Dimension" i believe samples some baroque classical (maybe bach or mozart?) over breaks, providing an interesting result. |
The sample in the beginning is from "Miserere" by Gregorio Allegri. Get ahold of a full version of "Miserere" if you can; absolutely beautiful piece of music. Not sure what the other classical sample is.
I tend to prefer the second disc of "Ultraworld", but both are great. |
|
|
|
|
