Track Listing

1. Dream
2. Vuja De
3. Something Supernatural
4. Beautiful Day
5. DDD
6. Truth Is
7. Phantom Of Ukraine
8. Mother Nature
9. Lost And Found
10. Forest Of Lyonesse
11. Katskills
12. High Noon
13. Sleeping Tiger And The Gods Unknown
14. Codes
15. Orbisonia

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60155 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-25
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
Eighth studio album from the ambient techno pioneers and their first since 2005's 'Okie Dokie' on Kompakt, which was hailed as a superb return to form. Here they retain the high standards reached on that album, while balancing the cool, minimal textures co-producer Thomas Fehlmann brought to it by reintroducing elements of their earlier work, such as big warm dub basslines and slightly cheesy, goofy interludes. The resulting concoction is being praised by fans and critics alike and should cement The Orb's reputation as leaders in thefield.

Customer Reviews

Youth and Hillage are back - Huzzah!
I'd almost given up on Alex's work, but then almost out of the blue he's started working with Youth and Steve Hillage again, and the result is quite simply marvellous!
I wasn't sure about it at first, but The Dream has really, really grown on me (unlike the last 10+ years worth of material - OK, must admit that I'm more of 89-92 period Orb Fan). In fact I'm addicted, and I have no intention of quitting! The Dream is warm, groovy, wacky and mellow in all the right proportions. Encore!

A great return to form
This is almost the antithesis of Okie Dokie, what was sparse minimal and ambient but an empty feel to the music is now a rich beautiful landscape of electronica, ambient, dub, raggae, world and ethnic influences sometimes all at once blended into a track - samples, guitar lines and vocals come in and out of view - one or two tracks are just jaw-dropping especially; The Dream, Codes, Katskills and Orbisonia. The track Vuja De is the closest thing they've done to a single since the days of Once More.

Yet again they've discovered a new area, a new sound - the closest I can approximate this album to in sound is parts of Bicycles and Tricycles but it feels more complete an ambition fulfilled. I have one or two gripes, on occassion the female 'soul' vocals seem out of place such as the track 'Mother Nature' and 'A Beautiful Day' and the raggae vocals get annoying sometimes. i like the cheesy pads on 'A Beautiful Day' very porn-film esque. I like the dripping textures. The beats are not dub but there is a feel of dub about some of the tracks. Codes reminded me of 'A mile long lump of lard' updated.

A magnificent effort Alex, you have veered away from The Orb's slightly dated past few works. This has brought everything up to date. I still feel they could have done with Thomas Fehlmann's efforts on co-production but I hope they keep this form up into the next album and use Thomas as well!

Return of the UFOrb
So, The Orb are back with their 8th album proper (not including the mass of remix, live, hits and mini-albums out there), and the Dream sees Dr LX and pals returning back to the samples and monster bass lines of yesteryear. The title track starts off with a snug slice of Frippish ambience which will have elderly Orbettes in raptures (a theme which is present throughout the album). My favoutite track is Katskills; a huge dub-animal which will take the roof off venues when played live, something that their more contemporary material has struggled to do. I suspect that The Orb will, if given the opportunity, be a huge success on the festival circuit in 2008, they can be awesome when showcasing the right material and I think a whole new generation might be about to discover that. Not necessarily a return to form then (the brilliant Okie Dokie album did that for me) but certainly a return to the scene of one of their biggest victories; UFORB.