Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Little Fluffy Clouds
2. Earth (Gaia)
3. Supernova At The End Of The Universe
4. Back Side Of The Moon
5. Spanish Castles In Space

Disc 2:

1. Perpetual Dawn
2. Into The Fourth Dimension
3. Outlands
4. Star 6 & 7 8 9
5. A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47106 in Music
• Released on: 2003-05-23
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set
• Running time: 110 minutes

From Amazon.com
The first Orb album was entirely new when it appeared: a low-key dance record, with echoes and swells more than up-front tunes, stoner-level dub bass, and all sorts of samples and sounds--seagulls, film clips, astronaut voices, bits of disco--fluttering through the mix like hallucinations. Essentially a techno album for tired dancers, it's held up nicely over time, thanks to its intricate, dreamy sonics. Beyond the classic "Little Fluffy Clouds"--a set of interlocking synth hooks and loping percussion, held together by a cut-up sample of Rickie Lee Jones talking about the skies of her youth--there are lots of mellow delights here, particularly the blissful reggae groove "Perpetual Dawn." --Douglas Wolk

Customer Reviews

A piece of dance music history
You start to worry about the state of dance music when you pick this album out nowadays. Where are the dance acts nowadays to pick up the baton from the dance supergroups of this era? The old greats splitting, disappearing or just not putting out the quality that they once used to. What do we have now? Can you really see someone like Stonebridge or 'random trance/funky house act X' crafting an album as superb as this that will still sound as fresh over ten years after its intial release?

Start pondering over thoughts such as that and you'll work yourself up into a frenzy, so highly strung that nothing could unwind you. Well thats until you reach for this and stick it on. All those worries fade away as you being on another journey to the Ultraworld. All your worries melt away as the familiar strains of Fluffy Little Clouds kick in ... they were red, yellow, purple and all the colours dontchya know?

If you've only ever heard Fluffy Little Clouds and have dismissed the Orb as a piece of early 90's dance history, well you just don't know what you're missing. The concept is a journey through space from Earth to the Ultraworld ... a journey that spans two 60 minutes CDs. Each CD progesses from chilled ambient house towards beatless ambience. It helps craft the mood of the vastness of space. I love the way that the tracks blend into each other, each track announced with a spinetingling synth, a choice vocal sample and scatterings of fx, all helping build anticipation for the track to come. The best example of this is when Into The Forth Dimention kicks in. The deep cosmic synth sounds, the ominous 'It was a cloud formation ... roughly the same size of the Earth' sample and the operatic singers. This all then gives way to some simple bongos and then morphs into what I suppose you could call the trance music of the day (remember we are talking 1990 here)! Great stuff.

Its not all po-faced seriousness, there is a unique sense of humour that comes with The Orb. Check the cheeky little 'blublublublubberbleeeerhg! he he he he he he he he!' that you get on the dubaliscious Perpetual Dawn.

The perkier, humourous tracks are balanced perfectly with some wonderful psychadelic ambience. Naturally you'd expect no less with Gong's Steve Hillage on board. Take Spanish Castles In Space, its gentle acoustic bass and piano floats over you. Simple but oh so effective. Then take the 19 minute monster which is A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld. A fine climax to the album, it is a hypnotic blend of synths, wedding bells, aeroplanes flying past before, out of nowhere, 'LOOOOVING YOU IS EASY BECAUSE YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL' resonates across the track. The ambience keeps you on your feet though, near the end of the track you get some wicked driving drums that fade in and fade away with the swirl of 'real world' samples that flow over the track. Music to get lost in.

All these elements pull together in what is one of the finest albums of all time, something that will eternally be greater than the sum of its parts. It is also refreshing to see that it hasn't aged badly at all, I'm sure that it will attain that coveted 'timeless' status.

I could go on forever about the little things in this album that are so perfect and will forever find its CDs finding their way into my hifi but I don't think the internet has enough storage space for it. Great music for anytime, its summer chill out, its winter chill out, its for sad moments, its for happy moments ... for me, it was the accompaniment for the Lord Of The Rings triology on many a train journey around the country.

Its the finest place to start your Orb collection in a portfolio of works that just ooze quality throughout, I'll still recommend this in another 10 years time and it will still sound as fresh then. If this finds its way into your heart, you can also do no wrong with checking the Orb Live 93 album. A different and live take on familiar Orb tracks from venues such as Glastonbury.

awesome spacey techno
Adventures....is still the best orb album by miles and one of the best dance albums ever. The opening track Little Fluffy Clouds is garentteed to put a smile on your face before the music drifts off into ambient dub with discreet beats and brilliant use of samples such as Ming from Flash Gordon. It really does sound as if the music is taking you into another dimension of wierd trippiness. The second disc kicks off with the brilliant reggae track Perpetual Dawn and is even better than the first disc. The closing track, Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld is also a classic, very infectious and like Little Fluffy Clouds, great to chill out to.
If you think you don't like dance music, buy this and you soon will

The ultimate ambient album
Over a decade on, this still remains the album that was most ahead of its time. In the so called progressive world of the dance genre, this still sounds fresher and of higher quality than most released today.
It is divided up into two parts, "Orbit", and "Ultraworld", both of which contain a total of 102 minutes running time of the most beautiful inventive ambient music of all time.
Orbit starts with the legendary "little fluffy clouds" and continues in an equally fresh vein. Each second of the music is made with such clarity, that the soothing tones are ever so more effective.
Ultraworld has a slightly more uptempo feel, with "Perpetual Dawn"- their mercurial hit, in album form. The next two tracks are low-key experimental dub tracks but still of great worth. The end may simply be the best ending to any album. "Star 6 & 789" is a fantastic ambient track with a brilliant pre-"A Man Called Adam" spanish guitar riff. The end is a mammoth seventeen minute pulse of early synth. The rhythm and tempo are perfectly balanced and the effect is astounding.

In summary then, put the CD on and then immerse yourself in a whole new world of sound.