Article 1806 of alt.rave: Path: agate!ames!olivea!uunet!mcsun!uknet!ox-prg!oxuniv!ops From: ops@vax.oxford.ac.uk Newsgroups: rec.music.misc,alt.rave,alt.music.alternative Subject: The Orb Interview Message-ID: <1992Aug5.152053.8078@vax.oxford.ac.uk> Date: 5 Aug 92 14:20:53 GMT Organization: Oxford University VAXcluster Lines: 122 Xref: agate rec.music.misc:105922 alt.rave:1806 alt.music.alternative:8616 Interview with The Orb - Melody Maker 1st August 1992 Brothers From Another Planet ============================ Sphere we go, sphere we go, sphere we go! On the kitchen wall of Dr Alex "Orb" Paterson's Battersea house, there's a close-up, black and white, front-view photo of a man sucking on the biggest, fattest spliff you ever saw, a spliff so enormous that it almost obscures the chap's features. But, behind the mega-chunky roach, behind the even chunkier body of the naughty cigarette and the dense clouds of tobacco and dope smoke, you can just make out the bloke's eyes, twinkling with laidback satisfaction through the nartcotic haze. Yup, Alex looks pretty happy in that picture. "That," says Paterson, getting the coffees in and pointing at the photo as his junior cohort, Thrash, sits zonked out in a squashy chair, "is what the Orb are about." Sphere Infection Spliff music. Dope music. Soporific downer-relaxant music. Is that really what The Orb are about? Put it this way: if you truly want to get the most out of "U.F.Orb", the duo's second album which entered the British charts at Number One, it may not be necessary to take recourse to your latest consignment of top-notch Red Leb, but it certainly helps to lie back on the (water) bed, slap on a pair of cans and turn out the lights. This is because Orb music requires concentration. You CAN let it wash over you. But it's best enjoyed as a succession of moments, like the ticks, clicks, whale cries, angel choirs and space-shifp-during-vertical-lift-off whooshes of "O.O.B.E"; the bleeps, drizzles, fizzes and glugs of "Blue Room"; the barking dogs, wheezing harmonica, heavy breathing, and rain droplets of "Towers of Dub"; or the muezzin wails, shimmery keyboard motifs and deep, dub bass tremors of "Majestic". The Orb's elemental sounds, environmental noises, radio voices and ambient effects don't have a cumulative impact. You're meant to appreciate each individual gurgle and buzz as and when it happens, at it zooms in and out of your headphones - as opposed to, say, rock, or even techno, where the listener is rushed along by the noise to the climax. As a consequence, "U.F.Orb" isn't so much "exciting" as a slow, unhurried and subtly involving experience, like hearing and watching a film about space/underwater/Third World exploration in sensurround, and with Three-D glasses on. Sphere of Living Dangerously That still leaves one unanswered question: do you or do you not need drugs to enjoy The Orb? "No, you don't, strangely enough," chuckles Alex, celebrating the group's arrival at pole position in the LP charts with a champagne and tortilla chips breakfast in his kitchen-cum-dining room. "So many people write to us and tell us that listening to the Orb has nothing to do with having a puff or whatever. "In fact," continues Dr P, "I like what one journalist wrote about us: 'One day music like this will be made illegal'." In other words: THE ORB ARE THE DRUG. "Yeah, that's great, isn't it?" But, as the aforementioned photo shows, you obviously do smoke. Is that the only illicit intoxicant you indulge in? "Ish," smiles Alex. "Ish," repeats Thrash, smirking. ISH? What the f*** does "ish" mean? Uppers? Downers? Speed? Coke? Mescaline? Barbiturates? Ecstasy? Mushrooms? Heroin?!? Both Alex and Thrash refuse to elaborate on this subject. They also, perhaps unserstandably, decline my invitation to name their all-time favourite drugs. Undaunted, I ask them about the inspiration for, and subsequent creation of, The Orb's music. In other words, do they work best when they're out of it? "Nah," drawls Thrash, oddly bemused by the suggestion, smoking and sipping brandy at the table. "It stops you concentrating in the studio. It clouds yer mind." Ball the Young Dudes The Orb are an odd couple and no mistake. Alex Paterson is a 32-year-old one-time Killing Joke roadie and an old friend of Youth and former KLF-er, Jimmy Cauty. He spent the latter half of the Eighties working in the A&R department for EG (an ambient label) and as a club DJ. Thrash (real name: Kristian Weston), on the other hand, is just 20, managed to fluke a job as a tea-boy in a recording studio when he left school, and now co-produces the nation's premier chill-out dance band. And, while the amiable Paterson does most of the talking, Thrash makes like Neil of "The Young Ones", lost in his own headspace, unnervingly staring at me like I'm completely bananas for daring to ask him questions. Despite the age difference, however, both Orbers share a similar stoner/"slacker" mentality, happy to drift through life and see what happens. "It's nice that people are mentioning us in the same breath as 808 State and the KLF these days," says Alex. "We're just carrying on with what they did in our own, inept way." Are you really inept? Surely getting to Number One requires a degree of professionalism and...? "Professionalism? Come off it, look at us!" interrupts Paterson, indicating his and Thrash's bedraggled Oxfam cast-offs and stringy hair, and the bomb site kitchen table, a mess of Rizla wrappers, tea stains and empty bottles. Sphere of Destiny Thrash, who used to like thrash (metal), hence his nickname (courtesy of Youth), is too young to be rooted in any time but the present. Alex, through, is just old enough to remember the tail-end of hippy, has lived through punk, and was seduced by the acid-house happenings of the late Eighties. This is a journey similar to that of other musicians of his age who operate around the hippy/dance/rock interface, such as Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), Colin Angus (The Shamen), Bill Drummond (The KLF) and Graham Massey (808 State), a circular journey from peace 'n' love and optimism to no-future nihilism and back to the optismism of today's "New Age"/rave scene. Just as The Orb's music has echoes of Sixties psychedelia, Seventies progressive rock and Eighties house, so Paterson is a typically Nineties amalgam: an ex-punk thirtysomething from squatterland who embraces radical hippie ideals and the alternative lifestyle offered by the crusty travellers, while also utilising the most advanced technology to create state-of-the-art dance music. That said, Paterson denies any affinity with his peers. "The Shamen are a rock band, they haven't got anything to do with us," he says dismissively. "They're trying to make pop records. The Orb haven't had the same rock band background as the Shamen. We just formed out of the studio and came from a club situation. We're one DJ plus one engineer - that's the whole basis of the Orb." Part Two follows tomorrow (or maybe the next day)...... (Interview by Paul Lester of Melody Maker). Article 1832 of alt.rave: Path: agate!ames!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!pipex!unipalm!uknet!ox-prg!oxuniv!ops From: ops@vax.oxford.ac.uk Newsgroups: rec.music.misc,alt.rave,alt.music.alternative Subject: The Orb Interview Part II Message-ID: <1992Aug6.100511.8105@vax.oxford.ac.uk> Date: 6 Aug 92 09:05:11 GMT Organization: Oxford University VAXcluster Lines: 117 Xref: agate rec.music.misc:105983 alt.rave:1832 alt.music.alternative:8662 The Orb Interview Part II - Melody Maker 1st August '92 Brothers From Another Planet ============================ Sphere Today, Gone Tomorrow Surprisingly, when the conversation turns to a discussion of the current rave scene and the major players like Spiral Tribe, the (apparently) democratic organization currently pursuing the Utopian dance dream around Britain, Alex is scathing. He has serious doubts, for instance, about the way the Tribe are developing. "The travellers are cool," he says, "just like the squatters are. I'm talking about certain individuals, all these East-End villains getting into the scene, bringing their business-type attitudes in a non-business situation." It remains unclear whether Paterson is referring to a few dodgy outsiders here, or to key members of the Spiral Tribe set-up itself. Although, when I mention the Tribe again, he does say: "The Sex Pistols anarchist thing I had respect for. But not that lot - they're a naughty bunch." Revolution Number 9 Punk. Hmmmm. Nefarious business practices aside, does Alex regard the crusty-traveller-rave, opt-out-of-society thang as a kind of passive version of the punk-war insurrections, a new, improved and peaceful way to rebel? "Well, punk was about destroying everything," he muses, as if the opposite were true of the rave "movement". And yet, despite the gentle nature of Spiral Tribe and Castlemorton gatherings, pretty soon interference from the authorities could provoke reminiscent, not of 1976, but of Britain's calamitous 1981 riots. Only today it would be fields, not streets of fire. Eleven years ago, bands at the forefront of dance innovation such as Cabaret Voltaire made music that was considered to be an accurate reflection of, and viable response to, the troubles and tensions of the Summer of Hate. So if the country(side) DOES go up in flames this August, will The Orb provide an appropriate soundtrack to the tumult? "No, because our music doesn't reflect the times, it ignores them," decides Alex, leaning forward, champagne mug in hand. "Society today is so suppressed, you can only make music that is escapist. "You are right though. The riots of '81 came four years after punk and now it's four years since the '88 Acid Revolution, so, yeah, anything could happen next." Globe Springs Eternal Enough heaviness. The Orb's recent "Blue Room" hit was the longest track ever to get into the Top 10, longer than "Bridge Over Troubled Water", "Bohemian Rhapsody" or any multi-partite meisterwork you care to mention. Plus, as I've said, their album went straight in at Number One. How do you feel about these magnificent achievements? Number One! And with such uncompromisingly uncommercial music! "What ever happened to nought, that's what I want to know?" ponders a typically blase Paterson. "Yeah, we wanna be naught," drones his sidekick. Who did you keep of the top spot? "Maria McKee, Elton John, Megadeath, Lionel Richie..." lists Paterson with considerable glee. There's no truth in the rumour that The Orb will be celebrating their good fortune with a radical ambient remix of Lionel's classic "Hello". So how DO they enjoy themselves now that they're "pop stars"? "I roll up a nice spliff, take my shoes off, put my feet up, put a clean shirt on, then get out the chocolate milk and the brandy," beams Thrash, as the good Doctor snaps into action and gets some chocolate milk from the fridge. Such bacchanalian extravagence and hedonistic excess! How rock 'n' roll DOES life get for this pair? Ever see any Orb groupies? "No, no, no, no, no, nothing like that!" laughes Paterson, exchanging knowing glances with Thrash. Modest types that they are, they would never blow their own (synthesized) trumpet. But The Orb do provoke powerful reactions, especially when they play live. Indeed, at Glastonbury, audience members were seen wandering about after the Orb's set, dazed and confused, muttering about religious experiences. Do they ever get Orv-devotees wandering backstage, offering their services? "Well, I was given a foot massage once," admits Alex, "And there was this other geezer who wanted to touch one of our plasma balls! But we don't get any bras thrown onstage or anything. "Listen," he gets serious for a second, "we don't want any of that. We don't want to be treated any differently now. We don't want people putting us on thrones and giving us Rolls Royces. I mean, we had limo rides in New York for a laugh and all that, but it's just a laugh. It's like, I was given the money for a helicopter ride to JFK airport once, so I pocketed the money and got the bus instead. I'm not stupid." Spherical as F*** After hours of chatting, smoking, eating and drinking, The Orb have to go: they've got a plane to Japan to catch. It's a hard life being the UK's leading ambient rave hippy rock duo. Just before I leave Alex's house, Thrash glances at my notes, specifically at the word "ALIEN" writ large in red, felt tip capitals. He groans, as if to say, "Oh, no, not again." Sorry, but I've just got to ask: have you seen the alien yet? "Have I seen the alien? Come off it, I'm looking at one now," says Alex, prodding a finger towards Thrash as the dishevelled , near-comatose young engineer slumps forward on to the kitchen table. "U.F.Orb" is out now on Big Life. Interview for Melody Maker by Paul Lester. NB. Castlemorton was an "illegal" gathering (6 day free festival) of 30,000 New Age travellers and ravers on Common Land (ie. publically owned land to which everyone has right of access), at which the largest and loudest PA system was provided by a group known as Spiral Tribe, who are now facing various charges, the most serious of which is Criminal Trespass. The event hit the media in a big way because it was so much bigger than all previous events of this type, and now knives are out for anyone involved in the scene. This is even more serious than the PE row going on in the States at the moment, because now travelling existence of any type in the UK is under threat from proposed new legislation.