The Orb Exeter

After the epic single ‘The Blue Room’ disturbed the charts and Top Of The Pops with the infamous chess-playing appearance, the second album U.F. Orb was launched at the Planetarium and entered the UK album charts at number one in July 1992. After 1993’s Live 93 cemented The Orb’s sky-high status, expectations-challenging mini album Pommes Fritz appeared on Island Records, reflecting the bad management and studio conflict that threatened to derail The Orb. With Thomas Fehlmann and engineer Andy Hughes on board, 1995’s Orbus Terrarum traversed further orbits and modern classical realms. 1997’s stunning Orbus Terrarum was followed by Jarre-fondling ‘Toxygene’ hitting number four in the charts. Upheavals at Island delayed its fifth album Cydonia until 2001, displaying Alex’s first forays into song structures and using singers such as Nina Walsh. 2004’s Bicycles & Tricycles and Okie Dokie It’s The Orb On Kompakt brought Fehlmann forward to reflect contemporary electronic ripples. Youth returned for 2007’s The Dream, which presaged an extensive reissue campaign. 

By 2009’s Baghdad Batteries, The Orb were on Malicious Damage before Youth, and Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour joined Alex for Metallic Spheres, which reached number twelve in the album charts. In 2012, Alex was joined by reggae legend Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry for The Observer In The Star House, then More Tales From The Observatory. Alex and Thomas then returned to Kompakt, uncorking electronic masterpieces on 2015’s Moonbuilding 2073 and COW/Chill Out, World! Before throwing another curve using singers on songs for 2018’s No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds. Now working with Michael Rendall, 2020’s mesmerising The Abolition of the Royal Familia unfurled a widescreen panoply of gorgeous ambience, heavy dub and disco whoopee.

Somehow, the new Prism manages to top the lot as The Orb’s most stratospherically engaging set since the nineties, reconnecting with acid house grooves while casting the ambient telescope to distant planets and dystopian future-scapes as a modern times masterpiece that can only further chime with new generations discovering these remarkable sounds for the first time.