|
|
Post by ganews on May 31, 2022 23:52:00 GMT -5
The June poll winner is The Orb, "Orblivion". Post your thoughts below.
|
|
|
|
Post by ganews on Jun 2, 2022 6:25:57 GMT -5
Can this ambient chill-out music relax me on this northeast regional Amtrak with 50% masking and a guy across from me who just sneezed? Let's find out!
|
|
|
|
Post by ganews on Jun 2, 2022 7:43:17 GMT -5
No, not particularly, certainly not more than any other music would have. It's fine background, like other instrumental ambient techno for me. Therefore I noticed more when in the middle a voiceover with and English accent starts going on about bar code mark of the beast (ah the classics, from a simpler time).
|
|
|
|
Post by pantsgoblin on Jun 2, 2022 8:54:06 GMT -5
No, not particularly, certainly not more than any other music would have. It's fine background, like other instrumental ambient techno for me. Therefore I noticed more when in the middle a voiceover with and English accent starts going on about bar code mark of the beast (ah the classics, from a simpler time). It's a sample of David Thewlis from Mike Leigh's masterpiece Naked. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2022 13:44:02 GMT -5
No, not particularly, certainly not more than any other music would have. It's fine background, like other instrumental ambient techno for me. Therefore I noticed more when in the middle a voiceover with and English accent starts going on about bar code mark of the beast (ah the classics, from a simpler time). FACT!! |
|
|
|
Post by pantsgoblin on Jun 8, 2022 10:15:21 GMT -5
Before I get to posting my highly-awaited review, I'll thank LazBro for the nomination of Astronoid's Air. It's available on a "name your own price" on their bandcamp (I threw them a few Euros). I'm digging it on my second listen; definitely the most "hesher" rock I've listened to in a while, particularly in the guitar solos, but I'm appreciating how unstuck in time it feels in rock'n'roll. |
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster 
Posts: 10,049 
|
Post by LazBro on Jun 8, 2022 11:33:01 GMT -5
Before I get to posting my highly-awaited review, I'll thank LazBro for the nomination of Astronoid's Air. It's available on a "name your own price" on their bandcamp (I threw them a few Euros). I'm digging it on my second listen; definitely the most "hesher" rock I've listened to in a while, particularly in the guitar solos, but I'm appreciating how unstuck in time it feels in rock'n'roll. Glad you're digging it.
One bummer about Astronoid is that their two releases since Air, which was their debut, are both a pretty far cry from that level. Their self-titled 2nd album in particular was a huge disappointment. Their new one, Radiant Bloom, which just came out, is actually pretty good and much more similar to Air. But nothing has come close to topping that debut
|
|
|
|
Post by pantsgoblin on Jun 10, 2022 11:05:09 GMT -5
Amusingly, a review on Pitchfork this morning of µ-Ziq’s latest made a similar comment to what I was going to on this post, that ‘90s IDM holdouts are now making “functionally dad rock for lapsed ravers” [no I’m…doesn’t]. In a way, it’s hard to deny that, after abandoning the dopey toker humor of Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, Orb settled comfortably into making music for people like Alex Paterson & Co. presumably are: post-colonial tea-drinkers having a pleasant time catching up on music reviews. There was always more than a little Floydian prog in their material, after all. The prominent drums that kick off Orblivion signal that they somewhat intended this album as a course corrective to their previous full-length, the ambient-heavy Orbus Terrarum, which got eviscerated by 1995’s Britpop-crazy UK press (curiously, US critics were much kinder to it). In the year of Roni Size’s and Ed Rush’s opuses, drum ‘n’ bass had fully morphed into respectability/dystopian cyberboy music and it wasn’t exactly novel for Orb to incorporate hyperactive snare runs into their work. But, being skilled dub practitioners, it fits well and, in my opinion, is far more tolerable listening than “atmospheric jungle” dorks like LTJ Bukem. Lead single “Toxygene”, which reached #4 on the UK charts and remains Orb’s highest charting song, has an entertaining saga behind it. The track was originally commissioned as a remix of Jean-Michel Jarre’s “Oxygene 8” from that year. According to Wikipedia, Jarre allegedly “threw a fit” over how little of his track made it into the remix and refused to release it himself, to which Paterson threw gasoline on the fire by retorting that “the French are always five years behind us, anyway.” All in all, while not my favorite Orb record (that would be Orbus Terrarum), it’s undeniably a culmination of the group’s near-flawless ‘90s run. From here, their output would become increasingly patchy, though 2015’s Moonbuilding 2703 A.D. was surprisingly excellent, so maybe there’s still life left in this contraption. |
|
|
|
Post by pantsgoblin on Jun 10, 2022 13:45:31 GMT -5
A couple more tidbits of interest I learned since writing the previous entry (and then I'll shut up so that I don't completely dominate this thread): According to a 1997 interview with Alex Paterson and Andy Hughes in Perfect Sound Forever, Island Records delayed the release of Orblivion for nearly a year because they somehow believed they could market the album as a "follow-up" to U2's Pop. They're presumably no friends of U2, as The Lovable Lads from Liverpool enlisted Orb to do a remix of "Numb" from Zooropa that the band ultimately never released. One of the producers Orb hired for Orblivion is former Gong guitarist Steve Hillage, who may have signed on out of gratitude because the group frequently spun his 1979 space-rock classic Rainbow Dome Musick at live shows in the early '90s and reignited interest in the record among the public. |
|
