The Orb are back. Dunno who The Orb are? Oh, Christ on a fucking bike, I ask you with tears in my sad, sad eyes. You really need to sort your musical reference out, man. I mean, if you don’t even know who the…I give up. Go and consult your wikipedia, and when you get back I wanna see a hundred lines: ‘I am a musical dolt and will endeavour to rectify the situation forthwith through diligent research and the purchasing of old CD’s from stalls at flea markets manned by grizzled ex-ravers.’ Right. That’s you told.

For those of you who do know The Orb, you’ll be glad to know that the intervening years haven’t straightened them out, and Alex Patterson and his mob are still making noodly dubbed-out ambient tunes which are perfect for chilling, cleaning the house or squeegying your third eye through the aid of massive hits of acid. Appropriate for a range of domestic and transcendent applications, if you will. The new(ish) album (of which I’ve only heard a bit) seems to be much along the lines of the best of their output, with a bit of an updated electronic edge to it, if ‘Katskills’ is anything to go by. Released in the UK in September last year, and featuring the ambient musings of the good Dr Paterson and newish Orb member Thomas Fehlmann, it’s only now making waves. Weird. But then, they wouldn’t be The Orb if there weren’t some weird in the equation.

In any case, here, for your edification (and washing, ironing, squeegying etc) is one of the tracks off the album, ‘The Dream’. Also listed here for your aural indulgence is a tune released by Paterson and ex-KLF member (and an Orb founding member back in pre-MuMu days) Jimmy Cauty as well as the guitar noodling of the one and only (and presently a band member of Modest Mouse), Johnny Marr of The Smiths fame, under the Transit Kings moniker.

Right. Herewith ends today's somewhat rambling post. Phew.

The Orb - Katskills.mp3
Transit Kings - America Is Unavailable.mp3