Bicycles and Tricycles [Enhanced]

The Orb | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 13, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Sanctuary Records
• ASIN: B0002D2MPG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,861 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Slabs of dub, slices of surrealism, and disembodied "found" voices make their appearance on the latest offering by ambient dub commandos The Orb. Bicycles & Tricycles offers little in the Orb oeuvre that wasn't stated back on Orblivion and it's not the seismic paradigm shift of "Little Fluffy Clouds," but that's not to say there isn't plenty left in that fertile cumulus to explore. There's the Augustus Pablo melodica and dub bass on "Towers 23," and "Abstractions" lifts Frippertronics, something The Orb has been doing for over a decade. Except for a rap by MC Soom T on "Aftermath," the Orb has abandoned the trip-hop vocals of Cydonia. Instead, Bicycles & Tricycles returns to the original Orb concept which isn't about songs, but lysergic landscapes. Industrial grinds propel you through one moment, only to be untethered into infinite space the next, before being snagged into synchronicity by a dub groove. This album has been available as an import for a while, but the Orb's founder and master controller Alex Patterson has re-sequenced and re-mixed the disc into one of what are probably infinite permutations of flow. --John Diliberto

Product Description

2003 release from the ambient house pioneers. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New Paths for Orb, November 17, 2004

By 

J. M. Wolski "jdubbulous" (Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bicycles and Tricycles (Audio CD)

I have been a fan of The Orb for quite some time, patiently waiting year upon year for albums that had been finished but not released. Any person will tell you that this can be frustrating at times, but if you enjoy a group enough you will put yourself through such tortures. This particular album had been finished for somewhere around two years before its release here, but I do not feel that the wait was all for naught.

Dr. Alex Paterson seems to be willing to head back towards the group's roots, cutting down on the number of radio-friendly tunes with vocals and more traditional song structure as was seen on this album's predecessor, Cydonia. I personally feel this album is much more true to the feel and tone of the Orb anthology.

There also seems to be a stronger emphasis on breakbeat patterns in this album when compared to releases in the past. I for one am a big fan of breakbeats and find them to work perfectly on this disc, especially on my favorite track Prime Evil. There is even a song that could be described as trip-hop, with rhyming laid over the beats. Most of the reviews have given this song a negative tone (Aftermath), but I think that is because there are not a large amount of Orb fans that really listen to hip-hop or anything of the sort. The song isn't that bad, people. It's just something The Orb has never done before. Not all songs fall under this description, but this is certainly a more beat-oriented Orb album than most. Especially when considering the more ambient works they have done (Orbvs Terrarvm, Pomme Fritz, etc).

Very very die hard Orb fans I'm sure will find something to complain about, it seems they always do. While it may not be their most original work, it certainly left me feeling content and has been listened to many times since it was purchased. To anyone that is looking at buying an album of The Orb, I highly recommend it. I used to be very critical of electronic music, blowing it off without really giving it a chance. The Orb changed all that for me. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before, the ultimate "gateway drug" music. Considering the man has a Doctorate in Sound Engineering, it is no surprise. Long Live The Orb!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars hit or miss return from the group, August 4, 2004

By 

somethingexcellent (Lincoln, NE United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bicycles and Tricycles (Audio CD)

You'd think that when a group was as well known as The Orb, their releases would come out at roughly the same time all over the world, but that wasn't the case with Bicycles And Tricycles. Released in Japan almost a year ago now, it has certainly taken its time in getting out to the rest of the world. Although I admittingly have lost some interest in the group over time (and especially with their last full-length Cydonia), The Orb will probably always be one of those groups I have to sort of peek in on and keep track of simply because they were one of the first modern electronic artists that I really found myself loving and pulling me further into the genre.

Other than a couple tracks, Bicycles And Tricycles is basically what you've grown to know and love from the group, too. Thick basslines gurgle and rattle while somewhat dub-influenced beats help to rattle the speakers even more while trippy melodies pan and flange and occasional spoken samples creep up in the mix. The disc opens with the stellar "Orb Is," a track that opens with washes of muted trumpet before cracking off into a delicious groove that twists and growls for the rest of the track. The following "Aftermath" is one of the big offenders, though, as the group once again thinks they can work things out by adding a vocalist to the mix and instead the track feels entirely out-of-place on the disc. While the instrumentation on the track is pretty swell, female rapper Me Soom T simply clutters the track and takes it to mainstream land without adding much of anything.

"The Land Of Green Ginger" is another in the long line of tracks that seemingly uses lost samples from a kids record as a backdrop for creating tripped-out tracks with recontextualized words that end up playing right into their hands. Although the group doesn't do anything groundbreakingly new over the course of the rest of the release, they manage to do things quite well. "Gee Strings" is a straightforward track that's more on the dancey side but manages to keep some surprises while "Tower Twenty Three" is one of their deep, dubstatic tracks that never seems to get old when they do it as well as they do. One of the only other major stumbles on the release is when they sample themselves on "From A Distance" and package it in an obvious surrounding of overbearing beats and once again try to encorporate vocals (and once again it just doesn't work too well). In the grand scheme of Orb albums, it lands as slightly better than their last effort Cydonia, but not nearly as good as classics like Orbus Terrarum.

(from almost cool music reviews)

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars coasting...., November 15, 2004

By 

J. Brady (PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bicycles and Tricycles (Audio CD)

Like most great groups whose best work is behind them, the Orb are now coasting on name recognition and fan loyalty. There is nothing truly moving or groundbreaking on this cd. Which is not to say it's bad. It's just not that good. Even the reunion with Jimmy Cauty ( who recorded with Alex Patterson in the Orb before they released their first album ) does not seem to inspire.
Dull and soul-less.