U.F.Orb

The Orb

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 1, 1994)
• Original Release Date: March 1992
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Island Red / Pgd
• ASIN: B000005HTY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #95,581 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. O.O.B.E.

2. U.F.Orb

3. Blue Room

4. Towers of Dub

5. Close Encounters

6. Majestic

7. Sticky End

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

An ambient-techno classic, UFOrb captures Alex Patterson and his sonic henchman at their early peak. While the Orb had already created a dance-floor and chill-out-room sensation in 1991 with Little Fluffy Clouds, this follow-up disc displays Patterson's talent for fusing ambient music with dub science and a club culture mindset. Incorporating psychedelicized samples over the era's reigning techno beats and deep reggae bass lines, heady compositions such as "Towers of Dub" and "Close Encounters" are excessive in length but consistently entertaining. The album's highlight is an 18-minute version of "Blue Room" (there's a 40-minute version out there, too), which features the sensual bass playing of Jah Wobble and the oscillating guitar of coproducer Steve Hillage. A most serious contribution to the legacy of the modern DJ. --Mitch Myers

Product Description

Out-of-print in the US. Single disc pressing of their sophomore ambient/chill out classic from Alex Paterson and Kris Weston that featured the mammoth single "Blue Room", which clocked in around 40 minutes! By entering the UK Top 10, the track was the longest ever to make the charts! It was recorded with former PiL bassist Jah Wobble and keyboardist Miquette Giraudy, as well as guitarist Steve Hillage. Seven tracks including 'Towers Of Dub', 'Majestic', 'Close Encounters' and the aforementioned 'Blue Room'. Universal. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars UFORB: The Orbs crowning achievement, October 15, 2002

By	Distant Voyageur "Nicholas Computer" (Io) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

There isn't enough to say about how incredible this CD really is. Overall this CD is one of the Orbs mellowest albums and one of their darkest too. The album also has a mysterious and futuristic feel to it. Every song on here is almost produced to perfection in a way that this 1992 album beats out just about everything else that the Orb have done(Orblivion & Orbus Terrarum come close behind though). There isn't a bad track on here and the voice effects work so well. The album cover sets the overall mood of the record with it's mysterious artwork. 74 minutes of bliss compressed onto one CD! You couldn't ask for much more playing time.

The rumbling hum and electronic cricket sound effects of O.O.B.E begins the Journey above the Earth. O.O.B.E. is a very dreamy song with a very eerie mood like that of orbiting above the earth or when strolling along the outer suburbs at 3 AM on a foggy night. Eventually the dreamy ambient crescendos and the spaceship machine sound effects are laced with electronic keyboard blips and a wash of flutes that gives the song a very eerie, spacey feel almost as if you're looking out the window and seeing Earth from orbit. The keyboard blips stop around the 10:10 mark and the spaceship machine and circket effects keep going before a watery chime sound effect ends O.O.B.E. and ushers in the title track. The title track begins with with a haunting intro and the sample of a general during the Bay Of Pigs and the strange loud watery sound effects and then a helicopter sound effect comes and then the song becomes a driving techno number with pounding beats and sonic bite to it. After that we head into much darker and more mysterious territory with the ever so timeless Blue Room. This song isn't one I could explain enough with words as it's absolutely an amazing track streched to 17 & a half minutes. It starts off with strange guitar effects and the sound of an air raid siren in the background giving the song alot of spook factor. The siren returns at the 4:10 mark and then a strong ambience comes in like an approaching storm. I just love the clinging keyboard sound effects. The real good part of the song begins around the 6:50 mark with a misty ambience and the sound of a female chanting before a techno beat comes in. The song becomes an ambient techno song with incredible funky bass guitar. I just love it. I consider this song to be the Orbs darkest song and one of the eeriest tracks they've ever made. Blue Room offers more than what I can explain in words! To me, this is Dr. Alex Paterson at his best as Blue Room ties with Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain as my favorite track by them. Towers Of Dub is another bizarre track that begins with a conversation of someone being asked to meet someone at Babylon Antine. The dingling sound of a keyboard comes in and then a harmonica comes in and then funky bobbling bass lines come in and Tower Of Dub becomes a bizarre track with echoing harmonicas, awesome guitars, and the sound of a gong in the background. The song overall is an awesome track that is one of their dubbiest tracks to date and offers far more than I can say in words. A barrage of shooting laser sound effects ushers in Close Encounters with a much more ominous intro and then becomes a much heavier techno beat driven song with a very intense almost space battle like atmosphere. I just lov e the middle part of the track where it seems to struggle between a major and a minor note track. Definitely a rave like classic. The ominous rumbling sounds tie Close Encounters with Majestic. This song starts with someone saying "WAKE UP!...WAKE UP!....WAKE UP!....WAKE UP!" and jungle sound effects. A barrage of tingling synthesizers come on almost like raindrops and then the song becomes a funky upbeat song and with an earthier feel but still maintaining the spacey feel of the album. I just love the bizarre flutes and the crazy sound effects that go along with the beat. Overall Majestic is another classic. After the beats stop, all there is is just a cymbol going and a rumbling in the background when a waterfall sound effect ends the song and begins the final track Sticky End which is a 49 second outro with the sound of what I guess is the sound of sticky paper being pulled off a surface (Some say though that it's actually the sounds of elephants defecating) and the sound effects being toned way down. It ends this incredible journey of UFOrb.

This CD is a masterpiece that I cannot reccomend enough. Believe me this disc is worth owning just for Blue Room alone(There's a 40 minute, that's right, 40 minute version out there somewhere which I've had no luck in hearing or finding). No other album by the Orb has the punch that this one has. In fact, it deserves a rating of five galaxies, not just five stars. It's that good! For the next four years, the Orb would put out much earthier materieal with the bizarre and chaotic Pomme Fritz and the misty Orbus Terrarum before returning to their trademark sound with the apocolyptic Orblivion. There's lots more from this CD than what I could give away. Go and buy it now!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bliss Packaged Into A 70 Minute CD, February 23, 2001

By	El Reanimator-o (The CO) - See all my reviews

Possibly the Orb's greatest and most accessable album, U.F.Orb was one of the most defining albums in electronic music's history. It's not a CD you can get tired of easily. The first track, "O.O.B.E." sets the mood for the whole album. It gives off an ethereal feeling, like you're floating far above Earth looking down at all the colors of the world. The title track picks up the pace, getting rather heavy and driving, voices permeating the bleak soundscapes, and giving the feeling of an alien invasion of Earth. The masterpiece of the album, "Blue Room", is a 17 minute epic into alien abduction. Where it starts out giving off the feeling of standing on the seashore where the moon is shining and dolphins are at play, everything quiets down and the air raid sirens belt out across the horizon. Then, the aliens come down and steal you away on an amazing voyage up against the bass rumblings of Jah Wobble and guitar mayhem of Steve Hillage. When they return you back to Earth, you'll be ready to visit the dubby bliss of "Towers of Dub". Starting with a prank call made to an English TV station, you soon find yourself in a field with harmonicas and a wishy washy dub bass playing over the playful barks of Rags the dog. The track warps, and you're climbing the towers of dub with Rags chasing after you. After you've made it out of the towers of dub, "Close Encounters" and "Majestic" take you on a whirlwind tour of the Earth as viewed from far above, with creative sampling dashed through both songs. Then the album comes to a halt with "Sticky End", a ponderous 50 second track of elephants defecating.

With every Orb album to date, the focus of each album seems to get more detailed. Whereas "Adventures..." focused on space as a whole, "U.F.Orb" seems to be more focused into the Earth as viewed from Space. Each new album seems to bfing the Orb's focus back into our planet Earth. I would not hesitate to buy this album.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Majestic, January 4, 2003

By	A. Farquhar (Potomac, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"O. O. B. E." is perhaps the most enlightening piece of music I have heard come from the Ambient revolution. "The Blue Room" is long and exhausting but nonetheless full of worth. The star of the show is irrevocably "The Towers of Dub." From the odd conversation in the beginning to the tripped-out harmonica, it is perhaps the high water mark of ambient dub. The other songs on the album are all good, and have more beats. If ever one needs to fly through the cosmos, merely put this cd on and all will be well.