Only CDs Is Sounding Like These # 10: The Orb, The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (1991)

A new occasional series - CDs are coming back baby! And I’m here for it. BIGTIME! Also, some albums just REALLY suit the format, right

I arrived in Wellington in 1995. University was the excuse, if not the actual calling. And I started building a CD collection very quickly. I had about 40-50 CDs when I arrived I reckon. I had about 200 by the end of the first year. Thank you, Government.

We all had CDs in the hostel. Sharing them around the place, hearing them as you walked past slightly opened doors. A lot of Pearl Jam was going down. And some Offspring. A lot of Oasis and Blur. Some Hootie And/Or Blowfishes too. And Faith No More. I’m not talking about in my room — although the Faith No More was definitely blasting from there. And The Cult. But I was also taking my first tentative steps towards finding “chill-out” music — I had plenty of jazz, but most of it was pretty intense. I didn’t really have any ambient music, beyond a couple of discs from an Australian street musician that my parents had picked up in Melbourne and given to me. I would listen to those when writing my essays.

Anyway, a friend from the hostel introduced me to The Orb. Specifically, this, their debut album — a sprawling double from 1991. He also had the double live album from a couple of years on, and I tried that one on for size too. This soon became my favourite music to fall asleep to, and I know that never sounds like a compliment, but I reserve it for only the finest.

But, obviously, this isn’t just chill-out music — and maybe it (technically) isn’t even that at all. It’s dance music, it’s trance music, it’s a type of progressive dub that takes in elements of house and ambient…

It kicks off with this classic “banger” that has spoken word samples, and bits and pieces from all over the musical map. I knew straight away that the voice from the interview that was sampled was Rickie Lee Jones, because I loved her music — and knew her voice immediately. But it would take a lot longer to spot the other things. First off some classic Ennio Morricone, and then a few years on, I’d pick up on the Steve Reich, eventually I could even pinpoint the drums as coming from a Harry Nilsson record (Jim Gordon) like a lot of the other music nerds.

So The Orb was nice music-nerd stuff for me too.

But it was never about just that.

It was more about serving as an entree to a world. I started trying to find other things in this realm, and it was hit and miss — a typical miss being me going out and buying an album of Pink Floyd trance remixes, only to return it to the store 90 minutes later. A hit would be, a couple of years on, falling heavily for The Omni Trio, or lining this up alongside The KLF’s actual Chill Out record.

The songs on Ultraworld were all long, and loping, and I loved the way you could just space out to this music. It was perfect background stuff, and so I’d have it on in the room as it filled with people for pre-drinks before we hit up the town. Or I’d have it on while trying to write a back-cover-of-the-book essay in a single night, before sun-up. Or I’d have it on as I drifted off to sleep.

It served all purposes.

And it had a 20-minute track to finish!

This, of course, was mind-blowing. Just for existing.

I can trace my owning this album to finding out about Aphex Twin and Orbital and all sorts of things in the wheelhouse, or even well outside it, connected, unconnected, it didn’t matter. This was some sort of lightning rod.

And it has always existed as a CD for me. I never had this on tape. I never thought about buying it on vinyl. I owned the CD. And then, of course I didn’t. I’d check in on it now and then online, but it wasn’t quite the same.

So, just recently, I bought it on double-CD again. A “proper” double. A “fat” double. The old-fashioned/original two-cover double-CDs. As rare as the teeth of a hen now. And usually far more cracked. This one pristine, but for how long? I’ve put it in my collection next to a copy of The KLF’s Chill Out. And near some CDs by The Necks. I’m sure they’ll all be very happy. These lonesome, loner-y sounds have made very happy over the years. Very, very happy.