Where do I begin? Here I am talking to Alex Paterson and John Roome, aka Witchman of the Orb……arguably the most influential electronic act of the last decade, and in many peoples’ estimation the natural successors to Pink Floyd. In the hierarchy of tripped out psychadelic sounds Paterson is some kind of royalty, and yet here he is a mild mannered and pleasant fellow wearing a Chelsea FC shirt. It’s almost surprising that he is quite normal and human. What I really want to ask him is how on earth anyone thinks up such seriously trippy and weird music? ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ still manages to profoundly impact upon everyone who hears it.

Instead I ease into things by asking him about what he does live. After experiencing the Orb live at Earthcore, I noticed he had turntables and a CDJing set up. Previously he had triggered samples. What was it he was actually doing?

‘I’m primarily bringing in beats and things…..mixing into what John’s doing…….I’ve learnt to become a living sampler really…..you can spend an afternoon trying to get a sample, which I do in a millisecond.’ It makes the live performance that much more interesting, especially since he’s under a bit of pressure to get the right disc cued up on time. John meanwhile mixes in the different elements of each tune, the basic components of which are running off a couple of ADAT machines. Due to not being able to soundcheck as thoroughly as they would have liked, which in turn was due to the assembly of the sound system running late, John was given a nasty surprise when he discovered that some channels weren’t responding. Hence some of the trademark hooks weren’t there. ‘You want to do something that pushes the boundaries’ , explains Alex, ‘ you don’t want it to be the same very night. I know if I don’t get that record on time it’s going to sound awful……!’

Alex started out as a roadie for Killing Joke. Then he became A and R man for Brian Eno’s label. As house music started to take the UK by storm in the late 80’s he found himself DJing chill sets. A montage of sounds from a radio station called Kiss, was released as ‘the Kiss’, and is the first Orb release. The blurb that comes with it is priceless – it predicts its chance of mainstream success is ‘zero’. But collaborating with mega producer Youth, who is also Killing Joke’s bassist – one of many odd connections in the tapestry of Paterson’s life – yielded the double album ‘the Orb’s adventures beyond the ultraworld’, and the classic ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’. Figures such as Jim Cauty of the KLF and legendary Gong guitarist Steve Hillage, now of System 7 fame, also came into the picture. Even Steve Reich if you allow for sampling. Dance music would never be the same. Would record stores have whole chill sections without the Orb? It’s hard to say, such is the impact of the Orb.

If the debut was mindblowing, it was the follow up that defied all music industry convention. Originally their WAU/Mr.Modo label (which stands for We Are Useless I’m told) was licensed to Big Life. It took ‘a stroke of a pen’ over which Paterson had no control, to find the act licensed to a major label, Island. When ‘UFOrb’ was released it went to number one on the UK charts, and the 40 minute single ‘Blue Room’ went top ten. It was unprecedented. These days however Paterson seems quite relieved to be rid of the Island deal. He attributes the four year lag between releases to major label politics. I asked what exactly the Orb had going in terms of a deal for their new album?

‘We’re going to try and release it ourselves and license it worldwide on various independents, as oppose to a major……I don’t think that really works anymore because with a major in two years time there will be a completely different personnel. We could just sit there and watch the paint dry again….they’d be saying, ‘where’s that singer? Where’s the guitarist?’ And all those other cliché things they say that you thought had gone away in the 80’s……..it’s nauseating and annoying’ Roome explains that waiting three years for ‘Cydonia’ to be released and having much of it scrapped mid way was intolerable.

So the Orb are independent again. Paterson explains, ‘we started off with our own label. Even back in 1979 we set up our own record label called Malicious Damage……’ This was when Paterson was a punk who liked hip hop! But as he points out the Orb has always had its own label, even if WAU/Mr.Modo was fairly nominal. But after Big Life ‘did the dirty’ and licensed them to Island, they gained huge exposure, but entered into a whole realm of being mucked around. Was it frustrating? Paterson chuckles and states, ‘but there’s sheep artists who love that. They don’t have to do anything. There are people who love getting all that attention from the label and being told what to do…..’ So whilst that’s fine for some, the Orb want none of it.

One manifestation of the new Orb, is the label and website – ‘BadOrb’.

Log on and you’ll be tempted by rare vinyl only releases and limited edition Tshirts. You are promised that after each run, they will be deleted. Everything is a guaranteed rarity. But what’s really exciting is the promise of a new album, which is pretty much all set to go. They assure me that it is a return to form for the Orb, rediscovering some of the dub sensibilities, but also looking forward.

Story by Baz Bardoe - www.psyburbia.mu

ORB SITES: www.theorb.com • www.witchman.co.uk • www.badorb.com