The Orb’s new release with David Gilmour will take you on a trip back to the Dark Side. On Metallic Spheres, the UK group that gained popularity among clubbers in the ’90s for their creation of the ambient house genre offers a sound with a strong Pink Floyd feel but still remains faithful to their modern style. The presence of David Gilmour makes it difficult not to view the album through Pink-colored glasses, thanks to Gilmour’s distinct guitar and the spacey sound shared by the two bands. Yet this trip to the past proved fitting for The Orb, as the band sounds comfortable meshing their familiar techno and hip-hop sound with one of their main influences, ’70s progressive rock.
The wide array of sound effects – from airplane engines and helicopter propellers to inscrutable voices – and the reverb-laden synths used by the band conjure up images of trippy laser shows (a la Pink Floyd), paving the way for future concerts full of both visual and aural excitement. But the chill-out techno of Spheres could just as well be enjoyed in your bedroom, maybe with the addition of a black light or retro lava lamp for an enhanced listening experience. Faithful fans of The Orb might also be inclined to use other, ahem, “experience enhancers.” Regardless, the two-part album is sure to provide a sonic escape into the Orbian ultra-world.
As a demonstration of their pioneering attitude, The Orb makes an unorthodox move for an electronic group – about halfway through part one, the band sheds most of the sound effects for a few minutes of light-hearted acoustic guitar, courtesy of Mr. Gilmour.
This break from electronics is a fresh breath of morning air as the music emerges from the late night after-party sounds of before. The Orb’s foray into the human world of acoustic guitar picking, and a simple beat provides a welcome break from the abstract electronic world of the first half of part one. But surely enough, the muffled voices return along with Gilmour’s echoing electric guitar, and it’s back to the ambient world after a short vacation to Earth.
The album has some awkward moments, such as the sampling of Graham Nash’s “Chicago,” which is used in parts one and two. Apparently this particular song was used to protest the extradition of Glasgow-born hacker Gary McKinnon, but it sounds out of place on an album with virtually no vocals. The sample could work, but the odd sound effects surrounding Gilmour’s singing of the song’s chorus make it sound awkward and disconnected from the rest of the album.
Despite short instances of incongruence and the lack of structure in the two long tracks (which are each subdivided into five “movements”), the band maintains a loose fluidity through the use of recurring sounds. Gilmour’s crying riffs and a stomping techno beat drop in and out of the tracks, connecting the movements of the abstract album like recurring themes connect the events of a dense novel.
The veteran ambient artists found themselves a fitting complement to their spaced-out modern sound in the form of David Gilmour, one of the original prog-rock pioneers and surely one of The Orb’s influences. The addition of Gilmour proved to bring out the best in the band on Spheres, leading them to produce an album with their own modern style laid upon the foundation of classic Pink Floyd-esque sound. Plug in, turn on and drop into the ultra-world.
3.5 out of 5 stars