U.F.Orb

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U.F.Orb
U.F.Orb cover
Studio album by The Orb
Released March 1992
Recorded  ?
Genre Ambient house
Length 73:55
Label Big Life
Producer(s) Orb, Steve Hillage, Youth
Professional reviews
The Orb chronology
The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
(1992)
U.F.Orb
(1992)
Live 93
(1993)


U.F.Orb is an ambient house album by The Orb that reached #1 on the UK Album Chart. It featured an edited version of The Orb's single "Blue Room". Noted graphic design group The Designers Republic designed the cover art for the album.

Orb member Kris Weston integrated his technical and creative expertise with Alex Paterson's Eno-influenced ambience on U.F.Orb, creating "drum and bass rhythms" with "velvet keyboards" and "rippling synth lines".[1] U.F.Orb reached #1 on the UK Albums Chart to the shock of critics, who were surprised that fans had embraced what journalists considered to be progressive rock.[2] Heavily influenced by The Orb and U.F.Orb in particular, many trip-hop groups sprang up emulating The Orb's "chill-out blueprint".[3] U.F.Orb expresses The Orb's fascination with alien life with its bizarre sound samples and in the album's title itself.[4] The album's single, "Blue Room", is itself a reference to the supposed Blue Room of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which was heavily investigated as a possible UFO evidence holding room.[5]

[edit] Track listing

  1. "O.O.B.E." – 12:51
  2. "U.F.Orb" – 6:08
  3. "Blue Room" – 17:34
  4. "Towers of Dub" – 15:00
  5. "Close Encounters" – 10:27
  6. "Majestic" – 11:06
  7. "Sticky End" – 0:49

[edit] References

  1. ^ Prendergast, Mark (2003). The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby-The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, pp. 407-412. ISBN 1-58234-323-3. 
  2. ^ Sullivan, Caroline. "Breakdown", The Guardian, 1993-04-09.
  3. ^ Shapiro, Peter (1999). The Rough Guide to Drum 'n' Bass. Rough Guides, pp. 327-329. ISBN 1-85828-433-3. 
  4. ^ Holthouse, David. "Eye of the Orb", Phoenix New Times, 1997-04-30.
  5. ^ Sandall, Robert. "Hippie dippie draw", The Times, 1992-07-12.

[edit] External links

The Orb
Alex Paterson | Jimmy Cauty | Kris Weston | Simon Phillips | Thomas Fehlmann | Andy Hughes | John Roome
Main albums
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld | U.F.Orb | Live 93 | Pomme Fritz | Orbus Terrarum
Orblivion | U.F.Off | Cydonia | Bicycles & Tricycles | Okie Dokie It's The Orb on Kompakt
Related articles
Youth | The KLF | Space | FFWD | Badorb.com | Transit Kings
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