Bicycles & Tricycles

Bicycles & Tricycles
Studio album by The Orb
Released UK: May 2004
US: 13 July 2004
Genre Electronica, dub, house, breakbeat
Length UK: 63:55
US: 58:26
Label UK: Cooking Vinyl
US: Sanctuary/BMG Records
Producer Alex Paterson, Thomas Fehlmann, John Roome
The Orb chronology

Cydonia
(2001)		 Bicycles & Tricycles
(2004)		 Okie Dokie It's The Orb on Kompakt
(2005)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 61/100[1]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic [2]
Almost Cool 6.5/10[3]
Pitchfork Media 6.5/10[4]
The Guardian [5]
Rolling Stone [6]
Release Magazine 7/10[7]
About.com [8]
Slant Magazine [9]
URB [10]
Resident Advisor [11]

Bicycles & Tricycles is the sixth studio album from the Orb. It brought together The Orb's style of the early 1990s with current electronic music to mixed reactions.[12] The Daily Telegraph praised Bicycles & Tricycles as being "inclusive, exploratory, and an enjoyable journey";[13] however, many other publications dismissed it as "stoner dub" and largely irrelevant to current electronic music culture.[14][15] In addition to Paterson, Roome, Phillips, and Fehlmann, The Corpral contributed with vocoder affected singing and MC Soom-T provided lyrics and rapped. Though most critics found the rapping to be out of place, Jive Magazine described it as "the best track on [the album]" and "an amazing hip hop trip".[16] Orb co-founder Jimmy Cauty, too, made a guest appearance as co-writer on Bicycles & Tricycles' "From a Distance". After departing from Island Records, The Orb released Bicycles & Tricycles in 2004 on Cooking Vinyl in the United Kingdom and Sanctuary Records in the United States. To promote the album, The Orb began a UK tour with dub reggae artist Mad Professor, who had remixed The Orb in the past. Though The Orb still pulled in large crowds, The Guardian described one London performance as "joyless" and stated that "few of the new tracks... really go anywhere".[17] She also noted that Paterson seemed to be far more comfortable and happier to play material from Bicycles & Tricycles rather than older tracks. Paterson's biggest influences for the album were drum and bass and trip hop music.[18]

Track listing

UK version
  1. "Orb Is (Shopping Version)" – 4:49
  2. "Aftermath" – 4:40
  3. "The Land of Green Ginger (rmx)" – 4:01
  4. "Hell's Kitchen" – 5:23
  5. "Gee Strings" – 6:41
  6. "Prime Evil" – 5:14
  7. "Abstractions (Trance Pennine Express)" – 6:49
  8. "L.U.C.A." – 5:23
  9. "From a Distance (Blast Master v The Corpral)" – 3:55
  10. "Tower Twenty Three (Spud v Kreature Mix)" – 6:33
  11. "Kompania (Grooved Ware Mix)" – 6:19
  12. "Dilmun" – 4:02
US version
  1. "Orb Is (Shopping Version)" – 4:49
  2. "Aftermath" – 4:40
  3. "The Land of Green Ginger" – 4:01
  4. "Hell's Kitchen" – 5:23
  5. "Gee Strings" – 6:41
  6. "Prime Evil" – 5:14
  7. "Abstractions (Trance Pennine Express)" – 6:49
  8. "From a Distance (Blast Master v The Corpral)" – 3:55
  9. "Tower Twenty Three (Spud v Kreature Mix)" – 6:33
  10. "Kompania (Grooved Ware Mix)" – 6:19
  11. "Dilmun" – 4:02
Japanese version
  1. "From a Distance (12" Z Mix)" – 5:32
  2. "The Land of Green Ginger (rmx)" – 4:01
  3. "Hell's Kitchen" – 5:23
  4. "Gee Strings" – 6:41
  5. "Prime Evil" – 5:14
  6. "Orb Is" – 3:28
  7. "Now Here" – 5:20
  8. "Abstractions (Submarium Mix)" – 6:56
  9. "L.U.C.A." – 5:23
  10. "Compania" – 1:54
  11. "Tower Twenty Three" – 7:50
  12. "Dilmun" – 4:02

References

  1. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/music/bicycles-tricycles/the-orb
  2. ↑ Allmusic review
  3. ↑ http://www.almostcool.org/mr/928/
  4. ↑ Pitchfork Media review
  5. ↑ The Guardian review
  6. ↑ Rolling Stone review
  7. ↑ http://www.releasemagazine.net/Onrecord/ororbbat.htm
  8. ↑ About.com review
  9. ↑ Slant Magazine review
  10. ↑ 11 tracks of classic ambient house and melodic decks and EFX exercises. [Sep 2004, p.116]
  11. ↑ Resident Advisor review
  12. ↑ Theakston, Rob. "Bicycles & Tricycles Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 10 October 2006.
  13. ↑ Perry, Andrew (1 May 2004). "Staying in CDs". The Daily Telegraph. p. 12.
  14. ↑ Verrico, Lisa (14 May 2004). "The Orb". The Times. p. 19.
  15. ↑ Miller, Phil (8 May 2004). "CDs". The Herald. p. 2.
  16. ↑ Bradley, Ryan (23 July 2004). "The Orb: Bicycles and Tricycles". Jive Magazine.
  17. ↑ O'Grady, Carrie (18 May 2004). "The Orb Concert Review: Coronet, London". The Guardian.
  18. ↑ Cowen, Andrew (21 October 1998). "Ambient gurus refuse to lie down". Birmingham Post. p. 15.

External links