The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld

The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Studio album by The Orb
Released 2 April 1991
Recorded Berwick Street Studios
Genre Ambient house, dub, breakbeat
Length 109:41
Label Big Life
Producer Alex Paterson, Andy Falconer, Kris Weston
The Orb chronology

Kiss EP
(1989)		 The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
(1991)		 U.F.Orb
(1992)
Deluxe Edition
Cover of a 2006 reissued 3-CD deluxe edition

The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld is the 1991 ambient house-concept debut album by the electronic music collective The Orb. The album's framework is of a two-hour psychedelic trip through music genres and studio electronics, produced to "push the threshold" of live stage performance. The double album is a continuous progressive composition consisting of several tracks advancing the journey concept and composed of vocal samples and sound effects interspersed with original music. There are three versions, a 109:41-minute UK release (US Cassette copies this tracklist), a 70:41-minute US release and a 182:05-minute UK Deluxe Edition reissue that was released in mid-2006.

History

The Orb have always primarily been composed of one individual, Alex Paterson, along with numerous and varied individuals assisting throughout the group's recording career.[1] Paterson's late 1980s and early 1990s chillout DJ sets in Paul Oakenfold's Land of Oz night in the club Heaven are thought of by those involved as legendary[2] and included collaborations with another ambient house pioneer Jimmy Cauty. Paterson said of these events:

“ "We'd build melodies up by overdubbing and mixing multiple tracks and then take an eight track (or was it a twelve track?) into Heaven, just linking it up to three decks ([turntables]), loads of CD players, loads of cassettes... we used to keep it very, very quiet. We never used to play any drums in there. It'd be, just like, you know, BBC sound effects, really... four or five hours playing really early dub reggae... For All Mankind [a documentary of NASA's Apollo missions, with a soundtrack by Brian Eno]. We had white screens so we could put up visuals as well. We had home movies of ducks in the park. We'd go for everything. It was all layering on top of each other."[3] ”

Following success in the singles market (including 1988's Tripping on Sunshine and the Kiss EP and A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld both in 1989),[4] Paterson and Cauty started work on their first album but split in 1990 due to disagreements about releasing The Orb's material on Cauty's record label KLF Communications.[5] While Cauty released his portions of the planned album as Space[6] and resumed his partnership with Bill Drummond as The KLF. Paterson moved on to his next collaboration Little Fluffy Clouds in Autumn 1990 with Killing Joke's Youth. The track was recorded by an 18-year-old studio engineer and future Orb collaborator Kris "Thrash" Weston.

In April 1991, the Orb released The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld for an audience familiar with their groundbreaking singles and several John Peel radio sessions.[7] The album was received in the UK and Europe with critical acclaim. The album rose to position No. 29 in the UK Album charts. By mid-1991, The Orb had signed a deal to release the album in the US but were forced to edit the double-disc 109:41-minute UK release down to a one disc 70:41 minutes. The full double-disc version and cassette were later released in the US by Island.

Album covers

US Cover

The two covers are primarily distinguished by the outing of the Floydian Battersea Power Station on the cover of the US version. The images are attributed as follows (in the lining):

Accolades

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [8]
Spin 9/10[9]
Slant Magazine [10]
Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Melody Maker UK Top 30 Albums of 1991[11] 1991 22
NME UK Greatest Albums of All Time[12] 1993 45
Spin Magazine US 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s[13] 1999 82
Muzik UK Top 50 Dance Albums of All Time[14] 1999 7
Virgin UK The Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums[15] 2000 222
Pitchfork Magazine US Top 100 Records of the 1990s[16] 2003 100
Slant Magazine US 25 Greatest Electronic Albums of the 20th Century[17] 2003 4

Track listing

UK (and US Cassette)

Side one

  1. (earth orbit one) "Little Fluffy Clouds" (A. Paterson/Martin Glover) – 4:27
  2. (earth orbit two) "Earth (Gaia)" (A. Paterson/K. Weston) – 9:48
  3. (earth orbit three) "Supernova at the End of the Universe" (A. Paterson/S. Hillage/M. Giraudy) – 11:56

Side two

  1. (lunar orbit four) "Back Side of the Moon" (A. Paterson/S. Hillage/M. Giraudy) – 14:15
  2. (lunar orbit five) "Spanish Castles in Space" (A. Paterson/J. le Mesurier/G. Pratt) – 15:05

Side three

  1. (ultraworld probe six) "Perpetual Dawn" (A. Paterson/E. Maiden) – 9:31
  2. (ultraworld probe seven) "Into the Fourth Dimension" (A. Paterson/A. Falconer/P. Ferguson) – 9:16
  3. (ultraworld probe eight) "Outlands" (A. Paterson/T. Fehlmann) – 8:23

Side four

  1. (ultraworld nine) "Star 6 & 7 8 9" (A. Paterson/Tom Green/Hugh Vickers) – 8:10
  2. (ultraworld ten) "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld (Live Mix Mk 10)"(A. Paterson/J. Cauty/M. Riperton/R. Rudolph/S. Darlow/S. Lipson/B. Woolley/T. Horn) – 18:49

US

Side one

  1. "Little Fluffy Clouds" – 4:27
  2. "Earth (Gaia)" – 9:49

Side two

  1. "Supernova at the End of the Universe" – 11:55
  2. "Perpetual Dawn (Solar Youth Mix)" (A. Paterson/E. Maiden/J. Nelson/S. Phillips/Martin Glover) – 3:48

Side three

  1. "Into the Fourth Dimension" – 9:14
  2. "Outlands" – 8:20
  3. "Star 6 & 7 8 9" – 4:22

Side four

  1. "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld (Live Mix Mk 10)" – 18:47

UK: 2006 Deluxe Edition reissue

Disc one

  1. "Little Fluffy Clouds" – 4:27
  2. "Earth (Gaia)" – 9:48
  3. "Supernova at the End of the Universe" – 11:56
  4. "Back Side of the Moon" – 14:15
  5. "Spanish Castles in Space" – 15:05

Disc two

  1. "Perpetual Dawn" – 9:31
  2. "Into the Fourth Dimension" – 9:16
  3. "Outlands" – 8:23
  4. "Star 6 & 7 8 9" – 8:10
  5. "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld (Live Mix Mk 10)" – 18:49

Disc three

  1. "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld [Peel Session]" – 20:14
  2. "Perpetual Dawn [Ultrabass II]" – 7:12
  3. "Little Fluffy Clouds [Cumulo Nimbus Mix]" – 6:39
  4. "Back Side of the Moon [Under Water Deep Space Mix]" – 8:42
  5. "Outlands [Fountains of Elisha Mix]" – 8:39
  6. "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld (Aubrey Mix Mk 11)" – 7:13
  7. "Spanish Castles in Space [Extended Youth Mix]" – 13:39

Tracks details

Instrumentation and samples

Contributors

Musicians and engineers

Samples

Release history

Year Type Label Catalog
2006 CD Island/Universal 948,002-2
1994 CD Big Life/Island Red 535005
1994 CS Big Life/Island Red 535005
1994 CD Big Life BRDCD5
1991 CD Big Life 314-511034-2
1991 CS Big Life 314-511034-4
1991 CD Big Life 511034
1991 CS Big Life 511034

Recording details

Citations

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Prior to The Orb, Paterson was a roadie for Killing Joke, and worked in Brian Eno's EG Records.
  2. ↑ Paterson's "White Room chillout sets are mentioned here
  3. ↑ David Toop Ocean of Sound. London: Serpent's Tail, 1995
  4. ↑ The singles are detailed here
  5. ↑ There is some evidence to indicate they split because of artistic differences, Paterson viewed himself as a musician, Cauty as a DJ and there was some concern that Cauty was treating The Orb as a side project.
  6. ↑ There are direct parallels between Space and Adventures but Cauty removed Paterson's attribution from the credits
  7. ↑ The "Maida Vale" Peel sessions are listed here
  8. ↑ Allmusic review
  9. ↑ Weisbard & Marks, 1995. p.282
  10. ↑ http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/the-orb-adventures-beyond-the-ultraworld
  11. ↑ The full Melody Maker 1991 Top 30 list is available here
  12. ↑ The full NME 1993 Greatest Albums list is available here. You have to scroll down to the 1993 section
  13. ↑ Retrieved from the Internet Archive here
  14. ↑ Full list is here. Scroll down, list is very long.
  15. ↑ http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/virgin_1000_v3.htm
  16. ↑ Full list is available here
  17. ↑ Full article available here

References