Music Arcades: The Orb: Little Fluffy Clouds

As I was saying just a few days ago, I fell for The Orb more or less instantly after I heard them on John Peel. I'm not sure I heard their first Peel session on its original broadcast, but I certainly heard the second, with track titles directly referencing Pink Floyd and long, too, with a Tangerine Dream feel (even Steve Hillage on guitar, I see, hmmm). While it was strange that Peel seemed to be going back to styles he'd previously rejected, it was liberating as well; as though it was now OK to admit to liking this stuff.

I think this CD was the first Orb product after that to appear in the shops, and I snapped it up. I loved the samples of Rickie Lee Jones' interview and Morricone's finest harmonica moment.

But it hasn't dated at all well. It sounds tired and obvious in some of the same ways as the KLF did. (It was only today, via last.fm and Wikipedia, that I realised that Jimmy Cauty from the KLF had been part of The Orb at the beginning.)

The CD is partly credited to WAU! Mr Modo Recordings. I didn't know them at the time, but I believe Mr Modo was the management partnership of Adam Modo and Yvonne O'Donovan (the Wikipedia entry only mentions Adam — I'm not sure enough of my facts to edit it). About seven years later, I mentioned to Adam that I had little experience of the music industry or how it worked. His strong advice was to keep it that way. Yvonne certainly voted with her feet, moving into the broader 'cultural industries'.

I went to see The Orb at Sheffield City Polytechnic (as it still was then ) in Spring 1991. They were so bad that it put me off ever buying anything else of theirs. I think Kris Weston may have been Alex Patterson's partner in the band by then — and I think I'm right in saying that he's since more or less disowned The Orb's music from that time.