The Orb Announces New Album Featuring Lee Scratch Perry

THE ORBSERVER in the star house out August 28th on The End Records

The album’s inception can be traced back to 2004 when Dr Paterson played a DJ and toaster set with Lee in Mexico. “I had an amazing time being that close to the great man,” enthuses Dr. Paterson. “I played a dub set, Earl 16 was Greg Dread’s toaster, Mad Professor had his ladies, then there was the legendary Lee Scratch Perry; he’s a genius who expresses the future within the present times of anguish, hope and unity.”

Meanwhile, Thomas has been at the forefront of Germany’s electronic music scene since his days of avant foraging with Palais Schaumburg in the late 1980s, becoming part of Berlin’s rapidly-evolving techno underground, working with Sun Electric and many of the city’s major artists and operations, including the mighty Kompakt.

“He was constantly active, referring to the tunes we were working on and hitting on bits of wood or stone to create percussion patterns, so we ended up using field recordings of him banging on bits and pieces,” Fehlman adds.

Scratch’s vocals glide distinctively over bass-heavy monsters such as Soulman and Man In The Moon, the most overt Orb-dub behemoth on the set, while Don’t Rush takes the ridim form then dismantles it in subterranean sonic catacombs. House grooves inflect H.O.O. and Ashes, while a funky slide bass-line percolates under Thirsty. Hold Me Upsetter sparkles with lovely bass-string interplay and Congo brings in rolling banks of African percussion.

Both parties rework one of their classics; Police And Thieves, the track which Perry produced for Junior Murvin in 1976, is turned into a dubwise vocal vehicle, while The Orb’s Little Fluffy Clouds is reshaped as the hallucinogenic dancehall clatter of Golden Clouds.

“Looking back now those spontaneous jams we did became the most successful tunes”, recalls Thomas, “in that they were created under the influence of the situation. They all had a powerful, magic drive we felt was owed to a truly inspiring collision of our three planets.”

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