The Orb virtually pioneered the electronic genre of ambient house as we know it today. They manipulated obscure song samples beyond recognition, and popularised the genre by when their 1992 album ‘U.F Orb’ hit the number one spot on the UK album charts, in addition to their historic performance of Top of the Pops.

The Orb was founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and former KLF member Jimmy Cauty who began their career by Djing around their home-city of London. Inspired by artists such as Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, the duo developed a cult following amongst morning clubbers that were ‘coming down’ from their chemical fuelled previous evening.

The Orb has proceeded to maintain their science fiction and drug related themes despite many line-up changes over the years; Paterson is the only original member that remains after the departure of Cauty and other members that joined since the duo started out. Paterson continues to perform and write under the name of The Orb with the help of Swiss-German producer Thomas Fehlmann.

To date, The Orb has released an impressive 14 albums; with the most recent being 2007’s ‘The Dream’ released through Traffic People. ‘The Dream’ provides post-rave at its finest encompassing sample heavy playfulness of the outfits earlier triumphs, yet is considered to embody a lighter, more danceable energy.
 

Live, The Orb certainly provide a spectacle; they maintain colourful light shows and psychedelic imagery - these visually intense performances have often been compared to those of Pink Floyd. The Orb are finally returning to Manchester to play a date at Academy 3 on Sunday 11th May.