Plunderphonics

A track for you to vibe out to under the little fluffy clouds? It’s time for your new post!

Pictured: Alex Paterson (Programming) and Michael Rendall (Effects) (Photo Credit: http://www.theorb.com)

It’s quite the sunny Stoke day for me – which gives us the perfect excuse to stream the latest track from one of Britian’s most established Chillout acts – The Orb, an ambient electronic house duo originally set up by Alex Paterson and The KLF’s Jimmy Caulty in 1988 – which is now comprised of Paterson and Michael Rendall. The Orb are best known for their 1991 classic “Little Fluffy Clouds”, which led to the duo becoming known for their following inside drug-induced clubs where their fans would “wind down” by listening to their neo-psychedelic remixes of Dub and Chill sequences. Their new LP record, “Abolition Of The Royal Familia” is currently slated for release on March 27th via the Cooking Vinyl label – with the title seeming like one of the obscure science fiction references which The Orb have become very synonymous for, in their long career since the late 1980’s. The new LP, their sixteenth studio album release overall, features guest appearances from the likes of Roger Eno, Nick Burton (former rotating member of The Orb), Andy Cain, Gaudi, Violetta Vicci and more – who will all be bringing their talents in a collaborative effort with the British humor and the witty sample-based elements of The Orb’s old-school psych-funk sensibilities. The most vital of which, however, is… Leika The Dog! Let’s watch her go on a cosmic canine trip to the moon and back in the music video for “Daze (Missing & Messed Up Mix)” below.

Fairly low production vales aside – the video for “Daze (Missing and Messed Up Mix)” elicits a few decent chuckles out of me, and I feel like the single is reasonably good as well. I particularly enjoyed the opening, as a sample-led blast of vocals, drowned in echoed reverberation, proudly exclaims: “A soul sound sensation”, before a swirling strobe of Balearic synths take control of the melodic hook, leading to a slightly down-tempo affair of genre-blurring composition, as a soulful refrain leads the vocal part: “You’ve been missing for days/missing..”, a simple line which is given a little more depth through an unashamedly 70’s disco element, as a vintage sample adds enough ooh’s and wooh’s to also craft a dance-able pop rhythm. The track also contains a light hop-hop element under a 90’s ambience glaze, which is created from a subtle strings arrangement and a modulated Conga drum sound. It mostly sounds like an eclectic and meticulously engineered affair of The Orb doing their classic dub-psychedelia twang best. It’s business as normal for The Orb, with an uptempo groove put together by a jam-packed sample part, which reminds me of the nostalgic adventure sound of The Avalanches “Since I Left You”. However, I don’t think it’s engineered in as much detail and in a peculiar sense, I don’t feel it really goes anywhere else, the soulful melodies are consistent but lacking in a vigorous quality to push it forwards slightly more than it’s been presented, as I feel the vocal refrain gets a little too repetitious for it’s own good. This is more the style of track that I would sit down and have on during a long train journey, rather than before a big night-out, as it does have an upbeat, traditional Chillout pop texture, but it doesn’t veer so much into free-spirited dance territory. Although I do think the track is missing another element of sound to give the overall sound a touch more excitement and just a little bit more oomph, I think the track does what it sets out to do very adequately. The slight infliction of wit is a twinkling highlight and it’s very engaging how the sound mixes elements of hip-hop, dub, ambient house, psychedelic soul and good, old-fashioned pop without losing much of it’s cohesive structure. A likeable little anthem.

Pictured: Alex Paterson and Michael Rendall enjoying a garden day… in the bushes! (Orb-approved press shot)

You can also read my thoughts on The Orb’s 90’s classic “Little Fluffy Clouds” here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/02/18/todays-track-the-orb-little-fluffy-clouds/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Abolition Of The Royal Familia” (Available on 27th March, 2020) (via Cooking Vinyl)

Thank you or reading this post! I’m writing a new installment of my weekly Scuzz Sundays series on the blog tomorrow – a weekly thowback to the late 90’s and early-mid 00’s punk or emo rock anthems of old that you might remember seeing on the defunct Scuzz TV Freeview music video channel. It will be a mainstream chart hit from a band who, as a running joke in their music videos, use their previous singles during the introductions of their videos! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when each new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

It’s been 4 years Since They Left Us.. at least they didn’t take a 16 year break this time!

Pictured: Robbie Chater (Mixing/Production/Guitar) and Tony Di Biasi (Keyboards/Bass/Synths) (2020) (via PR)

We’ve finally made it to Friday! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, writing about your daily track on the blog, as promised! Yesterday morning saw the return of one of my all-time favourites The Avalanches, who have been teasing a new album for months now, following their comeback album “Wildflower” being released in 2016. It took 16 years for the development of that record to see the light of day, with The Avalanches becoming a duo in that timeline. In case you’re not familiar, The Avalanches are a Plunderphonics duo from Australia who are best known for “Since I Left You”, which was released in 2000, an album which was made out of thousands of layered samples from older records, as well as voice clips and sound effects from films and television shows, most of which are very obscure. The record has a timeless, futuristic sound, which documents an adventurous journey through several locales in the world. The album spawned some mainstream success for The Avalanches and it’s gone down as as a classic, critically lauded as one of the best albums ever made. It’s been four years since we’ve heard from them, as a group of billboards, with an unmistakably Avalanches-style of art work, have been placed in several different locations around the world. They’ve collaborated with British producer Blood Orange (aka Dev Hynes) for “We Will Always Love You”, which was premiered on Triple J in the US and on BBC Radio 6Music in the UK early yesterday morning. Let’s have a listen to the track below.

Sumptuous melodies! Describing the context for the new album in an email newsletter, which you can also read on The Avalanches’ Instagram account, it’s being pitched as lost or deceased musical souls floating around in space, which are giving off transmissions. I don’t know about you, but when I hear that artists are exploring cosmic themes on a new record, I groan inside a touch because it feels a bit saturated and it’s hard to approach the aesthetic from an original angle, but in the case of this, it’s an intriguing concept that feels ripe for exploration from a sample-based act like The Avalanches. If I’m completely honest with you, the first time that I heard “We Will Always Love You”, I felt underwhelmed by it as I thought that it didn’t really go anywhere. However, I’ve now managed to see it as a short teaser for the new album rather than a full-blown lead single – and it’s managed to grow on me quite a bit. The track has a very spiritual quality, with a Gorillaz-like opening where morse code signals are given off as the main sample, taken from “Since I Saw You” by Playground Zero, creeps in: “Since I saw you last there’s been many a sunset/And every day we’re apart seems like a week”, as Hynes creaks: “Draped in monotony/What’s my life gotten me/Hard to be glorious when two minds meet in the corner”, with an upbeat tempo which gives off a slight hip-hop sensibility. He continues: “By me to you/take another hit/What else to do?/Think about leaving my house/But my fears aren’t letting up/” before our narrator is addressed by a vocal hook, created by a sample of “Hammond Song” by The Roches, which glistens a beam of hope: “We’ll always love you but that’s not the point/We’ll always love you but that’s not my fault”, with the soundscape being filled with more and more layers reciting the vocals, before a twinkling piano melody closes off the track. Overall, I still don’t think it’s their strongest work and I would like to see a return to the more dance-oriented, world-like sounds of “Since I Left You”, but this is still a top-notch little track that sets up the stage for the upcoming album. It’s different to the kind of experimental work we’ve seen from The Avalanches before, but it’s still got the nostalgic playfulness that makes it uniquely classed to them. The track isn’t filled with the hundreds of sounds we’re used to hearing from them, but it sounds more refined, rather than stuffed. Nobody quite manages to capture the adolescent, very emotive sounds that The Avalanches deliver in their manipulative sample work and it’s great to hear them making interesting music again… without it taking them over a decade to actually release it. Fingers crossed for the imminent singles in the build-up for the new album.

Pictured: The Avalanches (Robbie Chater & Tony Di Blasi) in a press photoshoot for “Wildflower” (2016) (via PR)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as per usual, with an in-depth look at an Ambient House track from a DJ who’s named themselves after a beloved TV sitcom starring the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when each new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime

One Track At A Time

Today’s Track: The ORB – “Daze”

Today’s Track: The Avalanches (feat. Blood Orange) – “We Will Always Love You”