Orbsessed - Cydonia Redux....

Turning back the Braw Blog clock 5 years (which in itself was turned back 16 to 18 years at that time) saw Rob tackle the thorny issue of Cydonia by The Orb, their somewhat troubled final album for Island Records – it took 18 months or so to complete and on arrival was deemed “a stillborn relic” by NME. The general consensus over time is that the original 1999 double album CDr promo version – The Orb’s Holy Grail of sorts, perhaps a complete soundboard recording of the pre-FFWD track Hidden In Heaven aside - was far superior to the much chopped, changed, rerecorded and truncated solitary CD effort that limped into a completely indifferent musical landscape in 2001….

The Orb - It's A Small World

Arriving at the here and now however, and encouraged by a posting on The Orb Music & Remixes Facebook group Rob’s returned to his 2017 reconstruction, christening this long-gestating 2023 makeover as the (ultimate) Cydonia Redux. This all began by first considering swapping out Disc 2's Yungle for (Rob’s whooshy favourite) It’s A Small World from Orbsessions Volume Two, before things quickly fell into place with the removal of the two "songs" (to an imaginary Disc 3), the repositioning of the rescued Hamlet of Kings to Disc 1 and adding the one-two old school heavyweight punch of a reinstated Yungle and (kinda) rediscovered It’s A Small World to Disc 2. Last but not least, each ‘Disc’ has also been given a title that relates to an area of the Cydonia Region of Mars, thus completing the super cycle....

The Orb - An Extra Mile Long Lump of Lard

Of course, all this is playing fast and loose with the exact late 90s timelines – likely only the Good Doctor himself knows what record a track like It’s A Small World was originally destined for – and really only takes the random Orbsessions collections as a rough starting point…. but helps in a ‘three birds with one stone’ way, being the cream of that crop too (as the rest fall under that much of a muchness bouncy (barely) techno that seemed to typify The Orb’s output until the mid 00s, y’know, samey short form tracks mostly devoid of depth and samples and thereby any sort of identifiably Orb-ish ‘layering sounds on top of each other’ personality - yep, yet again for all his talents poor Thomas Fehlmann just can't seem to catch a Braw break towards his beatiful contributions when it comes to Rob's take on taking on The Orb!*). But whatever, this is now Rob’s Cydonia Version of choice and has been capably getting him through the past few months on a near-daily rotation (er, until such a time as some whopping Live 93 Brixton Academy bootlegs - Plateau! Valley! Assassin! - knocked him for another six.... prior to Prism landing)….

https://science.nasa.gov/face-mars

Disc 1 – Mensae Side

1 – Terminus - Andy's Mix from the Cydonia Bonus Disc.

2 - Hamlet Of Kings – an ambient bonus from the original Cydonia best placed here before we get to the album proper.)

3 - Jam On Yer Honey - from Orbsessions Volume Two (where it's called Jam On Your Honey).

4 - Ralf - from Orbsessions Volume Two (where it's called Ralph's Cupboard).

5 - Promis - Version from the Cydonia Bonus Disc, clocking in at a slightly longer 5:47 (and very close to the 5:45 of the promo CD-R's).

6 - Bicycles & Tricycles - from Orbsessions Volume Two (where it's called 2026).

Disc 2 – Colles side

1 - Turn It Down - Long Version from the Cydonia Bonus Disc.

2 - Yungle - from Orbsessions Volume One.

3 – It’s A Small World - from Orbsessions Volume Two.

4 - A Mile Long Lump Of Lard - album track from the original Cydonia, sadly shorn of about 4 minutes in comparison to the promo CD-R’s – the earlier uncut version is here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdRHWgNo260)

5 - Freely Wheely ("Feely Wheely") - from Orbsessions Volume Two (where it's called Ba'albeck).

Bonus disc – Labyrinthus side

1 - Once More - album track from the original Cydonia.

2 - Ghostdancing - album track from the original Cydonia – can be replaced with the Version (instrumental) from the Cydonia Bonus Disc as it dispenses with the vocals and the crossfade into Turn It Down.

*Indeed, if we're going to bag a fourth bird** with one stone then copied here's the bulk of an abortive Braw blog about Bicycles & Tricycles found languishing in the Orbsessed drafts:- Such a curious album this, the tracks are pared right back - often composed of only a few repeating motifs with (seemingly) little attempt being made to merge the sound - and so overall it sounds quite cold, thin and clinically clean, lacking the warmth of (the slightly better and similarly minimal) Okie Dokie from the following year, no matter the fact B&T's more quirky samples heavy (a technique that can often round out and paper over any sonic shortcomings). Really only Gee Strings here has any decent spintime.... for it's rather short 5 minutes or so....

(It seems the point of all this was to ultimately compare the different 2003 Japanese album release with the 2004 UK release, but take it from Rob, they are both terrible....)

The Orb - Gee Strings

**a fifth bird is a barely there draft blog, 'Reliving The Dream' which has a clutch of links to reviews - the BBC, Pitchfork - and only goes so far as to suggest 'Tim Bran brings those essential Dreadzone dubby vibes' to The Dream album....

The Orb - Codes

Playlist >> Cydonia Redux

Orbsessed - Reconstructing Cydonia....

Twin seals of approval!

So what's the deal with The Orb's 2001 album Cydonia? Even this frighteningly comprehensive, mightily informative and lovingly compiled discography (now defunct) has everything post-2000 down as the 'crap years' and it's fair to say Cydonia saw them stumbling into the new millennium with something of a transitional album. It could certainly be seen as the final nail in The Orb MKI*s coffin, the departure of Andy Hughes under a less than fluffy cloud - presumably somewhere along the line between the initial Feb 1999 promo discs, the interim single CD promo efforts of Oct and Dec '99 and the reduction of his contributions to the Feb 2001 album proper - bringing a definite end to their "layering sounds on top of each other" phase. A fairly exhaustive (and slightly salacious) account of this decidedly troubled period for all concerned (and they certainly were!) is here (now defunct)....

* Let's consider, er, MKI.1 to be the genesis, Paterson, Cauty et al, MKI.2 Paterson, Weston et al, MKI.3, Paterson, Hughes et al. Of course, it's a little unfair to define the group by their high-profile departures as Thomas Fehlmann has been a near-constant throughout MKs I.2 and I.3, and is pretty much responsible, em, for the bulk of MKII's output thereafter which is, um, kinda suddenly unfairly damning him with, eh, faint praise indeed, innit...?

Hark! There it is! Picture from Discogs.

In order to successfully cook up the original double album you need to be in possession of the 2008 Cydonia Special Edition with the second cd of unreleased (re)mixes and 'Versions' as well as 2006's Orbsessions Volume One* and 2007's Orbsessions Volume Two. By plucking select tracks from the 3 of these, and in paying particular attention to running times, we can begin....

* I own the re-release of this album, which retains the Space - Space outtake in the form of Pluto Calling (Twinkle), but omits the Cauty/Paterson Mummie Don't, replacing that with Angel 3 Dub.

Mummie Don't! ....before she evidently upped and did!

Disc 1

1 - Terminus. Let's kick off with Andy's Mix from the Cydonia Bonus Disc, assuming it's an earlier incarnation of the eventual album version.

2 - Jam On Yer Honey is taken from Orbsessions Volume Two (where it's called Jam On Your Honey).

3 - Once More is the album track from the original Cydonia.

4 - Ralf is nabbed from Orbsessions Volume Two (where it's called Ralph's Cupboard).

5 - Promis is the Version from the Cydonia Bonus Disc, clocking in at a slightly longer 5:47 (and close to the 5:45 of the CD-R's).

6 - Bicycles & Tricycles is swiped from Orbsessions Volume Two (where it's called 2026).

The original promo tracklisting from the suporb discography.

Disc 2

1 - Turn It Down is the Long Version from the Cydonia Bonus Disc.

2 - Yungle is plucked from Orbsessions Volume One.

3 - Ghostdancing is the Version from the Cydonia Bonus Disc. It should likely be the original album version with its matching running time, but I've elected for this version as it does away with the middling vocals.

4 - A Mile Long Lump Of Lard is the album track from the original Cydonia, sadly shorn of about 4 minutes in comparison to the CD-R cut.

5 - Freely Wheely ("Feely Wheely") is grabbed from Orbsessions Volume Two (where it's called Ba'albeck).

(6 - Hamlet Of Kings. This is just a bonus you can add to kinda balance up the running times and, well, it's probably the only other track really worth salvaging from the original Cydonia album.)

The full length 2CD-R promo version of Terminus.

So along the way way back we lose Egnable, Firestar, Centuries, Plum Island, 1,1,1 and EDM, Thursday's Keeper (and Hamlet Of Kings, I suppose, if we're playing by the absolute rules). The first 2 of these original album tracks are really just a couple of minutes of filler before we get to the twin horrors that are Centuries and Plum Island - a pair of pretty bland songy dirges that plop and plod along in the pedestrian direction of nowhere.... you'd ever really want to revisit. (Once More and Ghostdancing were more than enough of the ill-advised 'pop song phase' for me, thank you.) 1,1,1 - the only Orb track ever credited to Paterson alone? - is more blink-and-you'll-miss-it filler and EDM is fairly standard in their sleep lumpen electro-stodge (that was stretched out to an almost interminable length at their 2014 25th Anniversary show) that you'd be best passing over in favour of the far better, almost-deserves-to-make-the-cut, Thursday's Keeper....

The verdict? Well, for all my criticism of the original Cydonia album there's no denying that over the years you do become accustomed to how it all hangs together as a piece, so by somewhat mercilessly chopping it up and shuffling it around and adding extra tracks it's impossible not to unsettle the ingrained listening experience, especially as the newer, er, older tracks are that bit more abrasive in their execution (though I certainly prefer the reinstated tracks over those discarded). However, given this post has had a similarly long and pained period of gestation I can happily report that I am beginning to reprogramme my audio receptors to gratefully receive. The first disc - once you get past the ingrained notion that Terminus should always be the concluding track - actually hangs together pretty well. The space epic of 2026 in particular, is a definite highlight worth unearthing....

20 Bicycles & 26 Tricycles....

By disc 2 there's no denying the first 3 or 4 minutes of Yungle are great stuff, but the descent into heavy beats with the distorted vocal sample becomes more than just a little wearing over the course of the full 10 and the following Ghostdancing sticks out like a (muted) sore thumb in the midst of this disc. Again, with the original vocals forming so much of the listening experience it does sound rather lacking when reduced to an instrumental version (which, I suppose, should really be added, if somewhat grudgingly). But, by continually exploring this set of tracks as a double album there's a definite similarity of sound, the sonic palette featuring a strange array of, um, honks, clonks, squinks and skwonks that are unique to this period of The Orb alone....

Yungle. Er, turn it down at 02:27....

There's probably a decent enough case for living with these select tracks for a bit longer and then further reassembling them into more evenly sounding sides, perhaps a softer ambient disc to start with followed by a rougher, beat-laden effort to follow (like, y'know, the complete opposite of their frankly horrible, career trashing run through at the Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld/Chill Out World! gig in Glasgow). It might just work.... Certainly I'd much rather have had this double set in 1999 - I think it just about merits escaping the 'crap years' in this form - and it is infinitely preferable to the remastered and expanded special edition of Cydonia from 2008 (the second disc which, with it's plethora of turd polishing remixes of the dreary Centuries, Plum Island and Once More, could be the worst thing farted out of The Orb's 00's cash cow)....

 

Limmy's Show: Dee Dee : Moon