The Dream

The Orb have presented The Dream as a return to both form and freedom. On the one hand, they cut loose from the deadening expectations of record labels and made it themselves; on the other, they've promised the fans a return to the cosmic roamings of their 1990s peaks.

There's always been a hokey streak to The Orb that doubles as a kind of wry self-awareness in the right conditions, even at the most phantasmagorical extremes. Or has there? A little mystery of the sort is desirable, even necessary, but The Dream has a habit of dashing the murky, dreamy Orb world in ways that aren't…

The Orb's 2005 classic on the Kompakt label -- aptly titled Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompakt -- easily proved that Dr. Alex Paterson and company could hang with the techno avant-garde of the new millennium, taking the minimalist blueprint of many who had followed the Orb and delivering a great record within that context.

For even the most casual fan of ambient electronic music, the Orb is one of the most important acts you could ever know, up there with Kraftwerk, Brian...

The Orb - The Dream review: The Orb make a great return to the sound and elements that made their debut the classic that it deserves to be.