Cydonia

I got a square deal on this disc, and purchased it in spite of my initial misgivings. I was an Orb fan from the start, and although their albums aren't the sort that I listen to straight through, there was always enough wow-inducing material available to make every album worth having. Relative duds like Orblivion and U.F. Off should have been warning enough.That being said, this isn't really an album that long-time Orb fans should go out of their way for. Cydonia is an obvious attempt by an artist to stay alive in a changing market, and sadly, it doesn't succeed. If you appreciated them for their flashes of genius-- and their best tracks are aging extremely well, I'd say-- it's best to avoid this awkward amalgam of currently popular musical fashions. It all plays out as an attempt to find new musical footing, and sounds like a series of wishy-washy experiments, rather than a cohesive musical idea. Not good. I'm sure that fans will be tempted anyway, and maybe fair weather fans hoping for another 'Little Fluffy Clouds' will still find something catchy enough to hold their interest for the moment, but listen carefully before buying.

I must disagree with those who have slammed this album; it is excellent, a new direction for the Orb but preserves a lot of the classic ambience that is identifiably Orb.As well, the combination of Paterson and Fripp on the final track-- Terminus-- is truly amazing stuff. Brilliant combination of Frippertronics with enough of that Paterson magic to glue the whole thing together in a fashion that I have hoped would happen for years.

very dubby stuff very likable

Cydonia is comprised of short pop songs, often with vocals, that are more content to safely tread water than explore the ocean. This was nothing like previous Orb releases and for me was my first disappointment with the Orb. In the past the Orb created sonic worlds that blended into one another with a kind of serendipitous cohesion. But alas this album has no organic flow, no overarching sonic concept. It sounds rushed, offhand and is content to imitate the trends of electronica/pop circa 2001 rather than innovate. For example the boring and pointless female pop vocals found throughout the album tether the music to a formulaic pop syntax that is neither groundbreaking, pleasant, nor anything but bland. In fact the vocals sound out of tune much of the time so let's add irritating to the list of adjectives. I don't have anything against The Orb trying something different only that they keep up a high level of imagination and quality. If they wanted to make discrete pop songs, so be it. But Cydonia fails to be anything but imitative, there's no spark, no wit, no exploratory whimsy. With this album The Orb ceased to be leaders in electronic music and, to my ears anyway, lost their muse and it killed the band for me.

I've anxiously awaited a new Orb release for nearly four years and wasn't dissapointed when I bought "Cydonia". It's another Orb classic, bearing the most resemblences to '97's "Orblivion" album except not quite as dramatic or intense. Included for the first time on an Orb album are sung vocals - mainly on the tracks "Once More", "Ghostdancing" , "Centuries" and "Plum Island". They bear strong resemblences to what you may hear on a Portishead or Bjork cd but they don't distract too much from the album and fit in quite nicely actually. And just like your typical Orb album there are moments of humour on the CD with news and advertistment samples and backround circus music in some parts. The cool basslines and thumping beats are there too if slighly more toned down than on "Orblivion". I agree the Orb doesn't really break onto new ground with this release but they do further define the genre which they themselves have created. If you're an ORB fan already, you'll love this album. And if you like electronic/experimental techno music with bleeping effects and complex layers of atmosphere and space sounds you should check it out as well. "Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld" and "Orblivion" are probably still my favorite ORB CDs, and both were essential landmark albums for them no doubt, but 'Cydonia' is wondeful in it's own right and would make a worthy addition to any music lover's collection.

Alex Patterson is getting older. This is not necessarily a bad thing, I mean, basically this is an Orb album. The tracks are everything I'd expect an Orb album to be, which means that the Orb has reached the point where they have a formula that they feel represents what they want people to think they are feeling. A band's best work is usually produced during the period when they are trying to invent something or discover a form of expressing what they are feeling through sound. Does Aerosmith suck now that they aren't cokeheads? Do the Rolling Stones suck now that they've made a Pepsi commercial? Some people think so. What is missing from this album is the groundbreaking stuff. The Orb's best years were in the KLF-Weston period between the KISS EP and the Orbus Terrarum LP. The Orb is still making great music, but they aren't young anymore, and Dr. LX isn't doing sheets of acid every night running chill out rooms in Bristol. This is an Orb album, it's Orb's sound and that sound is here to stay. One might say that this album was made for the fans that grew up with Alex's sound and have matured with it. With Cydonia, the Orb have crafted an accessible album which I like a lot, but it's not revolutionary, and it won't make you trip your balls off.