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Album Details

• Artist: Orb
• Album: Bicycles and Tricycles
• Label: Hexus / Sanctuary
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-09-11

While paving the way for electronica over a decade ago (can you believe that the first Orb album surfaced in 1991?) Alex Peterson and his ever changing crew has had their ups and downs. Back in their prime, The Orb would take some fairly ordinary samples and beats and create magic. Remember "Little Fluffy Clouds"? If you are looking for that sort of magic, you might need to look further than Bicycles & Tricycles. This album is indeed an improvement on Cydonia, their last album released in 2001. It must be said, though, that a bad Orb album is better than most other electronica acts out there today. While the genre may seem a little overdone, Patterson comes in and shows us that not everything has been done with samplers and drum machines. The album kicks off with "Orb Is" in classic Orb fashion but eases into an actual hip hop track called "Aftermath" that features MC Soom T. It shows Alex opening up to new things and it is quite a good rap track. There are a number of tracks like "Abstraction" that sound like classic Orb but there are a few ones that really sound like Peterson is looking at new things, that hip hop track for instance. A few more songs like that and we should be onto something good. Again, Bicycles and Tricycles is quite an improvement on Cydonia and does show that The Orb may still be relevant.

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