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“The symbol of The Orb is a round circle with a cross on top, it’s quite an important sign that’s been used for millenniums. It dates back to the Pre-Egyptian days of Sumerian and Mesopotamian culture.” 15 years after he gave up roadying to concentrate on building ambient house giants The Orb, Alex Patterson remains one of dance culture’s most enigmatic, highly developed souls, as comfortable discussing chill-out as he is ancient Sumerian History and the future of the world.
“My missing link at the moment is that we don’t go to Heaven unless we’re complete,” he suggests.
“Our own egos have to belief that something happens after death, because we’re much too intelligent just to die. What we need to find is some kind of formula that gives us longevity in life so that we can actually reproduce the real power in our brains. But it that happened, we’d all become genuine supermen and there would be far too much of an overspill of population. So right now it’s still about keeping that formula from ancient alchemy, down.”
Equally happy discussing the background of Stonehenge (he’s recently returned from visiting Ireland’s equivalent Neolithic structure Newgrange) he’s nevertheless resolutely down-to-Earth and quick to downplay his alchemical knowledge.
“It’s not about me knowing this or that, it’s rather about me reading books, learning about these issues and discussing them with friends,” he explains.
“I’m not a person who philosophises, I just read things and try and connect them together. If I had the money I’d love to become and explorer and go on adventures, to find ancient cities in the jungle. But it’s not the 19th century.”
Instead he continues to make music, such as he brand new Orb album Bicycles and Tricycles, which sees him returning to the four/four ambient dub style he first pioneered in the late 80s.
“I’m 44 years old and I find it magical to be 44 and playing 4/4 music a lot,” he quips.
“I am 44, I shall play 4/4.”
Chuckling as he ponders such numerological coincidences, he admits he’s chilling out even more as time passes.
“I think I’ve slowed down a lot since when I started, I give myself more time, that’s something that happens when you reach 40. You suddenly realise all the rushing around doesn’t really matter,” he says.
While it might not matter much now, Patterson’s energy in the past helped make the Orb one of dance culture’s most significant, indeed popular bands of the 90s, their number one albums and Glastonbury headlining live shows putting them firmly on a par with their peers of the era Underworld, Orbital and Leftfield. However, as corporate forces took musical control as the millennium approached, The Orb’s relentless experimentation saw them being relatively marginalized though not before Alex duetted with Robbie Williams in a bizarre version of the Bee Gees ballad I Started A Joke.
“Robbie’s someone who, if I met him again, we’d have a coffee, a chat and a laugh, I still regard him as a kind of mate in that sense, because he’s that kind of bloke, he’s not a pretentious pop star,” says Alex.
“The funny thing was he first saw us when we were on Top Of The Pops playing chess, years ago- all day, because he was there performing with Take That. He told me that when he next saw us playing live that summer he was so impressed that he decided he wanted to do a tune with us.”
Odd collaborations aside, though, he’s nowadays back to collaborating with Orb originals Jimmy Cauty (of KLF fame), Thomas Fehlmann and long term collaborator Simon Phillips and will soon be touring the UK as a band in May. Though not before he’s completed a 16 date DJing solo tour of Australia.
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): You’re shortly off to Australia for a DJ tour, how does DJing compare to playing live as a band?
The Orb: “As a DJ I will be playing Orb music, I think that’s probably what they want me to do, though I actually find DJing much more difficult than performing with the band, because you can’t hide behind anyone. It’s two hours of sheer concentration, I concentrate with the Orb too but you can have more of a laugh than when you’re on your own- there’s no cover.”
Skrufff: you’ve got an extensive back catalogue to choose from, do you sometimes find yourself thinking ‘Oh God, I’ve got to play Little Fluffy Clouds again?
The Orb: “It gets like that now and again, it’s bound to. It’s just when I go out sometimes people say ‘this is the bloke who did Little Fluffy Clouds’. It’s a talisman but it’s also been a great salesman for me, it’s opened so many doors for The Orb. I can’t say ‘I fucking hate it’, because that’s what you want me to say, because that’s a good journalistic line. I actually regard Little Fluffy Clouds and A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain as the two main cornerstones of The Orb. If it wasn’t for those two tracks we wouldn’t have got anywhere, the other tracks would have been seen as being just good tracks, whereas those two are the excellent ones.”
Skrufff: How do you see acid house culture, now that it’s 15 years old?
The Orb: “I consider it to be a way of life, I see it all over the world, it’s still springing up everywhere. I’ve toured China, I’ve been doing a regular club in Moscow, all last year and I’ve been to places like Macedonia, all because of the music. I find it’s all opening up and it’s still fresh. In Australia it’s still fresh too. I played the Earthcore party on the millennium and that was magical. I’ll never forget that one.”
Skrufff: Do you ever look back and thing you should have done things differently?
The Orb: “I think everybody has regrets but you can’t really change it, you’ve just got to make sure it doesn’t’ happen again. I don’t really have regrets- though if I started again I would never trust anybody (chuckling).”
Skrufff: Do you see yourself as being involved in music until the end?
The Orb: “I think so, yeah, particularly when I go and see Kraftwerk play and know that Killing Joke are doing gigs this year, I think I can carry on for a few years yet. I think having a couple of classic albums under my belt has put me in the right sort of company.”
Bicyles & Tricycles is out on new label The Hexus shortly (check the website for release dates, which vary widely for different countries).
http://www.theorb.com
http://www.glasson.com/sights/newgrange.htm (Newgrange: Built some 5,300 years ago, this holy place is one of the oldest built structures in the world. The tomb is the passage grave which on the morning of the winter solstice becomes filled with the dawn sunlight for one memorable moment every year. At all other times of the year the tomb of a shrouded in darkness . . .’)
Interview By: Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
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