Cargo Records

Baghdad Batteries:Orbsessions Vol 3

There's always been two quite contrasting sides to The Orb's centrifugal epicentre Dr Alex Paterson. One is the purveyor of hook-ridden songs laden with vocal toppings or memorable samples, as heard on last year's delightful collaboration with Youth and Tim Bran, The Dream, which Alex describes as 'pop'.

The other is more serious, focusing primarily on the sound itself, noticeably rearing in the mid-90s almost as a reaction to The Orb's initial success on under-rated masterworks like Orbus Terrarum.These startling electronic odysseys are often hatched with long-time collaborator Thomas Fehlmann, The Orb's Berlin connection who's been there from the first album and last made his towering presence felt on 2005's Okie Dokie album for the renowned Kompakt label, bastion of KOLN minimalmuzik. Such is the case with Baghdad Batteries where the pair have injected some of these breathtaking outings with a subterranean house pulse beamed up from the Earth's core, resulting in a new form of space disco which sounds as old as time itself while brushed with the most future-pointed minimal techno shadows.The album is actually the third volume in Malicious Damage's ongoing Orbsessions series, but whereas the previous two were compiled from nuggets trawled from the vaults, these are new tracks recorded at Thomas' Berlin studio, which also provide the soundtrack for Austrian director Werner Boote's film Plastic Planet.

There's a very special atmosphere to this album: two men bouncing ideas and exploring in classic Orb style to make a classic Orb album, hitting the magic place Alex always strives for, but this time with a lustful vengeance tempered with new gentleness and a movie in their heads.