Bicycles & Tricycles

Interesting new effort by The Orb, spanning a number of genres in electronica and even hip-hop. Much of the album left me feeling nostalgic for the good old days of mid-90’s breakbeat with groups like the Chemical Brothers, Orbital, and Prodigy. But coming three years after the atrocious “Cydonia”, I also expected a bit more in terms of innovation; the album is about 10 years behind the times. Despite being dated overall though, a few tracks are quite strong and worth playing.
Track to play: 2,3,5,11
1)Starts with atmospheric harps and muted horns. Out of nowhere, deep bassline and techy beat drops. Catchy, but begins to drag on a bit. 2)Dark hip-hop cut with MC Soom T. Catchy hooks and breaks, and Soom’s flow comes off pretty well. Worth a spin. 3)Released a couple years back on The Orb’s edition of the “Back to Mine” series, it’s now released again I guess. Nonetheless, one of the stronger on the album. Cool samples, hooks, melodies, basslines, it’s all here. The beat is sort of a late-90’s breakbeat ordeal, so the track is crying to be remixed. 4)Strings and horns give a very nice melodic elements, but it is sort of spoiled by a thundering breakbeat. Pity. 5)Hypnotic ambient house track. 4 or 5 synth licks dance around a really minimal thudding 4-4 beat. Single repeated vocal sample of a guy moaning. Nice little kicks and drops keep one’s interest. 6)Simple breakbeat with layered vocal samples. Not all that interesting. 7)Long wondering ambient cut. Rich ambient layering, assorted samples, and some ambient noise, with assorted beaks entering and leaving after a few seconds. 8)Thick electronic bass with thudding beat and goofy distorted vox. 9)Straightforward ambient dub track. Samples feature vocals and harmonica. 10)Very dark pure ambient track. No beat, little melodic content; just droning synth and occasional chords by a guitar. Very tripped out. Not bad stuff. 11) REALLY nice ambient cut. Warm pulsing noise creates a constant background while various other synth noises winds its way in and out of the track. Utterly hypnotic and druggy.
The Professor