In response to the previous Orb post… I have a long history both professionally and personally w/ Alex and the Orb and have more than my fair share of stories to tell but here’s the abbreviated version… I’ve been a long time fan (since the proverbial “rave days” as Josh mentioned) and have also had the rare opportunity to design two of their albums, various logos, merch, etc.

Alex used to be a fan of Ecko gear and as I worked there in days long gone past I took it upon myself to contact his management as the Orb was on a US tour and finagled myself into the dressing room at their Irving plaza show (I believe it was the Cydonia Tour) to bless them w/ a box of the aforementioned company’s product. A couple months down the road I got a call from John Roome (Witchman) who was a Orb member at the time, NY based, and still a good friend. We started talking, myself being the fan, budding artist, and opportunist that I am passed Witchy a CD of some designs for Alex as they were working on a new album (Bicycles & Tricycles).

In the early days the Orb’s artwork was done by the Designers Republic, then MadArk took over and had some memorable (and forgettable) covers and then boom! Guess who stepped in the (blue) room? Dust La Rock or “Knuckleduster” {{shudder}} as I referred to myself in the earlier days and am credited as on the releases i contributed to. It def wasn’t my best work (by today’s standards) but was fitting for the time and got a good response. Now the inside story to B&T is that Jimmy Cauty (you might have heard him from another band called The KLF) helped produce the single and had parts in some of the other tracks. This is also important because it was the first Orb release in quite a few years to involve him as he and Alex had a bit of creative difference over the Orb’s earliest incarnation (Alex didn’t want it to become a KLF side project, henceforth Jimmy cut out Alex’s parts on the KLF album “Space”). Jimmy also art directed me on the album which to say in the least was a personal milestone.

Anywhoo, the album was released on V2 in Japan and by some fuck off distributor (Sanctuary) in the US and didn’t get a lot of play unfortunately.

Round 2… ding, ding, ding! I was traveling for research purposes in the UK and popped by to see Alex for the day at his home in Battersea, which, after 10 hrs of smoking rollies w/ hash (he doesn’t smoke cigarettes but always rolls his weed or hash w/ tobacco) needless to say I was toasted.

He ended up introducing me to an album called My Life in the Bush of Ghosts after which we went down to the now defunct Groovetech (there’s a throwback) offices where i then documented him doing the web radio stations very last show before going under. Part of our conversation that day touched on a project he was working on and wanted to have me design w/ Jimmy Cauty (KLF), Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd), and a total prick named Dom (sorry Dom, shoulda known your role) which is now known as the Transit Kings. I probably would have continued to design for Alex under his various guises but alas, the times they were-a-changin’ as was the musical climate of the day (Lemon Jelly? Puhleeeease..) and times got a little tough for our heroes (aka they couldn’t afford me) so Mike at Malicious Damage took the reins and, well.. that’s another story all unto itself.

I’ve heard the “Dream”, it’s not bad actually, nice to have Youth and Steve Hillage back on board, one of those “you know what you’re getting” type deals. However i can’t say the same for the single’s video “Vuja De” (see below).

The last time i spoke w/ Alex, Josh and I were tossing around the idea of booking the Orb for one of his Hello Nurse parties so i reached to out to see what the deal was and Alex responded w/ pictures of his newborn baby (at the time). All in all, I have a lot of good memories and quite a few stories of my time w/ the Orb and while it doesn’t mean shit to most any of today’s designers/musicians, I feel comfortable in knowing that my old school ambient/dub/house/techno street cred is right where it needs and ought to be. All in my head..

Thus concludes this telling of one of the many chapters of my life. Don’t get me started on Drum & Bass.

Extra Credit: Adrian & Cody, this is off limits to you but who amongst our fair readers can answer me this Orbish riddle: “Why was six scared of seven?”