DANCE REVIEWS

Rip It Up, Issue 236, 1 April 1997, Page 25

DANCE REVIEWS

THE ORB

Orblivion (Island) Back once again are everyone’s favourite old muckers, the Orb. This time around we find Alex joined by Andy Hughes and Thomas Fehlman, in a bit of a return to form. Frankly, for most people, Pomme Fritz and Orbvs Terrarvm were commercial and critical failures — the reason being they deviated from the lush, blissful, trippedout dubby soundscapes of the excellent UFOrb and Ultraworld albums into more experimental areas. Orblivion sits comfortably between the two extremes. Part of me wishes they’d stick to the spacey house they used to do so well, but the Orb are a progressive unit, so of course they’ve moved on. In fact, they even incorporate some drum ’n’ bass rhythms on tracks like ‘Delta Mark 2’ — most interesting it sounds too. Basically, Orblivion is the sound of Alex and co. finding their feet again. It’s all here: the deep, squelchy dub foundation, moments of fantastic ambience, chunky beats, and some of the wackiest vocal samples you’ll ever hear. Yep, old Alex certainly has a sly grin on his face. ANDY PICKERING

LAVA LAVA

Burnt (huh!) It’s obvious what moves Lava lava, and this album is their attempt to move you as well. Burnt documents Mike Nielsen and Benny Staples’ pursuit of a multi-dimensional groove, one that features live and programmed beats, the ever-present 303, and a number of different moods. ‘Let it Flow’ is laidback with lush keyboards, while ‘Afterlife’ (With Nathan Haines) takes the rhythms to a more urgent, jazz-tinged level. The hot picks on Burnt, though, have to be the ambience of ‘Blue Pool’, directly followed by ‘Atollic’, which fleshes out Lava Lava’s usually lean sound to put the listener in a place the others don’t,

and then drops in a bustling breakbeat at the perfect moment. Wherever they were coming from on this track, they should make a few more visits. It is a rare and wonderful thing when a recording possesses the quality that allows numerous listenings without the onset of boredom or a feeling of instant familiarity, and Lava Lava have achieved this. JUSTIN REDDING

JOSH WINK

Left Above the Clouds (Mushroom) Yes, well, what a wild and wacky ride this is. Josh Wink has made some astounding dance tracks (‘Higher State...’, I’m Ready’, etc.), but I’m not sure I want to listen to him letting loose on a long player. You see, old Josh is a very clean living guy (no drink, drugs, fags, meat, and so 0n...), and once you’ve heard him ranting about relaxation, good health and the like on the opening track, ‘Warm Wet Sand’, it’s hard to take him seriously. He then goes and makes the album a whopping 23 tracks long — nice idea, but kinda pointless as half of them are 30-second soundbites with no real relevance. Despite these

misgivings, the sad fact is that Wink makes the sort of blinding acid house that turns dancefloors into gibbering messes, so I guess we should forgive him his indulgences and lap up the good stuff. There’s also a bonus CD of remixes of his bigger hits, and with classics like ‘Higher State of Consciousness’, ‘Don’t Laugh’, ‘Hypnotizin’, and ‘How’s the Music’ all included, you can’t really complain. ANDY PICKERING

BULLITNUTS

Ist of the Day (Pork) RESONATOR I Telharmonium (NlNEßAßecords) | Two albums that don’t really scale any great heights, but even Beavis and Butthead would agree they don’t suck. | On Ist of the Day The Bullitnuts succeed at the difficult feat of creating a II 10-minute track that can hold your | interest. 'Pizzle Road Rhapsody’, which takes pole position on the track listing and the interestometer of this | album, pleasantly progresses from | warm bass and synth tones to a || breakbeat garnished groove and back | again. The rest is all just by the by: inoffensive, sometimes plodding beats