''Cydonia'' is the fifth
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by English
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
duo
the Orb
The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...
. It was released on 27 February 2001 in the United Kingdom by
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
and in the United States by
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group.
Pre-history
MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...
. Members
Alex Paterson
Alex Paterson (also known as Dr Alex Paterson, born Duncan Alexander Robert Paterson; 15 October 1959 in Battersea, London) is an English musician and co-founder of ambient house group The Orb, in which he has worked since its inception.
Life ...
and
Thomas Fehlmann
Thomas Fehlmann (born 1957) is a Swiss composer/producer who lives in Berlin, Germany, and has been active in electronic music since the 1980s. He is currently active on the Kompakt record label based in Germany. Fehlmann is an on-and-off member ...
, along with usual collaborators
Andy Hughes
Andy Hughes (11 November 1965 – 12 June 2009) was an English electronic music producer. He is best known for his work with the Orb, where he helped mix and produce ''Orbus Terrarum'', ''Orblivion'', and ''Cydonia'', as well as The Orb's sin ...
, Nick Burton, and
Simon Phillips, wrote and produced the album for a planned 1999 release.
Featured on the album are
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is a British musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session ...
,
John Roome
John Roome (born 26 August 1968, a.k.a. Witchman) is a hip hop/breakbeat artist who has worked with The Orb and The Jungle Brothers.
Having completed the score on five movies (''Messengers'', ''Dead End Road'', '' Song of Songs'', ''Want'' an ...
, and Fil Le Gonidec, who had previously only worked with the Orb in live performances.
Production
Unlike previous Orb albums, ''Cydonia'' featured several 'proper' songs with vocals, which critics felt did not sound similar to Orb songs.
Singers Nina Walsh and Aki Omori appeared on two tracks each on ''Cydonia'', providing vocals and co-writing lyrics with Paterson, who felt that this new direction for the Orb was more similar to the experimental work of ''Orbus Terrarum'', rather than the poppish techno of ''Orblivion''.
The Orb produced two CDs worth of material for the album and eventually cut it down for the final release. However, to the displeasure of Paterson, large portions of both CDs were leaked through
Napster
Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing application. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Shawn ...
.
As Island Records was trapped in major-label-restructuring limbo because of its recent merger between the MCA and PolyGram families that created
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...
, ''Cydonia'' was not released until 2001.
"It's a strange situation," Paterson noted at the time, "I'm getting more contact out of my pet terrapins than I am out of my record company."
['' Q'', May 2001]
Critical reception
Upon release, critics noted that ''Cydonia'' merged
pop,
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
, and ambient-dub, which they felt to be a conglomeration of bland vocals and uninventive ambience.
''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' harshly described it as "a stillborn relic, flawed throughout by chronically stunted ambitions" and describing its only appropriate audience to be "old ravers" seeking nostalgia.
With the album came the single "Once More" featuring remixes from
Bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
and
Mark Pritchard. Paterson believed that "Centuries", another vocal piece from ''Cydonia'', was also worth releasing as a single, but Island chose to wait and see how successful the album was before making a final decision.
Not only did the album receive poor reviews, but The Orb was frequently regarded by the UK press as past the peak years of the creative years, being an "ambient dinosaur" out of place in the current dance music environment.
After the release of ''Cydonia'', Hughes left the group, becoming "another acrimonious departure from The Orb".
Track listing
#"
Once More" – 4:42
#"Promis" – 5:27
#"Ghostdancing" – 7:29
#"Turn It Down" – 8:44
#"Mile Long Lump of Lard" - 8:28
#"Ralf" - 7:40
#"Freely Wheely" - 7:22
#"Lungle - 10:39
#"Terminus - 11:02
UK edition
#"Once More" – 4:17
#"Promis" – 5:27
#"Ghostdancing" – 7:29
#"Turn It Down" – 8:38
#"Egnable" – 1:59
#"Firestar" – 0:46
#"A Mile Long Lump of Lard" – 6:21
#"Centuries" – 4:22
#"Plum Island" – 5:22
#"Hamlet of Kings" – 7:56
#"1.1.1" – 0:36
#"EDM" – 4:12
#"Thursday's Keeper" – 4:09
#"Terminus" – 11:16 (w/ Robert Fripp)
Remastered and Expanded edition – 2008
CD1
#"Once More" – 4:17
#"Promis" – 5:27
#"Ghostdancing" – 7:29
#"Turn It Down" – 8:38
#"Egnable" – 1:59
#"Firestar" – 0:46
#"A Mile Long Lump of Lard" – 6:21
#"Centuries" – 4:22
#"Plum Island" – 5:22
#"Hamlet of Kings" – 7:56
#"1.1.1" – 0:36
#"EDM" – 4:12
#"Thursday's Keeper" – 4:09
#"Terminus" – 11:16 (w/ Robert Fripp)
CD2
#"Centuries (Eurofen Mix)" – 4:42
#"Ghostdancing (Version)" – 6:45
#"Hamlet of Kings (Version)" – 7:58
#"Firestar (Version)" – 1:14
#"Centuries (Wine, Woman & King Mix)" – 4:01
#"Once More (Scourge of the Earth Mix)" – 4:53
#"Plum Island (Flat Mix)" – 5:21
#"Promis (Version)" – 5:46
#"Once More (Bedrock Edit 2)" – 8:04
#"Turn It Down (Long Version)" – 9:03
#"Terminus (Andy's Mix)" – 11:07
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
The Orb albums
2001 albums
Island Records albums
MCA Records albums