The Orb
On one level, Alex Paterson might not seem very prog. This, after all, is an ex-punk who started out as Killing Joke’s roadie, then rose to prominence on London’s acid house scene after forming The Orb in the late 80s. But dig below the surface and the connections are there.
He’s collaborated with David Gilmour, Robert Fripp and Steve Hillage. His formative influences are as much to do with King Crimson and Brian Eno as they are Led Zeppelin and Sex Pistols. And as The Orb quickly grew into something less easily defined, their music took on many of the properties associated with prog: freeform song structures, a giddy sense of exploration, fluid tempos, light shows, sci-fi experiments and, of course, daffy song titles. These have ranged from the prog-referencing Back Side Of The Moon to waggishly evocative ones like Supernova At The End Of The Universe and the epic A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld.
As The Orb have mutated in wondrous ways
