The Orb – Orboretum: The Orb Collection – CD

Digisleeve

A career-spanning, 2CD & limited-edition quadruple vinyl octagonal set including new and rare mixes, compiled by Dr. Alex Paterson

‘Orboretum: The Orb Collection’ goes way back, but also focusses on recent highlights from albums such as ‘Abolition Of The Royal Familia’ (2020) and ‘Prism’ (2023) – which were cited by the media as some of their greatest work – up there with the bonafide gold of yesteryear.

The limited edition 4lp set is uniquely packaged in a beautiful octagon-shaped set, which folds out into a huge flower. Each disc will be pressed on a different colour, green, lilac, orange and blue, with sleeve notes by Kris Needs. Each side of vinyl is grouped by Alex to represent the 4 seasons, hence its botanical title. The comp’s “roots and more recent shoots” traverses their work for Universal across discs A and B, whilst discs C and D explore their music for indie labels Cooking Vinyl, Kompakt, Malicious Damage, and Liquid Sound Design. In addition, ‘Orboretum’ will also be available on a 6 panel 2CD with 24 page booklet.

“I don’t want The Orb to end up milking it like Roxy Music, who were always cranking out another best-of, although we did release the ‘History Of The Future’ best-of in 2013, and its part 2 in 2015 to be fair. We have such a gigantic catalogue though, that sometimes even I need a reminder of what I’ve done, especially these days. This is a sort of director’s cut, reframing our output, making new neuro pathways, and new juxtapositions. Some of these tracks are 30 years apart, but there are clear through lines, a continuum.”

Disc: 1
1 A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (Orbital Dance Mix)
2 Little Fluffy Clouds (Ambient Mix 1)
3 Perpetual Dawn (2024 Version)
4 Pomme Fritz (Meat ‘N Veg)
5 Blue Room (Radio 7″)
6 Oxbow Lakes (Sabres No. 1 Mix)
7 Toxygene
8 Asylum (7″ Edit)
9 Once More (Scourge Of The Earth Long Mix)
10 Ghostdancing (Version)
11 Gee Strings
12 Aftermath (LP Version)
13 From a Distance (Blast Master v The Corpral)
14 Dilmun

Disc: 2
1 Lunik (Komplott E.P. Version)
2 Captain Korma
3 Appletree In My Back Yard (Abakus Remix)
4 DDD (Dirty Disco Dub) (Belka & Strelka Remix)
5 Metallic Spheres In Colour – Round Side (2024 Edit) [with David Gilmour]
6 Golden Clouds (feat. Lee â˜Scratch♠Perry)
7 Fussball (feat. Lee â˜Scratch♠Perry)
8 Pillow Fight @ Shag Mountain (Radio Edit)
9 Rush Hill Road (Radio Edit)
10 Doughnuts Forever
11 Daze (Missing & Messed Up Mix)
12 Hawk Kings (Oseberg Buddhas Buttonhole)
13 AAA (Violeta Vicci Remix (Hung, Drawn & Quartered))
14 H.O.M.E. (High Orbs Mini Earth)