Babble On An’ Ting: Alex Paterson’s Incredible Journey Beyond The Ultraworld With The Orb

Kris Needs with Alex Paterson

OMNIBUS Exhaustive, highly entertaining account of ambient-rave pioneer.

Alex Paterson was a relative latecomer to fame, 10 years after many of his contemporaries. He spent the 1980s as a roadie, cook and ‘fifth member’ for Killing Joke, worked at EG Records, and in his spare time monitored the growth of hiphop, ‘mastermixes’ and eventually rave. Initially working with The KLF’s Jimmy Cauty, before they fell out, he inaugurated The Orb in the late 80s, helping to usher in a new era of chill, before going on to work with, among others, Primal Scream and Robert Fripp.

Author Kris Needs is a man of vastly Catholic taste, as well as an old friend of Paterson’s. Interviewing him extensively, he delves into his traumatic childhood (deprived of parental love), his 70s punk and soul epiphanies, and a DJ aesthetic that embraces everything from prog rock to reggae.

An indispensable guide to an artist whose work has traversed topographic oceans of acid funk. ■■■■■■■■■■