BABBLE ON AN’ TING – ALEX PATERSON’S INCREDIBLE JOURNEY BEYOND THE ULTRAWORLD WITH THE ORB

Alex Paterson & Kris Needs OMNINBUS PRESS

Warm and richly detailed biography of The Orb’s mastermind.

The Orb was, of course, the brainchild of Alex Paterson. His journey is fascinating: after a traumatic childhood, he used his intelligence, connections and talent to create the genre of ‘ambient house’ virtually single-handedly, patchworking together snatches of Pink Floyd,

Mike Oldfield, dub and Minnie Ripperton in a manner that was uncommon in the early 90s.

Prog writer Kris Needs is the perfect biographer for this tale, as his career intersects with Paterson’s at so many points. One of Paterson’s oldest friends, Needs first met him while interviewing Killing Joke in the late 70s. Paterson had been at school with KJ bassist Martin Glover (Youth), and Paterson was to become their roadie. Needs was part of The Orb’s circle, DJing for them, adding to the general spacedout anarchy of their shows.

The ‘anything goes’ optimism of the late 80s and the explosion of sampling is captured well, as is the predictable muscling-in of major labels and lawyers. Topped off with a 46-page discography, Babble On An’ Ting is warm, richly detailed and as idiosyncratic as you’d expect, full of amusing left turns, with few punches pulled. It’s like a pub conversation between two old friends.