the orb | "plateau" | orbus terrarum | 1995
aphex twin was my first exposure to “modern” electronic music, but my first and lasting passion was the orb. this album fulfilled my musical quest in a way no other music had done before. i had a vague notion in my mind for years of the kind of music i wanted to make and wanted to hear. i knew i had found it when i listened to the tape copy of this album that i brought home from a visit to the harkers in alberta for ian’s mission farewell. i finally felt complete. all of my childhood sadnesses, the disappointments in my relationships, the self-doubt, the angst for the state of the modern world, the fear that maybe there really was no life after death – all of it melted away in the warm bath of these sounds. seriously, though, there is a sample in some orb song (i don’t feel like chasing it down right now) of a guy saying, “i’ve been waiting for music like this all my life.” that was certainly true of me, without hyperbole.
this album inspired in me a passion for a narrow strain of electronic music that led me searching for anything that sounded like it for the next seven or eight years. i have found a lot of good stuff, but nothing that moves me quite like this.
