The Orb

A career-spanning 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.

“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.” Alex Paterson