The Orb

Thirty-five years since Alex Paterson lit the multi-coloured touchpaper on The Orb’s interstellar space odyssey, he continues to swerve, becoming his own tribute act by never standing still and preparing a cluster of fresh new projects. Battersea-born Alex started roadying (sometimes singing with) Killing Joke in 1979 before joining EG Records as an A&R man in 1982. His life was set on its subsequent path by the onset of acid house around 1987 when he injected chillout calm DJing at Paul Oakenfold’s Land Of Oz club with Jimmy Cauty, playing ambient sounds and dub. After starting the WAU! Label with Youth, Alex launched The Orb with Jimmy Cauty, releasing 1988’s The Kiss EP in tribute to New York’s ground-breaking eighties radio stations that still influence his musical attitude today. He then hijacked Minnie Riperton’s ‘Loving You’ for ’89’s epic breakthrough ‘A Huge Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld’. Throughout everything Alex has continued wooing his first love of DJing, both on WNBC, London from the West Norwood Book and Record Bar and in discos around the globe. One of music’s true originals, not averse to celebrating past triumphs but still always watching the skies and looking to the future.