Orb* - Pomme Fritz

I love how the cover art parodies Pink Floyd's "Relics" album.

But other than that, there's not much to love about the Orb's "little album" - many of the sounds come off as half-baked ideas; the record feels like a collection of leftovers & failed recipies.

I agree with everything said about this album in it's first review above, but I have a couple of things to add. When this album first came the Orb were well known for the hugeness of their abient, dubbed-out house tracks. U.F.Orb was a mega-album that pushed them into the world arena. Live '93 cemented the fact that they were one of "the" electronic acts to see. And believe me, they were awesome.

Pomme Fritz was released as a teaser E.P. to hold you over until the next L.P. (Orbus Terrarum) was ready for release. The album is very experimental but is also very rich in the different sound textures that the Orb were messing around with in the studio. This album is a goldmine to anyone interested in sampling and sound manipulation technologies. Lots of bouncy basslines and sound washes.

For anyone just getting into the Orb, you will eventually buy this album and it will be worth it. For all of the other people out there.....well, not everyone needs to know how cool we are.......keep listening..

this is one of the most psychedelic recordings i have ever heard, and it drifts through both good and bad trips. it's actually more like an ep or even a single, with radically remixed versions of essentially two tracks, plus a short outro. we start with a blissed out sleepy abstract dub with noodly guitar ("pomme fritz (meat 'n veg")), and then plunge into a sonic sound processing nightmare in which the "songs" ("more gills less fishcakes" and we're pastie to be grill you") break down and erupt with many weirdly distorted and processed sounds and vocals. this portion of the disc is hard to take, because it is distinctly "listener unfriendly." eventually, we move on to a more coherent bubbly track "bang'er 'n chips," which is then expanded on in sublime bliss out fashion on "alles ist schoen." the last track is a short, humorous swirl of sound ("his immortal logness"). the danceable sound of previous orb material is completely dispensed with, and there is a huge leap in terms of compositional and rhythmic sophistication. to the unitiated, however, the album can seem impenetrable, and on the second and third tracks, chaotic and annoying. the central theme of the album is defined by a repeated voice sample from an american television program called "saturday night live." the voice intones, "you've just had a heavy session of electroshock therapy, and you're more relaxed than you've been in weeks. all those childhood traumas, magically wiped away...along with most of your personality."