Album Review: Moonbuilding 2703 AD by The Orb

The Orb's new album, Moonbuilding 2703 AD, will be released June 22, 2015 on Kompakt Records. Here's what to expect.

First of all, the album consists of four long tracks, God's Mirrorball, Moonscapes 2703 BC, Lunar Caves, and the title track, Moonbuilding 2703 AD.  Here's their "Meltdown Edit," which condenses the album's highlights down to five minutes.

As you can hear above, God's Mirrorball opens the album with Roger Thurman's spoken words, "First, God does not exist, but don't worry, what does exist is good, as opposed to evil," from his narration to the film Annunaki - Don't Watch This Film.  The quote was also sampled in 2012 by the glitch-hop band Schema in their cut, Annunaki.  After a few more of Thurman's lines, leading up to a punch line of sorts, the track dissolves into an ambient soundscape. A beat emerges around the 2:00-minute mark, and the track percolates along on a spacey vibe, with various beats and textures arising from and sinking back into the mix in classic Orb style.  

Moonscapes opens with what sounds like Apollo-era radio static before returning to the percolating spacey vibe of the opening track.   The tracks eventually morphs into a raspier texture, with panting breaths keeping the beat near the end. 

Lunar Caves. the shortest track on the album, opens with the ominous warning, "The following program deals with a controversial subject. The theories expressed are not the only possible interpretation.  Viewers are invited to make a judgement based on all available information." The disclaimer is from an episode of Fox's Conspiracy Theory that presented claims that the Apollo moon landings were faked.

Musically, the sonic textures of Lunar Caves are somewhat sparer and more minimalistic than the previous two, more dancefloor-oriented tracks, but after about 5:30 minutes, a chiming beat lifts the track up and carries it to the finish line at 9:00 minutes. 

Moonbuilding 2703 AD opens with sounds as futuristic as the title suggests before being carried along by some of the funkiest beats of the album.  The cut has numerous samples thrown over it at various times, some gorgeous marimba lines and ominous fuzz, and frequent breakdowns into clockwork rhythms.  In all, the track is complex enough to hold your attention but consistent enough to keep the body swaying and feet moving for its entire 13-plus minutes before ending rather undramatically with an echoing synth.

Overall, Moonbuilding 2703 AD may be less daring and innovative than previous Orb albums and the songs rely less on samples than classic Orb compositions, but it also provides a remarkably consistent and coherent ambient soundscape that may provide the perfect soundtrack for a drive or a casual afternoon, and has enough of a beat to keep folks on the dancefloor moving.