Abolition Of The Royal Familia: Guillotine Mixes

The Orb issued more studio albums during the 2010s than they did the previous decade and get an early start on the 2020s with a characteristically sprawling double-LP. In part, its a retroactive protest against the royal familys calamitous support of the East India Company. Its also a bleak reflection of the present, concluding with a reading of Jello Biafras sardonic Reagan-era Message from Our Sponsor (coincidentally sampled in the introduction of Ice-Ts The Iceberg, released the same year as the first Orb EP, and updated by Biafra earlier in the same month this album arrived). Michael Rendall, who had been part of the Orb as a touring musician and studio engineer, slides into place as Alex Patersons primary collaborator, and the result is a fluid continuation of 2018s appropriately titled No Sounds Are Out of Bounds. Wading through some nondescript ambient wash, dub riddims, and rolling drumnbass pays off with the charging Hawk Kings (a nod to Orb fan Stephen Hawking, and destined for a symphonic adaptation), the loping funk downer Daze (a full-blown tune featuring vocals from longtime associate Andy Caine), and the levitating Afros, Afghans and Angels. The tracks are titled like remixes with duly descriptive Orb-ian phrases, but theyre all making their first appearance here. ~ Andy Kellman