Lyrad's Random 10

Back in the old days, when I put significantly more hazardous substances in my body than I do now, I experienced plenty of hallucinations. Some were good, some were not so good, but almost none of them were visual. I was never one to get confused about what I had seen. I would, instead, hear the some of the most bizarre sounds and voice, much more than I could ever comprehend. As a result, a lot of the nights I spent in this state took place in my room, in the dark, with whatever music I could find, which sent my mind into fantastic places that no sober person could ever reach. When those times were all said and done, the two artists I pulled out more than anyone else were Bill Frisell (specifically, for whatever reason, This Land, an album which no person could rightfully call "trippy") and Orb. I don't listen to a lot of that same music anymore, but nor do I have the same appetites I once did, but I have always found Orb densely innovative and very listenable, especially for its genre.

"Oxbow Lakes" is the third song of Orb's 1995 Orbus Terrarum, which I find to be their best work. It is full of the same thick sampling and slowed down house beats of their other albums, but somehow feels less clean than other efforts. While industrial sounds and noise are heavily utilized, "Oxbow Lakes" is the anomaly. Led almost entirely through by a few bars from a piano solo, the beats slowly wrap around it, always keeping that central acoustic them rather than using the acoustic noises to accentuate the electronic beats. It's good to break up the noise of the rest of the album, though the noise is welcomed back until the best song, the final song of the album, "Slug Dub," finishes off the experience in grand fashion. On the right combination of chemicals, the children's story told in this song can stick with one for years.


1. Orb--Oxbow Lakes
2. Billy Bang--Silent Observation
3. Zamir Choir of Boston--Hallelujah, Amen
4. Jimmie Rodgers--Whippin' that Old T.B.
5. Leon Russell--Am I that Easy to Forget
6. Alicia Keys--The Life
7. Mary Stafford--Arkansas Blues
8. Dmitri Shostakovich--Festive Overture in A for Orchestra, Op.96 (Dallas SO; Andrew Litton, cond.)
9. El Stew--Vintage
10. Dr. Octagon--Bear Witness