The Boston Phoenix
December 23 - 30, 1999



"Little Fluffy Clouds"

Orb
(Big Life/Mercury, 1991)

The first time a track from the European dance subculture reached out and shook the pop mainstream by the throat, partly because it reached beyond the world of the Roland 303 and 808 for its hooks. But not to pop songs -- instead, it lifted a riff from Steve Reich's avant-garde composition "Electric Counterpoint" and cut up a bit of an interview with Rickie Lee Jones. It was a shockingly novel sound, and its subtext -- as an understated, abstracted AIDS memorial -- still gives it amazing poignancy.

-- Douglas Wolk


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