Received: The Sun

The title I owe to my Mom, who was talking about sunlight coming to the Elk Valley today after days of rain (and snow we enjoyed).



The sentiment I owe to my old heroes The Orb, whom I've discovered have a new album out last October! It's Dr Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann this time around, so The Good Doctor's sense of nonsense is slightly tamped down by precise German discipline. But oh, what discipline it is!

Okie Dokie It's The Orb On Kompakt is a consistent delight in the ultra-modern style popularized by those inventive Krauts at Kompakt. If you're expecting kold, Kraftwerkian klockwork, you'll get some of that, but Dr Alex shines such lovely rays of sun across the proceedings that upon hearing this LP for the first time I knew summer (or at least spring) proper had arrived.

This is the third return to form by one of the bands responsible for my formative musical years. Like Erasure (Nightbird) and Front 242 (Pulse) before them, The Orb have shown me there were some very nice aural surprises to come back to after my own "return to form" at the end of last summer after a crippling illness.

An Orb is for life, not just for Christmas.