This is part of a series, posting between 30th December 2025 and 3rd January 2026
The Orb: Buddhist Hipsters (Cooking Vinyl)
The next album to feature in my 2025 gold-tier special fried bangers is a very familiar name. The Orb. The flipping Orb. Buddhist Hipsters is their 18th studio album or, as they say on their Bandcamp page, it’s “quite possibly the millionth longplayer.” Hey, we all lose count after a while.
This isn’t the first Orb album with a silly title. After all, these are the people that brought you U F Orb, Okie Dokie It's The Orb on Kompakt and Doughtnuts Forever. The title of this new album inspired by a dream about people going up and down escalators. It could have easily been called Hare Krishna Crusty Goths.
From Steve Hillage’s melted guitar to bouncy Ultraworld house beats, from fuzzed electro scuffles to low-slung dub, this is The Orb back on top form. I don’t know what Alex Paterson’s current Orb partner Michael Rendall is sprinkling in the mix, but I’d like a taste, please.
The guest line-up is as enjoyably ragtag as ever. Hillage, Youth and Falconer, of course. Roger Eno. Trevor Walters, so soulful on The Oort Cloud (Too Night). Miquette from Gong and System 7. The violinist from Steeleye Span. The drummer from Killing Joke.
One thing sticks in the craw, and that’s the use of AI on Arabebonics. Yeah, you could argue it’s no worse than using the voice of a death row lifer, but there could have been a more artistic replacement for RRome Alone’s vocals.
Still. This is great. I’m getting on the escalator and hanging out with the gurus and the crusties, or whatever it was.
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