6February
The Orb were Alex Paterson, Youth, and other electronica geniuses who usually appeared for an odd track or album. Slowing down the frantic pace of house music, and adding in some weird-ass synthwork. And more than a little dash of art - the group's 1992 single Blue room
was just two seconds under the 40-minute maximum allowed by the chart rules then in effect. (It's worth noting that the release would have been relegated to the Budget Album chart from July 1998, returning to the singles list in January 2006.) On Top of the Pops, the group hired a couple of people to play chess; they were rewarded with a number one album, albeit one that's amongst the smallest-selling best-sellers of all time.
Little fluffy clouds
, a mixture of Steve Reich's music and vocals from Rickie Lee Jones, was a top 10 hit when re-released in 1993. Though they didn't do much that was memorable in the mid-90s, that changed with Toxygene
, the lead single from their third album proper. Paterson and co are still recording, on independent labels.
