“Enter The Kettle” is the second album on Alex Paterson from The Orb’s new label Orbscure. Released November 19th on CD, download & stream with the LP to follow in 2022, it’s primarily an album with him and old friend Fil Le Gonidec, who together are OSS. Other guests on the album include official-other-half-of-The Orb Michael Rendall, plus Jah Wobble, Roger Eno & George Holt – whose credits include Depeche Mode & Erasure. OSS have played at Glastonbury, Fuji Rock, supported Kraftwerk and played chess with Robbie Williams, who also stole their speed. They were originally known as Orb Sound System – a half DJ/half live version of The Orb, which could gig more nimbly than the main machine. Early shows saw reggae-heavy selections and sometimes featured toasters, but seeing as they never actually had a soundsystem, can’t play out at the moment and have made a record – it’s currently just OSS, which now stands for On Sum Shit. Loosely speaking, on“Enter The Kettle”, the hard-edged metallic clang comes from “hardcase Yorkshireman” Fil, while Alex’s soft southern influence brings dubwise steppers, ambient house & a trademark surrealist humor. In case that wasn’t enough, Omnibus Press recently published Paterson’s new book ‘Babble on an’ Ting: Alex Paterson’s Incredible Journey Beyond the Ultraworld with The Orb’, the first full account of his life story, featuring first-hand interviews with Youth, Andrew Weatherall, Primal Scream, Jah Wobble, Jimmy Cauty and a parade of other friends, collaborators and starship mechanics.
I had the pleasure of catching up with Alex to talk about the new release from OSS, “Enter The Kettle”. We got into how it went form nothing to something and how his relationship with Fil made the smooth move forward. We talk about the plans for the label *and its mates) to make music and tour and how the interchangeable pieces will make up some amazing wholes. We even get into the new book about…well…him. Of course, one of the common threads of this conversation is the music of and the versatility of The Orb…sounds that helped shape my inner being.
