Rounding It Out

London electronic duo The Orb is as indebted to Brian Eno as it is to Chicago house music. Since 1989, core member Alex Paterson has seamlessly blended soothing, ambient tones over dense, throbbing beats to create what some call ambient house — and others call "the music that calms down ecstasy-eating ravers in the wee hours of the morning." Today at the Warehouse Live Studio, Paterson and his partner of ten years, Thomas Fehlmann, will be pushing their latest, Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompakt, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the many labels they've been on in the past, and a nod to their current one (Kompakt).

Okie Dokie does incorporate a bit of the minimal techno, which seems to be the influence of their German-based electronic label, but overall it's a great nighttime house soundtrack. Tonight's show is just one of nine stops on the Orb's current U.S. tour, and if the past is any indication, it's going to be a good long while before they come back.
Wed., March 22, 9 p.m.