AMG Review of Pomme Fritz [Expanded]

John Bush
All Music Guide

The first hint that the Orb might have taken their work a bit too far, Pomme Fritz is a "little album" (only 40 minutes) that swaps the interterrestrial journey concept with some sort of psychedelic culinary preoccupation on tracks like "More Gills Less Fishcakes" and "We're Pastie to Be Grill You." Those two were the Orb's most experimental to date -- garbled vocal samples further twisted into unintelligibility, wheezing synthesizer lines about to break down, and few remnants of the beats from U.F.Orb. The other six tracks are closer to straight-ahead ambient techno, though with a rhythmic dexterity far beyond their contemporaries. The beautiful ambient grooves of "Alles Ist Schoen" make it the highlight. [Universal Int'l issued an expanded edition in 2008.]