AMG Review of Strange Cargo 3

John Bush
All Music Guide

The last and best of the Strange Cargo albums, III matches elegant sequencer trance and understated organic instruments (piano, guitar) with ethnic-fusion and soft house rhythms. It's the only Strange Cargo record featuring vocals, with Beth Orton making an early appearance (more earth mother than neo-folky) on the beautiful ambient-trance single "Water From a Vine Leaf." "Into the Paradise" and "The Story of Light" are variations on the same form, while Orbit borrows from hip-hop and dub for "Time to Get Wize," with the toasting of Divine Bashim. While still tied to the '80s Fourth World aesthetic of its predecessors, on Strange Cargo III Orbit begins moving toward a more completely electronic form of music in keeping with the productions of his Guerilla label.