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Wednesday, 4/30/97 The Orb travels deep into universe of experimentation Sample-driven band begins world tour despite missing home

By Vanessa VanderZanden Daily Bruin Contributor While most people consider second-hand stores and television sources of entertainment, the Orb considers them sources of music. They glean their bizarre samples from corners other musicians would not think to look. Yet, beyond destroying everything that his garage has to offer, band member Andy Hughes claims that sheer ignorance takes the credit for much of the group's trademark inspirations, which the Orb will spin at the Mayan Theater on Thursday. "It started with a program-engineering friend (bandmate Alex Paterson) who had a small studio," a soft-spoken Hughes explains. "He had this equipment, I mean, all the latest toys. We used to come up with stuff that other people just wouldn't do because they had the manual." Experimenting now with their seventh album, "Orblivion," the Orb continues to invite the unknown into their recording studio. Zipping astral beats around clips of such things as '50s-sounding Communist Party meeting speeches, the group concocts a plethora of zone-worthy techno meanderings. Thursday's show is part of an extensive world tour in support of "Orblivion," which began one month ago in the United Kingdom. "It's been tough," Hughes says of being away from home. "We only spent one day in London this month. My kid cried when I left." Though Hughes tries to spend as much quality time as possible with his 15-month-old baby and Glasgow-born girlfriend, the Orb keeps him traveling anywhere from 24 hours a day across America. Yet, during his most recent vacation from road life, he was able to dedicate himself to domestic affairs. As well as dine on his beloved Thai food, he gave his Victorian house a makeover. "I'd spend hours painting," relates Hughes fondly. "The toilets now look like an underwater aquarium. The kitchen's orange, purple and yellow, with a Mediterranean blue ceiling, and I put luminous stars on my kid's ceiling." Though unable to bring this colorful side of home with him on the road, his girlfriend will fly to Las Vegas on Saturday to celebrate her 40th birthday. Hughes relishes in his luck of having a scheduled tour break right in time for her arrival. This strange mixture of home life and road life may be difficult for Hughes to handle, but no more than the adjustment he usually makes when returning to his London-based dwelling. "It's strange when you do one to two months on the road," he admits. "You wait in the kitchen for someone to tell you when to eat, and you walk out of your house with your tour pass still on. Having nothing to do is great, though." Contrasting sharply with such a lifestyle is the chaos of international travel. After stopping in Japan for a festival at Mt. Fuji, the Orb will continue on to Australia. And, though they have had offers to play in South Africa, the price of flying there would make the stop unprofitable. Yet, Russian prices have given the band no trouble. "Moscow was great. It was a bizarre place," remembers Hughes. "There's a massive contrast between the haves and have-nots. All the local Mafia owned the place. We'd walk into restaurants and they'd have the staff lined up in front. Two or three times of that and then it's, 'Can I go to MacDonald's?'" Still, the mellow DJ enjoys a little pampering after spending so much time on a tour bus. With seating for only 10, the vehicle often carries as many as 16 people. And, going sometimes without a bath or shower for three days, one might wonder how Hughes puts up with such accommodations. "I really get off on doing live shows," Hughes justifies. "You get to meet some really cool people on the road at parties. You realize how much you have in common with them when you're from totally different places. It's at diners in the Midwest, that's when you start realizing that you don't have anything in common," he chuckles. Preferring bread and cheese and vitamins to greasy truck-stop vittles, Hughes's nontraditional tastes fit right in tune with the Orb's peculiar creations. Playing, for instance, with the electronic guitar wizard Robert Fripp, the Orb enjoys the artistic spontaneity that unusual musical groupings generate. For this reason, the Orb most recently worked with an Egyptian percussionist. "This guy was so professional," Hughes relates. "He turned up with a van full of bizarre stuff like clay pots. The sound he got out of it was unbelievable. We played 15 tracks, and in one song he goes off for 10 minutes. He's like a one-man percussional orchestra." Appreciating the sound derived from mixing different styles, the Orb hopes to work with more outside musicians in the future. One group in particular, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, includes a 50-year-old member whose hearing problems create an immediacy in the two groups' culmination of ideas. However, Hughes's own hearing problems provide a rough time for the sound-conscious DJ. "When I was 13 or 14 years old, as part of being in the cadets, we'd have rifling practice," he bitterly recalls. "The other kids put three shells worth of gun powder into one shell, and it went off in my shell box. I was deaf for about six to seven weeks after that. Now, hearing problems come and go." Fortunately for Hughes, it appears as though the music gig is here to stay. And, within this medium, movie scripts have been rolling in for the band to choose from in order to begin dabbling in the field of movie scores. Hoping for a sci-fi or psychological drama, Hughes waits patiently for a worthwhile story, though music creation of any kind intrigues the innovative musician. "We're not precious about it," Hughes says of the creative process. "We don't think about how it's going to sound at the end of the day. We just start playing around with something and record it. It's a really social thing." CONCERT: The Orb play the Mayan Theater, located at 1038 S. Hill St., downtown, on Thursday. For more info and tickets, call the theater at (213) 746-4287 or Ticketmaster at (213) 480-3232. Island Records Andy Hughes (l.) and Alex Paterson (r.) of the Orb bring their unusual, diverse musical style to the Mayan Theater on Thursday. Related Links: Ticketmaster online , Purchase Orb tickets online

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