The Orb - Abolition of the Royal Familia

Abolition of the Royal Familia is 17th album from Alex Paterson and his rotating roster of collaborative cohorts. It forms part two of of pair, and a continuation No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds. It’s also the first with Paterson and Michael Rendall as main writing partners, with Rendall having risen-up-the-ranks from a member of The Orb’s touring band. The album features guest turns from Youth, Roger Eno, Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy, and a whole lot more.

The album is inspired by and in retrospective protest of the royal family’s historical endorsement of the East India Company’s opium trade, which was hugely damaging to India and caused two wars with China in the 18th and 19th centuries. Humour, samples, deep ambience, cerebral throbbing dub, classic house, the white island, hip hop, psych and heartbreakingly beautiful contemporary composition together with, perhaps less expectedly, a proudly pop element.

Hawk Kings is a tribute to Steven Hawking, who told Paterson that he used to listen to The Orb when they met at a lecture. Paterson describes the track as “monster of a tune, in a similar mood to Assassin and Toxygene.