William Orbit - My Oracle Lives Uptown (2009)

Billy Orbit finds an oracle where Billy Joel once found his girl.

William Orbit is in dire need of updating. His name just doesn’t work. He should change it to Bill Orbit: Bill Orbit and the Comets would be ideal. Not original, but who’s going to care?

Orbit’s latest finds his signature tripped-out style of dance music etched onto ethereal, lush soundscapes. However, that’s not to say that he is content to stick to one style. Whereas the initial ‘Radioharp’ and ‘Purdy’ are the more traditional club numbers associated with Orbit, ‘Optical Illusions‘ is a downtempo affair, which plays much like the soundtrack to a cut-scene in an episode of CSI Miami.

As if to keep the Madonna crowd onside (Orbit produced the multi-million selling album Ray of light), ‘White Night’ features a female vocal heavily reminiscent of the lady herself. Further on, and the ambience of ‘Nimbus’ gives way to the cheesy trip-hop of title track ‘My Oracle Lives Uptown‘.

Somewhat unusually, both ‘Spotlight Kid‘ and ‘Neutron Star‘ are funky, electronic numbers and work well as standalone tracks with the tremelo effect on the latter lending the song a ’60s shimmer. Though the album then proceeds to end much as it started, it does so in a much more assured and mature manner.

Though not a great album, my oracle lives uptown is proof that Orbit has plenty of ambition and talent within.

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William Orbit - Optical Illusions