U.F.Orb
Artist: The Orb
Community Score: 7.05

The commercial and artistic peak of the ambient-house movement, U.F.Orb strides past the debut with more periods of free-form ambience and less reliance on a standard 4/4 beat. From the opener "O.O.B.E." through the bass-heavy gait of "Blue Room" and "Towers of Dub," the flow is more natural and ranges farther than most would have expected. The... Read More

The Water Album
Artist: System 7

As its title alone indicates, Water was released as the counterpart to Fire, consisting of remixes by Hillage and Giraudy of nearly every track on the original album, plus one new number, all flowing into one another as essentially one lengthy, disc-long composition. Whereas Fire was much more of an upfront dance release -- though admittedly... Read More

Vulvaland
Artist: Mouse on Mars
Community Score: 6.00

A wibbly, barely digital match of ambient texturology with experimental strains of techno, dub, and Krautrock. While the flip relies too heavily on four-on-the-floor ambient house clichés, the A-side is a prize, cultivating a weird, electronics-based avant-pop vibe as successful as it is unique. ~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide Read More

Lifeforms
Artist: The Future Sound of London
Community Score: 8.57

Having indulged in more explicitly ambient realms with the Amorphous Androgynous side project, FSOL returned to full action with Lifeforms, a double-disc effort that ranks as one of the best experimental techno releases of the '90s. If not as immediately memorable on a song per song basis as, say, Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works collections,... Read More

Live 93
Artist: The Orb

Although the thought of an Orb live album may raise some eyebrows, the resulting two-CD set is amazing, a complete representation of the group in concert and living proof that techno is indeed a live, as well as recorded, art form. Besides, the consistent Pink Floyd jokes on the record (as well as the brilliant cover art) are hilarious. ~... Read More