The Orb

The Forum, London NW5/Touring

4 Stars

If ever there was an occasion to regroup and feel free to carry on dancing to inimitable heavy techno, The Orb's current 25th anniversary tour provides the perfect opportunity.

On the back of the four-disc album release The History Of The Future the duo seem well up for another long march around Britain and at this all-nighter Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann's intent to excite a bored nation's senses was plain to hear and see.

Live, The Orb are an audio-visual sensation in a place between intricate abstract sounds, triggered live as heavy dance music and immense dub beats as a prelude to complex, technology-driven harmonies.

From sonic chill-out one moment to joyful release after a build-up of tension the next, the two-hour set gloriously reworks previous album tracks Towers Of Dub, Toxygene, Loving You, Close Encounters and Little Fluffy Clouds.

Anniversary party guest Steve Hillage joins the set midway, adding his beautifully distinctive guitar sound to the mix and later he performs alongside Miquette Giraudy as System 7.

Fresh from their collaboration with Japanese outfit Rovo for the brilliant new album Pheonix Rising, Hillage and Giraudy thankfully forgot about the curfew and the logic of powering down their set after The Orb.

They blast out a devastatingly fierce force of energy before dawn instead.

Touring nationally until November 17, details: www.theorb.com.

Peter Lindley