Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2011

Courtesy of Unit

For rockers and ravers of a certain vintage, the musical meeting of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and ambient house godfather Alex Paterson of The Orb is an acid trip come true. First brought together for singer Graham Nash’s “Chicago” charity project, the pair got along so well that they decided to expand their collaboration into a full-length album. Paterson (pictured) arrives this weekend to perform tracks off the resulting Metallic Spheres at Unit, though sadly he won’t have Gilmour in tow.

Pink Floyd’s early use of effects and ambient, vocal-less tracks are often cited as a huge influence on electronic music, while The Orb’s psychedelic atmospheres saw them described as the rave-generation heirs to the band’s legacy. On Metallic Spheres, the union between the two is pleasurable, if predictable. Gilmour’s syrupy solos drift above a bed of pulsating beats and Paterson’s recordings of nature. A video of the recording process shows the pair ensconced in a ramshackle bungalow, one playing lap steel guitar while the other wanders the grounds, sampling the sounds of leaves shaking in the breeze.

“There were so many layers, [we] spent an inordinate amount of time, like a sculptor chipping away at a block, to reveal it,” says producer Youth, himself an early Orb member. “My role was to marry the world between David Gilmour and The Orb. David’s role was to be David Gilmour and do what he does best, which is play heartbreaking guitar and write beautiful melodies. And Alex’s role was his sound collage techniques…”

Over in Shibuya, some veteran domestic techno heads welcome a Swedish luminary to Module. Par Grindvik, also known by his production alias The Hollow, has been a central figure on Sweden’s electronic scene since the ’90s, both as the owner of record store Illegal Stockholm and manager of the Stockholm LTD imprint. Like so many techno artists, he is now based in Berlin, while his sleek, darkly minimal productions have found a home on labels including Drumcode and Saved. At Module’s Zink event, he’ll be in the company of none other than DJ Wada, perhaps Japan’s most storied techno turntablist and one half of respected unit Co-Fusion.

Unit
Ubik. Techno: DJs Alex Paterson, Yoshiki, etc. Live: The Orb. Jan 22, from 11:30pm, ¥4,000. Daikanyama. Tel: 03-5459-8630. www.unit-tokyo.com

Module
Zink. Techno, minimal: DJs Par Grindvik, Wada, etc. Jan 29, from 10pm, ¥3,000. Shibuya. Tel: 03-3464-8432. www.module-tokyo.com