Back in the mid-1990s, the release of a new Orb album would have been something of an event. By 2001, most people had probably forgotten that they still existed (their previous album, Orblivion, was released three years before that, an eternity in the world of modern electronic music). Some music critics even questioned the band's relevance in the 21st century. In an age of sophisticated chill-out tastes, could the Orb still cut it? From the evidence on Cydonia, the answer is a resounding yes. The album sees mainman Alex Paterson fusing rolling dub bass lines and classic Orb ambiance with crisp breaks, shimmering synths, and off-kilter electronics. There are spacious vocal numbers (singers Aki and Nina Walsh sound remarkably like Björk); short, dub-house instrumentals; and spooky, other-worldly drum & bass pieces. It's like rave-era ambient house given a new millennium makeover. It's hardly revolutionary, but that's not the point. As far as space-age chill-out music goes, the Orb are still in a class of their own. --Matt Anniss