The Orb need no introduction, they've been at it for longer than I can remember. "Baghdad Batteries" is the third installment in the Orbsession series and, differently from the first two volumes, is comprised of newly composed material written in their Berlin studio. Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann give us eleven slow burning atmospheric floaters that gracefully flirt with occasional minimal techno beats and shades of world music (do I hear a kalimba?). If their different approaches to music are indeed divergent to certain extents (allegedly Paterson is said to be more about the hooks and sports a pronounced pop sensibility, while Fehlmann is more into his sounds) then I'd say the latter seems to have had the final say (especially in the first half of the record), but I think they both play nice on this record (no pun intended). The key element is the mood and the sonic palette is only an extension, a tool, to achieve the ambient nirvana the two have settled on. They are after all amongst the original masters of the ambient genre.