The first time I heard The Orb, I was sitting on a gravel rooftop at a farm party listening to a guy talk to me about the future of electronic communication. From somewhere down below, a pulsating bass line from Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld floated out a window. It was nearly dawn, and my eyes were as wide as saucers, trying desperately to pull in the last fading glimmers of starlight before the sun broke over the horizon. I wanted to disappear into the night sky.

Fast forward almost 20 years and the scene is only slightly different. It’s mid-afternoon on a rooftop patio somewhere in the city, and my friends and I are talking about the new iPhone and the future of electronic communication. The Orb are now stalwart adventurers and the Ultraworld no longer holds their fascination. They dream of new worlds and vistas. But just as we re-cast our old experiences onto our ideas of a new technological future, so too does The Orb. The Dream resurrects all those old feelings of calm and serenity while adding new elements. Granted, it doesn’t really sound like The Orb know what to do with the tabla beats on “Mother Nature,” and there’s nothing particularly inspiring on “Lost & Found,” but the band still manage to keep from sinking into a dub quagmire. While The Orb never take a bold leap, tracks like “Vuja De” and “A Beautiful Day” show they don’t make many missteps, either.

The illicit desire to disappear deep into the night sky may be gone, but The Orb’s Dream still inspires the urge to float out over the city on a lazy afternoon.