Category: non-lol

At the lowest point in my life — after years of watching my work with The Orb be degraded, altered, and treated with contempt — I said: “I don’t want anything to do with The Orb anymore.” What I meant was clear: I wanted distance. I wanted no further involvement in something that was hurting me. I wanted my name removed — a moral right I was entitled to. This is also a function of my disability and I have to eject things that are causing immense mental harm.

I have a history and other events to do with this function that have fucked my life up in many other ways.

What ended up happening was the opposite of my intention, instead of removing my name they removed my rights. They continued to use my name, my photo on their stuff in a long list of other collaborators like I wasn’t the one person in control of the Orb while I was there. That’s one of the tactics. Bury me in a bunch of other producers.

I asked because I had one non-negotiable red line from the very beginning:
No interference in my creative decisions. No record label involvement in my music. That was the only thing I insisted on when I signed.
And it was the one thing they systematically broke.

But instead of honouring that, they twisted it.
They took my words — spoken during a mental health crisis — to mean I no longer wanted anything:
Not my name. Not my credit. Not my royalties. Not even my rights.

And they acted on it.

I was pressured into signing everything over to Universal — while homeless and sleeping on the floorboards of a near-stranger’s empty flat. I didn’t have a lawyer and I didn’t understand what was happening. I was exhausted, isolated, and completely worn down. What I wanted was to remove my name from it completely, which I believe is a legal right but hey ho Universal and ‘the friend group’ guided me into something entirely different, like fucking sharks smelling blood. Now I am putting this online I think its FUCKING clear that this is not legal.

Universal and anyone in the Orb didn’t question this of course. They jumped at the chance.
A contract no sane person would sign — treated as binding. I think its called unconscionable in legal terms.

This wasn’t a negotiation.
This was a crisis exploited as an exit clause.

After removing my control, they continued to play my work live, claim credit for it, and profit from it — all without permission. My attempt to reclaim dignity and distance was used as a justification to erase me completely, financially and creatively. Some people on the net say things like ‘If someone signs a contract then its their own fault i have no sympathy” etc. But I was literally ejecting something that was causing psychological harm.

Publishing money was supposed to be the writer’s share.
Instead, a manager took 20%, the registrations were completely fraudulent — and when I said no more, they took that, too.

Someone asked for more truth. OK. This is a letter from Greg Hunter, professional sound engineer, who worked with The Orb from 1990–1992. It was submitted to PRS in 2023 to clarify who actually created the music. This statement is unedited, in Greg’s own words.

Commentary on Greg Hunter’s Statement

Greg’s letter outlines the basic studio structure — and it matches my experience exactly. If anything, I’d say it gives Alex slightly more credit than I personally witnessed. He occasionally approached the mixing desk and tried to participate, often by mimicking what I was doing, but he wasn’t familiar with the gear and it usually disrupted the workflow. On many sessions, I didn’t let him near the desk. He may have adjusted the odd aux send once or twice, but it was minimal — more about wanting to “be seen” doing something than actually shaping the track, especially since by the time he got involved, everything had already been built and set up.

Greg didn’t create all the effects, but the ones he did were always excellent — and we collaborated on a lot of that work. On U.F.Orb, Greg was a major creative force on the mixing front and absolutely nailed the effects side, possibly downplaying his role in the EQ’ing and balancing side on that. In the Satellite Serenade mix, Alex’s only input was adding a David Attenborough sample, which he found funny because of the phrase “erecting mud huts.” That was the extent of his contribution.

That’s what we mean when we talk about authorship — not just who was in the room, but who actually created the music, made the production decisions, built the track, and shaped the mix.

A record label is attempting to illegally use my track “Satellite Serenade,” a collaboration between myself and Keiichi Suzuki, without permission or consent. Doug Shipton and “Strictly Kev” are behind this release, which they claim is “completely legal” – this is incorrect.

THE LEGAL VIOLATIONS:

Copyright Infringement: I co-created “Satellite Serenade” and retain all rights. I never signed my publishing to Universal Music. All contracts with The Orb expired years ago, (none of them legally enforceable anyway – which i am going to show shortly) making any past agreements void. They have no legal basis to use this work.

False Representation: The release gives me zero credit as co-creator and implies they own/created the work. This is fraudulent misrepresentation of authorship.

Their Own Admissions: They admit they didn’t ask my permission. They’re openly taunting me about using my work without authorization while claiming it’s legal – a direct contradiction.

THE SMOKING GUN:

Either Universal Music is lying about owning publishing rights they don’t have, or someone has been collecting my royalties under false pretenses for 35 years. Both scenarios are illegal.

THE BROADER PATTERN:

This represents the music industry’s continued exploitation of disabled artists. When I explained that The Orb involved criminal acts of coercive control against me as an autistic person, their response was dismissive contempt. Ninja Tune’s Matt Black is reportedly “totally down” with this exploitation.

MY POSITION:

I DO NOT CONSENT to this release. I DO NOT CONSENT to being associated with these people. The casual dismissal of disability exploitation while stealing my work is morally bankrupt. This has caused me such distress I’ve stopped making music entirely.

ADDITIONAL LEGAL VIOLATIONS:

Commercial Exploitation Without Consent: They’re selling my track as part of a commercial compilation with merchandise (gatefold sleeve, T-shirt designs, illustrated compendium) – clear commercial exploitation of my copyrighted work.

False Attribution/Curation Claims: Press copy states tracks were “picked and arranged by Mario, David and Kevin” from “their collections” – falsely implying ownership/curatorial rights over my work.

Historical Misrepresentation: They’re rewriting history, inserting my independently created work into their Telepathic Fish narrative as if it belonged to their scene, while systematically erasing me from the story.

Calculated Erasure: Press coverage lists my track first but mentions zero creators. My work appears to be a key selling point, making the erasure commercially motivated and deliberate.

THE REMIX EXPLOITATION RACKET:

This release also endorses the record industry’s systematic theft through “remix” publishing scams. In the 90s, labels would commission remixes then register themselves as 100% publishing owners, claiming the new work was “derivative” of their original – even when the remix bore no resemblance to the source material. This was bog standard – they would all do it.

I would completely transform tracks, writing new melodies, arrangements, and sound design that made them commercially viable. Yet I’d receive 0% publishing because labels classified my electronic contributions as “non-musical” / simple motifs, sound design or anything else rather than say the word “composition.” They hired me specifically for my mixing desk skills, sound design, and track-building abilities – then used semantic games to steal the publishing from the very creativity they were paying for.

Even on remixes where I wrote everything, I have often got zero publishing rights. They’d claim the basic elements they gave me at the beginning – which I often erased entirely – warranted 100% ownership of the completely new work I’d created.

“Satellite Serenade” is roughly 50/50 between myself and Keiichi Suzuki, with the latter half featuring little to none of his input. But under the remix exploitation model, my contributions are probably not even registered in the PRS or PPL.

By endorsing this release, they’re endorsing decades of systematic publishing theft from electronic artists whose work was deliberately misclassified to deny us our rights. It’s the same exploitative mindset that created The Orb situation in the first place.

They can keep their shitty cover and drink their black worm jism – but they cannot steal my work.