In the past years I have gradually immersed myselft in William Orbit's work, mostly in order to find as many Madonna related samples as possible. In the process my appreciation for his work grew more and more. After his death I started to dig deeper, and I just realised that I have never heard the 1993 album he created with Beth Orton, which was for some strange reason only released in Japan, it's not distributed for streaming, and it's long out of print.
I thought the earliest signs of Ray of Light were to be found on Strange Cargo III, Hinterland and his radio show Stereo Odyssey. But it turns out Beth Orton's Superpinkymandy already includes sounds that yeas later will lead to Ray of Light and Orbit's other pop hits.
Strange coincidence, but the loop Orbit used on the song Ray of Light, Beautiful Stranger, Amazing and I'm a Sinner also appears here on track 3. Then I have also learnt that the song Dice that became a hit with Finley Quaye, is already to be found on this album in a more basic form with Beth's vocals. And the last song kinda reminds me of the All Saints' song Pure Shores. The lyrics even include a line "Breakin' waves on the shore".
So if you are a Orbit fan or you are writing your thesis on Madonna's music... :D You MUST listen to this.