DR ALEX Paterson helped define dub science with sonic sound masters The Orb.

The dynamic duo enjoyed hit singles and albums, sold out shows all over the planet and nurtured an impressive string of collaborations, including with reggae legend Lee Scratch Perry and Steve Hillage.

Shaped by Paterson and the KLF's Jimmy Cauty, The Orb broke the mould with their album A Huge Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain Which Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld and the dancefloor hit single Little Fluffy Clouds.

"It was not bad (Little Fluffy Clouds) for a record of samples was it," recalled Paterson," who will be manning the decks and bleeping the bleeps with a special Orb DJ set at this weekend's Beat-Herder Festival.

"I'm very proud of Fluffy Clouds – it was our calling card to the world."

Paterson not only pushed the musical boundaries out, he painted them rainbow colours from his early days as a roadie for Killing Joke, alongside old mate Youth, the band's bassist and now a renowned producer in his own right.

"We were good friends at school, and when punk happened we met again, forged a great friendship and shared a squat in London.

"He is as close as a brother and sometimes as distant as the moons of Pluto.

"Youth has this incredible energy, though, doing six or seven projects at once.

"He just has that intuitive knack of getting a connection with a sound and bending it in to something else."

Little Fluffy Clouds was written and recorded in 1990, at the height of the acid house revolution, and then Kauty left to form KLF, enjoying success with What Time is Love?

"Jimmy's quit music altogether, he is an artist now and that's what he is into.

"We just immersed ourselves in music then, like I still do now, and the ambience emerged from that period with Youth and Jimmy."

Paterson, though, never had any regard for musical boxes and says The Orb's forthcoming Album C.O.W. - working with the longest serving Orb satellite member, DJ and producer Thomas Fehlmann - has particular relevance following the seismic political events of this summer.

"C.O.W. means Chill Out World and that's a pretty ironic title right now considering what has just happened to our country," said the Doctor of Dub who promises to perform some sonic surgery on The Toil Trees stage on Saturday.

"We've got a government who don't want you to find about anything and so many people were fed a pack of lies before the referendum.

"Once it was over they just said, 'Oh. That was a load of rubbish. None of it was true.'

"You know, I thought we were a pretty educated and advanced multi-cultural country, but now some clown politicians who peddled this nonsense are going to use this vote to try and get everybody from the rest of the continent out of Britain and that sickens me.

"We should celebrate what we have here, not turn our backs on Europe.

"I've been beaten up by skinheads because I embraced the multi-cultural part of our society and I'm from a mixed race family.

"I wonder what has become of us. I really do.

"You would have thought that we might have learned our lessons by now from what happened in the last century but, sadly, it seems we haven't."

Dr Alex Paterson, Orb DJ set. Beat-Herder, Dockber Farm, Sawley near Clitheroe on Saturday. The festival runs from tomorrow until Sunday.

Tickets from the box office on 0844 888 9991.