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Little Fluffy Counterpoint

So I recently had a hard drive crash which wiped out my entire collection of mp3s. Being a past-lame geezer who actually prefers to buy cds and rip the mp3 rather than simply download them, it wasn't a tragic loss as almost all of the collection was "backed-up" in the form of the original cds. Any mp3s that I did happen to download generally got burned to cd directly, so I was covered there as well.

Anyhoo, during the process of re-ripping one of the first electronica cds I had ever purchased, I became curious about the first track and decided to do some googling about it. The cd was The Orb's, Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld and the track was the seminal "Little Flufffy Clouds." I was curious about the spoken word part of the track, which I have come to find out was lifted by The Orb from an appearance by Rickie Lee Jones on Reading Rainbow. That's cool, I'm thinking, but then I read on:

It's only a song, albeit one that samples Steve Reich. It's a disposable early-'90s single with a low-rent video. "Little Fluffy Clouds" takes on strong meaning to many people.

Hunh? Steve Reich? I click the link and find:

The first time a track from the European dance subculture reached out and shook the pop mainstream by the throat, partly because it reached beyond the world of the Roland 303 and 808 for its hooks. But not to pop songs -- instead, it lifted a riff from Steve Reich's avant-garde composition "Electric Counterpoint" and cut up a bit of an interview with Rickie Lee Jones. It was a shockingly novel sound, and its subtext -- as an understated, abstracted AIDS memorial -- still gives it amazing poignancy.

Now I have no idea where the "abstracted AIDS memorial" thing comes from, but reading this sent me scrabbling for the mouse and clicking on my just re-ripped mp3 of Pat Metheny playing Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint."

So here they are; compare for yourself:
orb clip
reich clip

I'd never noticed that before! Of course I know that electronica is all about sampling other music, but now I'll be digging a little deeper with my listening habits, knowing that more such unexpected nuggets might lie buried within.