At this point I am not picky about the advice I get since it will all be useful, but sure, songs, places, where to find places, etc.
Hrm where do you live? This is important as it will determine whether you are totally screwed and relegated to the "I-have-no-record-stores-in-my-area-except-coconuts-and-sam-goody-and-hence-will-have-to-get-everything-from-ebay" category or whether you will be exalted to the "I-live-in-a-major-usually-coastal-metropolitain-area-with-tons-of-record-stores-run-by-rude-clerks" category. A good starting place for songs is http://www.swcp.com/lazlo-bin/discogs?orb which is an albiet somewhat out of date discog, maintained by the same dude who (coincidentally) runs this mailing list. Its a greatresource for finding out about those early remixes the boys did that were basically never re-released. Personally, I would highly recommend the Keiichi Suzuki, Sun Electric, and the "Higher than the Sun" remixes.
I have their commercially released albums that you can get from local corporate stores, and I have checked around the independent record shops as well. Not too much extra stuff there.
Yeah finding orb stuff at random in a store is actually somewhat unusual. Often its released in limited runs or as promos and then once all copies are snapped up you're up the proverbial creek. Ebay is good, and www.gemm.com has about a 40% success rate.
If there were/are side projects that the orb/Alex were part of, that would be interesting to own as well. I just recently subscribed to badorb. I am
Well lets see, I would again suggest the discography. Alex has done some remixes and work with system 7 as well as some early stuff with members of KLF. Youth is so prolific its not even worth getting into his side projects, remixes, and the like (he was in a band called killing joke and has remixed everyone from the sugarcubes to mike patton and is the propreitor of Dragonfly records, a HUGE HUGE goa trance label)
interested to see how that works out. I haven't read any *bad* reviews here, but again, I am new.
:) Stay a while.
How do trades work here, if at all allowed?
Ask for stuff and you will responses. Offer stuff and expect the same. :)