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ORBITAL’s
new studio album
‘OPTICAL DELUSION’
out Friday February 17, 2023
New single
’ARE YOU ALIVE’
feat. PENELOPE ISLES
& companion video out now
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‘Orbital remain a comforting presence, and still have plenty to say.’ MOJO
‘Orbital’s best album since 1996’s In Sides.’ Classic Pop
‘Deliciously danceable’ Record Collector
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Orbital have today unveiled the video for their latest single ‘Are You Alive? Featuring Penelope Isles, the third track to be taken from the seminal electronic music duo’s forthcoming album ‘Optical Delusion’, out February 17 and available for pre-order Here
The new track features Lily Wolter of Penelope Isles, and follows lead single ‘Dirty Rat’ an incendiary collaboration with Sleaford Mods, and ‘Ringa Ringa’ which featured The Mediaeval Baebes. All 3 brilliant videos were directed by long-time collaborator Luke Losey.
‘Are You Alive came about when I had the instrumental and felt it could do with a delicate vocal. Enter Penelope Isles! They took it away and Lily came up with some killer hooks, we spent a day rearranging the song and Hey Presto! Are You Alive was born. But don’t be fooled by the sweetness of the sound, the lyrics have some bite. It’s a dog-eat-dog world…’ Paul Hartnoll,Orbital
With ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album features collaborations galore and summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images.
And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk.
Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which features a chugging, cyclical Orbital groove as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.
There are also mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’, but there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.
Earlier this year an Orbital thirtieth anniversary package ‘30 Something’ – featuring reinterpretations of ‘Chime’, ‘Satan’, ‘Belfast’ and more by fans ranging from Jon Hopkins to ANNA to David Holmes, plus studio versions of Orbital live favourites – reintroduced Paul and Phil Hartnoll to a worldwide fanbase.
2023 sees the release of ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.
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Orbital’s new album ‘Optical Delusion’, due for release on February 17, 2023, and available for pre-order Here
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AMNPLIFY – DB
My nickname is “The Amnplifier”. Why? Because around here my focus is on being a conduit for providing greater outcomes that people come here for. My day to day “work” is living in the moment, and I love helping others concentrate on finding their connection to themselves through their experiences.
Why start a music environment? The truth is I love music, I love writing, and I love life. I work with musicians every day, and I feel certain that I will be until they put me in the ground. I have been managing people in businesses of some sort for over thirty five years so along the way I have developed some “wisdom” from my regular and constant “observations”.
Amnplify your experience. That is what we want you to do here, and if you want to let me know why you do, or don’t, shoot me a message on Facebook.
Hope you enjoy yourself here and find something that hits you somewhere.