Orbital announce new album, ‘Optical Delusion’

Orbital have announced a new album, ‘Optical Delusion’, which is due to land on 17th February via London Records.

Recorded in the pair’s Brighton studio, it will be the first LP since 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’ and features new productions by Orbital, as well as contributions from Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and The Mediaeval Baebes. There will also be new takes on classic Orbital tracks including Chime’, along with ‘Halcyon’ and ‘Belfast’. 

Orbital have collaborated with Sleaford Mods for the LP’s first single, ‘Dirty Rat,’ which you can listen to here. You can also check out the video – directed by Luke Losey (Smiley) and shot in Leysdown-on-Sea on The Isle Of Sheppey – below. Pre-order ‘Optical Delusion’ here.

“This track is a giant capital letter,” says Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll of ‘Dirty Rat’. “Like in the Book of Kells, where the very first letter always gets the big treatment from the monk when he’s doing his illustrated borders. It’s got that old school dance music vibe with bits of Cabaret Voltaire in there, even bits of The Shamen. It’s a little bit punk rock, nice and loud. A really refreshing, ‘wake up’ kind of track. And Jason is just brilliant!”.

‘Optical Delusion’ follows the group’s ’30 Something’ retrospective LP, which was released earlier this year to celebrate their 30th anniversary. The album included a number of remixes of their past tracks, by producers including Logic1000, Shanti Celeste, Dusky, ANNA, Jon Hopkins and Joris Voorn.