Optical Delusion
The opening track of Orbital’s 10th album, *Optical Delusion*, borrows its melody from “Ring Around the Rosie,” the folk song whose playground connotations belie its common associations with the Black Death. That a plague song should introduce the Hartnoll brothers’ first studio album since 2018’s *Monsters Exist* is not accidental: Recorded in the wake of COVID-19’s first two cataclysmic years, *Optical Delusion* grapples directly with the societal unease of the 2020s—“The New Abnormal,” as an off-kilter breakbeat anthem calls it. Yet only the incendiary invective of the Sleaford Mods-fronted “Dirty Rat” would qualify as an actual protest song on this wide-ranging album of characteristically inventive beats and enveloping textures. For the most part, they face down an uncertain future with steely resolve, as on the rolling drum ’n\' bass of “Requiem for the Pre-Apocalypse,” or stoic grace, as on the melancholy “Are You Alive?”. But the duo and their guests aren’t afraid to let loose, either: The haunting yet exhilarating “Day One” is a rave anthem like Orbital has been making since the early ’90s—a reminder that sometimes the dance floor is the best possible refuge.
After belatedly celebrating three decades in the game with 2022's 30 Something, Orbital released their tenth studio album, Optical Delusion, in 2023.
Orbital are the duo whose sound will be forever etched in the legacy of rave culture. Nostalgia drenched tracks such as 'Chime' and 'Belfast' that hark
A flurry of guest vocalists all have things to say on the duo’s potent 10th album, and yet the real magic happens when they’re left to their own devices
Orbital’s ‘Optical Delusion’ feels more like a document of the times than a sci-fi fantasy. Read our review.
Orbital's Optical Delusion is what we have all grown accustomed to with them, but there are plenty of bold moments that skew the imagination with each revisit.
Optical Delusion by Orbital album review. The legendary UK electronica duo's new album drops on February 17 via Orbital/London Music
Nineties dance dons prove reliable with a varied and bangin' 10th album. Album New music review by Thomas H Green