Orbital - Optical Delusion - The Singles, Reviewed

Orbital - Optical Delusion - The Singles, Reviewed

Brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll, otherwise known as Orbital are one of the UK’s best loved dance acts, cementing their legacy with iconic singles like ‘Chime’ and ‘Halcyon On and On’, and their green and brown self titled albums remaining two of the best loved British rave albums. Now, after a just under five year break from the release of their last album ‘Monsters Exist’, the brothers are back with a brand new album, ‘Orbital Delusion’, set for release on February 17th. In terms of expectations, there really weren’t many, given that I wasn’t too familiar with their output until news of this new album came my way, although of course, their fantastic reputation preceded them, and I was very impressed upon checking it out. So if anything, my only hope was that the album would live up to the standard set by previous material, because if they did, we’d have a very good album on our hands. So I’m just gonna go through the singles release so far to see how things are stacking up.

Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) [Ft. The Mediæval Babes]

This second single and album opener, to cut a long story short, is just a brilliant, otherworldly rave track. The combination of a great, propulsive beat and amazing deep bassline give the track a sense of momentum and heft that you always want in a quality rave track. This is then topped with some nice, intriguing vocal chops and psychedelic synthesizers, giving the track a fantastic, alluring vibe which works to great effect. Later on this is complimented by some classic sounding, yet ethereal synth stabs, allowing the track to sound simultaneously dramatic, dynamic, hard hitting and airy. Finally, the cherry on the proverbial cake, is the ghostly vocal performance of The Mediæval Babes, providing a captivating interpolation of a classic, morbid nursery rhyme, yet further adding to the track’s unearthly vibe. So in summation, this track gives you the best of both worlds: a great, hard hitting, danceable rave track with a psychedelic, dreamy, and otherworldly edge.

Are You Alive? (Ft. Penelope Isles)

Here the guys find themselves collaborating with another twin duo in the form of Isle of Man indie-psych band Penelope Isles, and it’s a bold statement for sure, the longest track on the album, reaching nearly eight minutes, but it goes over an absolute treat. Musically it’s not so far outside of the ‘Ringa Ringa’ playbook, but with a more progressive, cinematic edge. A steady, shuffling beat with peppy percussion is complimented by great, cinematic bursts of synthesizers and bass, all creating a flooring tranquil and grand atmosphere, while the keyboards still maintain a fuzz and graininess that makes them very captivating. While again, eight minutes is a long time, the duo do their best to keep it varied, both with the constantly increasing intensity and scale of the melodic elements, as well as the shift into a four-on-the-floor house groove around five minutes in, bringing with it a host of new and interesting ideas, both percussively and melodically, including acid-tinged arpeggiated bass and bright, quirky plucks. The vocals, provided by Lily Wolter are the cherry on the cake. Equal parts, fragile, ethereal, ghostly, and beautiful, they compliment the instrumental flawlessly. And while they are sometimes a little inscrutable, perhaps due to her voice’s airy tone, the lyrics I can pick up discussing emotional frustration and a desperation for openness along with the brutality of the music industry are very well done, and lend further to the vocals’ captivating quality (“give it all you’ve got til you’re wanted in a five-a-side, hiding in a ball isn’t gonna do you any good”). A bold yet successful move from the duo, eight minutes of groovy, bright, cinematic, ethereal, emotional brilliance.

Dirty Rat (Ft. Sleaford Mods)

On this lead single, the brothers team up with vocalist Jason Williamson of the brilliant post-punk group Sleaford Mods, to deliver a decidedly more aggressive, sharp, and gnarled take on their classic sound. Anchored by a typically angular, post-punk bassline, the brothers utilize yet another energetic, fast paced drum beat, along with some great, bright, sharp synth stabs and distorted guitars, atop which Jason spouts his typically rapid-fire, cutting tirades against the farcical nature of the UK political system. This may seem like an uncomplimentary pairing on paper, but it gives the track a real punch and power that it plays with brilliantly. The second motif of the track is perhaps its most compelling, in which Jason delivers a very powerful, ungroomed, yet melodic vocal performance atop dramatic, noisy walls of synth pads and robotic vocoder effects, which gives the track a further sense of grandiosity that is very effective. So while seeming incompatible on paper, this song shows that both the Mods’ and Orbital’s styles can quite easily coalesce, and do so very well.

So, after all that, the question on everyone’s lips would be how good do I think the album’s going to be? Well let me put it this way: there’s been a trend in the last couple years of classic, well-loved dance acts returning and delivering incredibly lackluster albums. Faithless (R.I.P Maxi Jazz) returned in 2020 with ‘All Blessed’ which aside from a couple of tracks ended up being very disappointing. Then Leftfield returned last December with ‘This Is What We Do’, which yielded arguably even worse results. Anyway, my point is that, let’s just say that based on the quality of these singles, I believe Orbital will do far, far more than simply buck this trend.