London HHV Records 181 Items

• Everything Is Connected Too is the second instalment of Blancmange’s finest moments on vinyl.

• The companion to 2024’s Everything is Connected, Everything is Connected Too delves further from recent moments like 2024’s ‘Again I Wait For The World’ and ‘Bliss’ (both on vinyl for the very first time) to ‘Sad Day (Original)’, one of their very first outings from 1981. The collection traverses 4 decades of the band’s inspired take on leftfield pop.

• Limited Crystal Clear vinyl - RSD 2025 Exclusive.

" All Orbital's classic tracks across all albums in one piece of vinyl / 1LP as cult edit versions.
" Extented 1CD edition with 6 additional tracks
" Orbital's own words about "A Beginner's Guide" : " The package you are holding in your hands is your threshold to a transformational psychoacoustic experience. An experience that will take you to spaces familiar, sonic pathways opening different times and different sounds to the chronosonic method of Orbital."

TRACKLISTING
VINYL
Side 1
01 Chime (Edit)
02 Halcyon (Edit)
03 Belfast (Edit)
04 Satan (Spawn)
05 The Box (Edit)

Side 2
06 Lush 3.1 (Edit)
07 Beached (Edit)
08 Are We Here? (Edit)
09 Are You Alive? (feat. Penelope Isles) (Edit)
10 Style (Edit)
11 Dirty Rat (Edit)

• Originally released as a DJ only promo 12” single in 1992, The Dub Extravaganza Part 2 of Shakespears Sister’s ‘Black Sky’ was an early taste of Underworld’s remixing prowess, with Darren Emerson and Rick Smith twisting the original’s goth pop into a nine-minute progressive house boiler. Since then, copies of the single have been much sought after.

• Finally The Dub Extravaganza Part 2 is re-issued on vinyl, alongside The Dub Extravaganza Part 1 and two newly commissioned of the re-edits of the Underworld mix by Leo Zero.

• Limited Glow-In-The-Dark green vinyl with newly commissioned artwork - RSD 2025 Exclusive.

• Following on from 2023’s 20th Anniversary re-issues of Neon Nights (RetroPop’s #1 Re-issue of Year, 2023), Dannii Minogue returns to the 64 floor once more for Neon Nights Remixed.

• Neon Nights Remixed brings together the best new remixes, newly commissioned for the 2023 for the first time on vinyl, including reworks from Initial Talk, Amyl, Luke Mornay, Project K and a specially commissioned new remix of ‘Put The Needle on It’ by Korpi & Blackcell.

• All mixes featured appear on vinyl for the very first time.

• Limited transparent blue vinyl - RSD 2025 Exclusive.

/ take me to the river

Triple Gatefold Sleeve (Trifold) with deluxe reflective silver board with new linear notes by Tim Barr

Record Store Day 2021 release. As part of a 35 Year anniversary celebration of their debut album London are releasing the recent remixes by Dimitri From Paris and Cerrone of their huge hit “She Drives Me Crazy’ on Colored Vinyl exclusively for RSD. Including the classic track remastered plus legendary French DJ Cerrone takes the original to dancefloor. Dimitri’s giddy assault of ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ plunders sounds from pop, house, disco, and late-80s hip hop.

Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches was Happy Mondays commercial peak, both a No.4 victory and a benchmark album in history. That year the Mondays made a generation feel like the freaks were winning again, the dreamers and schemers hurtling in from the shadows to park themselves, like grin-faced goblins, in the daylight glare of the mainstream. Artwork lovingly replicated by original Manchester designers Central Station Design.

" What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?' is the eighth studio album by British post-punk legends Echo & The Bunnymen, released on April 16, 1999. The album saw the band continue a trajectory set with 1997's 'Evergreen', embracing more introspective themes and melodic approach to its arrangements.

Synth pop trio Bronski Beat's 1984 debut The Age of Consent is a rarity in musical history - an album that both defined a generation and challenged the status quo. Its four singles, and particular lead single 'Smalltown Boy', have endured with astonishing resonance, offering home to all listeners dreaming of escape from their familiar surroundings and situations.

Every track on the album places the listener 'in the room': they are in it, living it, rolling inside each song's thematic meaning. Through the blue-eyed wonder of singer Jimmy Somerville's vocal pirouettes, they too take the punch of hate in 'Why?', question the bible with alongside a male voice choir on 'It Ain't Necessarily So', and watch the same crappy TV advertising on 'Junk'. They are part of the trade-off between lust and commerce in 'Love and Money' and the heated near climax of 'Need A Man Blues.'

40 years later and The Age of Consent remains as prescient and vital as ever as it did on its original release; truly transgressive - defiant, queer, and laden with hooks. To celebrate this important anniversary, London Records revisit the album across a series of expanded formats, uncovering sonic archival gems, new mixes, essays and more.

TRACKLISTING:

DOUBLE VINYL
VINYL 1 : THE AGE OF CONSENT (2018 REMASTER)
SIDE ONE
1. WHY?
2. IT AIN'T NECESSARILY SO
3. SCREAMING
4. NO MORE WAR
5. LOVE AND MONEY
SIDE TWO
1. SMALLTOWN BOY
2. HEATWAVE
3. JUNK
4. NEED A MAN BLUES
5. I FEEL LOVE / JOHNNY REMEMBER ME

VINYL 2 : HUNDREDS & THOUSANDS (2024 REMASTER)
SIDE THREE
1. HEATWAVE (HARVEY GOLDBERG REMIX)
2. WHY (HARVEY GOLDBERG REMIX)
3. RUN FROM LOVE (DOMINIC MAITA REMIX)
SIDE FOUR
1. HARD RAIN (HARVEY GOLDBERG REMIX)
2. SMALLTOWN BOY (HARVEY GOLDBERG REMIX)
3. JUNK (HARVEY GOLDBERG REMIX)

Rights: World excluding France & UK

DOUBLE BLACK LP REPRESS EDITION : 2x 140 Grs Black Vinyl, 5 mm spine sleeve, 2 x Printed Inner sleeve ,marketing sticker

SHORT PRODUCT INFORMATIONS

SHORT INFOS / KEY POINTS

" Originally released on September 30, 1991, Orbital's eponymous debut album became known as "The Green Album" to distinguish it from their second album (known as "The Brown Album")
" The Green Album includes the seminal 'Belfast' and a live version of 'Chime', the landmark dance track that launched their career in 1990
" The album has been remastered and represented in multiple formats, released April 19th alongside the band's 'Green Album' UK tour
" Initial deluxe 2X Black LP & 2x Colored LP sold out & meant as one run/no repress -This new & permanent Double Black Vinyl (Repress edition) to be released August 9th, 2024.

TRACKLIST

DOUBLE VINYL
Disc 1
A SIDE : A1 The Moebius - A2 Speed Freak - A3 Macrohead
B SIDE : B1 Oolaa - B2 Desert Storm
Disc 2
C SIDE : C1 Fahrenheit 303 - C2 Steel Cube Idolatry - C3 High Rise
D SIDE : D1 Chime (Live) - D2 Midnight (Live) - D3 Belfast

RSD 2024 - don't sell before 20th of April - Rights: World excluding France & UK

1 x 140 grs Black Vinyl , Numbered Sleeve , printed inner sleeve, marketing front sticker.

PRODUCT INFORMATIONS
• 35th Anniversary edition of the seminal 1989 album as Record Store Day Exclusive
• The album is presented in the famous (and as to now unseen) ‘rejected’ artwork sleeve by 8vo. Produced by Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, The Cranberries, New Order).
• Vinyl mastered by Peter Beckmann at Technology Works.
• Numbered limited edition – 2 200 copies for the World

TRACKLIST
A1. Love No More – A2. Pol in G – A3. Act I Opera – A4. People’s Pleasure Park – A5. Finding the Sea
B1. Otis – B2. They Work Every Day – B3. Act II Opera – B4. Homage to Catalonea -B5. My Country

Rights: World excluding France, UK , North America & Japan

Format 1: 2 x 180 grs LP , 2 x Printed Inner

SHORT INFOS
- 2023 marks 35 years since the first single by The Brand New Heavie
- Twenty-one seminal tracks from Acid Jazz royalty, The Brand New Heavies, who transcended London’s local funk scene to become to enjoy global success across with hits such as ‘Sometimes’, ‘You Are The Universe’, ‘Dream on Dreamer’, ‘Midnight at The Oasis’ and more.
- This new compilation brings together all the singles from the band’s time with London Records, featuring 15 Top 40, 5 Top 20, and 1 Top 10 UK hits.
- All formats feature new liner notes from producer and long-time fan Mark Ronson.
- Presented on double heavyweight vinyl with 21 hits – all their biggest hits + 4 US Singles- and expanded 2 x CD with remixes by Masters at Work, Dimitri from Paris, Roger Sanchez and a new remix of ‘Stay This Way’ by Bob Sinclar

Tracklisting:

1. Never Stop
2. Dream Come True
3. Got to Give
4. Don’t Let It Go to Your Head
5. Stay This Way
6. Dream on Dreamer
7. Back to Love
8. Midnight at the Oasis
9. Spend Some Time
10. Close to You
11. Sometimes
12. You Are the Universe
13. You’ve Got a Friend
14. Shelter
15. Saturday Nite
16. Apparently Nothing
17. People Get Ready
18. Bonafied Funk (featuring Main Source and Large Professor)
19. Brother Sister
20. Mind Trips
21. You Can Do It

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest [of humanity] – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘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.

Now 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 summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are 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.

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. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”

But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

In 1997, after a lengthy hiatus, Echo & The Bunnymen returned to the fore with 'Evergreen', revealing the brighter side of the band, and standing up with any of their earlier work.The self-produced album was recorded at The Doghouse in Henley-On-Thames with additional strings, horns and vocal arrangements recorded at Abbey Road.

The album saw the band rightfully return to the UK album charts at #8, with 3 singles ('Nothing Lasts Forever', 'I Want to Be There [When You Come]' and 'Don't Let It Get You Down') entering the UK top 50. 'Nothing Lasts Forever' (with backing vocals and tambourine by Liam Gallagher) has grown to become one of the band's most enduring and well-loved songs - a UK Top 10 and a fan favourite to this day.

To celebrate its 25 year anniversary, London Records releases 'Evergreen' on vinyl for the very first time, with a limited first pressing in solid white vinyl. There is also a new remastered and expanded 2 CD edition, taking in studio b-sides, live and acoustic sessions and previously unreleased versions across 33 tracks.

Deluxe cardboard box cmyk+special panton UV Matt, 4 x 180 G vinyl boxset each in a dedicated vinyl sleeve cmyk+ special panton , matt uv. 12’’ x 12’’ fold out booklet with new sleeve notes by Andrew Harrison. Plus exclusive ’30 Something’ Slip Mat ! Orbital missed their actual thirtieth anniversary due to lockdown, but it gave Paul and Phil pause to think and find a way to celebrate their past that was actually about the future. Unlike other Best Of’s, the ‘30-Something’ album contains reworks, remakes, remixes and re-imaginings of landmark Orbital tracks based on the duo’s unrivalled live show. Satan, The Box, Impact, Belfast and more appear in new 30-something guises, familiar yet new, time reversing, yesterday becoming tomorrow. Plus new track ‘Smiley’ Also including remixes from Yotto, Anna, Jon Hopkins, Dusky, Joris Voorn, Logo 1000, Eli Brown, Shanti Celeste and more. Deluxe 4x 180 Grs Vinyl Boxset , with Slip Mat & 12’’x12’’ Booklet. / 2 X CD editio

On vinyl for the first time in the UK as a RSD exclusive on pink vinyl. Uncle Dysfunktional is a fifth and most recent studio album from Happy Mondays. Released in 2007, it was their first album since Yes Please! in 1992. Despite Factory Records having closed 15 years before, Tony Wilson personally assigned Uncle Dysfunktional a FAC number, Fac-500. The artwork has been re-worked by Central Station Design. Limited to 2000 copies world-wide.

2 x Black 140 G Vinyl. Gatefold Sleeve with spot matt & gloss UV. 2 x Printed inner sleeve. The album remastered from original tapes . Vinyl package also features a selection of B - Sides from the 7” singles of 1985 & 1986.

The last Happy Mondays album on Factory Records- reaching no 14 in the UK chart. Produced by Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. Artwork lovingly replicated by original Manchester designers Central Station Design.

35th Anniversary edition of the seminal 1989 album ‘Vini Reilly’, Produced by Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, The Cranberries, New Order).

Remastered and heavily expanded 5 disc version, featuring over 75 tracks:
1. Disc 1. Vini Reilly album + 3 Bonus tracks [16 tracks] The original album (presented in the famous (and as to now unseen) ‘rejected’ sleeve by 8vo) remastered with bonus tracks.
2. Disc 2. The Sporadic Recordings [28 tracks] , a limited edition CD from 1989 [SPORE 1]
3. Disc 3 :=‘Womad Live’ EP plus bonus live tracks and demos [16 tracks]
4. Disc 4 : An exclusive DVD, Live from Porto 1988
5. Disc 5 : Bonus 1 track 3-inch mini CD - ‘I Know Very Well How I Got My Name’ a replica of the bonus addition from the original CD pressing

Expansive booklet includes new essay by Durutti Column / Factory Records expert James Nice, liner notes by band member Bruce Mitchell, liner notes from Anthony Wilson, interview extracts with Vini Reilly and restored images and outtake images.

Celebrating 45 years of Blancmange, Everything Is Connected (Best Of) is the first collection to be curated by Neil Arthur, tastefully blending a mixture of hits and personal favourites.
" Originally from the UK's post punk DIY scene, Blancmange found success in 1982, long player 'Happy Families' selling Gold in the UK, and its 3 singles becoming international hits. They went on to have 7 Top 40 hits and 70 weeks in the UK album charts.
" Long-standing admirers include Moby, John Grant and Honey Dijon, who states that "British synth pop was hugely influential in the burgeoning house music scene and Blancmange was a big part of that."
" All formats contain the Top 40 hits 'Living On the Ceiling', 'Waves', 'Blind Vision', 'Don't Tell Me' and Abba cover 'The Day Before You Came', as well as recent favourites 'What's The Time', 'Reduced Voltage', and 'Some Times These'.

" The vinyl is being pressed onto special Coke-bottle green vinyl.It features the 10 Blancmange's essential tracks.

Bananarama celebrate over 40 years at the top with the release of 'Glorious - The Ultimate Collection'. With 40 tracks selected by Sara and Keren themselves, the double CD album revisits every decade of the band's career, with hits including Cruel Summer, Venus, Love in the First Degree, Only Your Love, Preacher Man, Move in My Direction and more, along with two new singles, Feel The Love (released October 18) and Supernova.
- The 1LP edition features 16 tracks : singles + new remixes of classic hits and "Feel the Love" & "Supernova "for the first time on vinyl.
- Bananarama are THE original girl group. They're featured in Guinness World of Records for the most internationally charted hits by an all female band, with in excess of 30+ million sales worldwide.

OBI not included.

Rights: World excluding France & UK

Packaging: 1 x Solid Red Vinyl,1 x Solid Yellow Vinyl, 5 mm spine sleeve, 2 x printed inner sleeve , marketing front sticker

SHORT BIOG & KEY POINTS

"Pickled Eggs and Sherbet is the sole album by English electronic group All Seeing I - the production trio of Dean Honer, Jason Buckle and Richard Barrett (aka DJ Parrot).

"Part of the late nineties big beat / trip hop scene, it brought together many disparate threads of the Sheffield's music scene past (and then) present including contributions from the likes of cabaret crooner Tony Christie, Human League frontman Phil Oakey and Pulp's Jarvis Cocker.

"Lead single "The Beat Goes On" which had a huge viral moment on TikTok and social media in 2022, becoming one of the most widely used 'Sounds' in recent years accruing 2.4 billion views and 162k creations.

"The follow up 'Walk Like A Panther' peaked at #10 in the UK Singles Chart. Featuring vocals from Tony Christie, it became his first hit single in 25 years.

"London Records have remastered & re-issued the cult-classic album :
1.for the very first time on vinyl ! As collector Red & Yellow Double LP.
2.with an expanded and remastered 2CD edition to boot, including rare b-sides from lost CD singles, new mixes from DJ Parrot and more.

TRACKLISTING:

DOUBLE VINYL

A-SIDE
A1. Walk Like A Panther
A2. No Return
A3. Beat Goes On
B-SIDE :
B1. Sweet Music
B2. Mary
B3. 1st Man In Space
C-SIDE :
C1. Drive Safely Darling
C2. Stars on Sunday
C3. Big Pecker
C4. I Peggio
D-SIDE
D1. I Walk
D2. Happy Birthday Nicola
D3. Plastic Diamond

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact:

- Voice of the Beehive's sophomore album. 1991's Honey Lingers, saw the UK/US pop-rock band build further on their signature mix of jangly guitars, upbeat rhythms, and melodic pop hooks, edging closer to a glossier, more mainstream sound
- Working with producers such as Don Was (The B-52s, Bob Dylan), Hugh Jones (Echo & The Bunnymen, The Charlatans) and Alan Tarney (A-ha, Saint Etienne), its 3 singles - 'Monsters And Angels', 'I Think I Love You', and 'Perfect Place'- all broke the UK Top 40.
- 'Monsters And Angels' was also a significant top ten Modern Rock track at US radio as well as breaking the US Top 100.
- The album saw the band build on the indie-rock of their debut to bring in more mainstream pop influences.
- The album sold over 60,000 copies in the UK, enjoying silver sales.
- These new versions see the album remastered :
1.re-issued on vinyl for the very first time, pressed on limited edition hot-pink vinyl..
2.The expanded - 37 tracks- and remastered double CD delves into the archives to uncover B-sides, acoustic versions and alternate takes, as well as live tracks from an iconic 1991 performance at The Kentish Town & Country Club recorded for BBC Radio One.

"Pickled Eggs and Sherbet is the sole album by English electronic group All Seeing I - the production trio of Dean Honer, Jason Buckle and Richard Barrett (aka DJ Parrot).

"Part of the late nineties big beat / trip hop scene, it brought together many disparate threads of the Sheffield's music scene past (and then) present including contributions from the likes of cabaret crooner Tony Christie, Human League frontman Phil Oakey and Pulp's Jarvis Cocker.

"Lead single "The Beat Goes On" which had a huge viral moment on TikTok and social media in 2022, becoming one of the most widely used 'Sounds' in recent years accruing 2.4 billion views and 162k creations.

"The follow up 'Walk Like A Panther' peaked at #10 in the UK Singles Chart. Featuring vocals from Tony Christie, it became his first hit single in 25 years.

"London Records have remastered & re-issued the cult-classic album :
1.for the very first time on vinyl ! As collector Red & Yellow Double LP.
2.with an expanded and remastered 2CD edition to boot, including rare b-sides from lost CD singles, new mixes from DJ Parrot and more.

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest [of humanity] – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘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.

Now 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 summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are 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.

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. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”

But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.