Bristol O2 Academy – 31st March 2023
Pioneering electronic music duo Orbital have today announced an extensive UK Tour to follow the release of their new studio album Optical Delusion, out February 17th, 2023 via London Records (pre-order).
Orbital’s Optical Delusion UK Tour will kick off on March 28th in Glasgow and culminate in Brighton on April 8th. Stand by for news of Irish dates.
ORBITAL UK TOUR 2023
March
28 – GLASGOW, SWG3
29 – NEWCASTLE, NX
30 – MANCHESTER, Albert Hall
31 – BRISTOL, O2 Academy
April
1 – LONDON, O2 Academy Brixton
5 – LEEDS, O2 Academy
6 – CAMBRIDGE, Corn Exchange
7 – NOTTINGHAM, Rock City
8 – BRIGHTON, Centre
Tickets On General Sale: Friday 16th December @ 10am
*****
With Optical Delusion, their tenth studio album, Orbital 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 beguiling images from recent times, when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnoll brothers watched on TV as kids finally came true. The album’s lead single, the BBC6 Music playlisted lead single “Dirty Rat”, is an incendiary collaboration with Sleaford Mods whose brilliant video has swiftly racked up half a million views. This week, the band released a second track from Optical Delusion, “Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)”, in which a classic, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’, the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.
The new album is the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for Orbital, who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House. 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.
Orbital Optical Delusion – Track List:
01 Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) (feat. The Mediaeval Baebes)
02 Day One (feat. Dina Ipavic)
03 Are You Alive? (feat. Penelope Isles)
04 You Are The Frequency (feat. The Little Pest)
05 The New Abnormal
06 Home (feat. Anna B Savage)
07 Dirty Rat – With Sleaford Mods
08 Requiem For The Pre Apocalypse
09 What A Surprise (feat. The Little Pest)
10 Moon Princess (feat. Coppe)
Pre-order here
ORBITAL – NEW ALBUM ‘OPTICAL DELUSION’ – OUT 17 FEBRUARY, VIA LONDON RECORDS
FOR MORE INFORMATION
@thebristolnomad / @bristolnomad_gigphotography
Role: Photographer / Reviewer / Interviewer
Chief, the one that bugs the team for team for their reviews and images. Creator and founder of The Bristol Gig Guide. Can usually be found swamped in admin or getting cramp kneeling at the front of a gig.
Available for: Gig Shoots, Gig Reviews, Photo Shoots, Album and Single cover shoots, Videography work, Interviews and Touring
First attended gig: Republica, circa 1996.
First gig shot: Hands Off Gretel, at The Louisiana!
Dream gig: Huge metalhead and my ultimate dream gig would be shooting my heroes Slipknot at a huge stadium gig, or as festival headliners. And to experience shooting a headline tour outside the UK
