Orbital – Optical Delusion

A decent record far from the glory days of the 90s. Sound wise it’s quiet and a lot more dynamic than the CD. Could be more dynamic though.

Not brilliant, but not a bad album either. The New Abnormal and Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse are easily the best on the here.

Are you Alive ? has the same instrumental as Garden Centre (Push the Trolley) in the Hartnoll & Young album, The Virus Diaries

Was lukewarm on the last one but this one definitely hits the spot. Doesn't exactly break a lot of new ground but I dig how punchy and refined this is. I miss the longer tracks too but think this is paced really well. I gotta grouch about something though and that's the fact that they didn't put any of the bonus tracks on it. Would be easy to fit the album on 3 sides and then put some bonus material on Side D. Oh well.

I like this album a lot. Monsters Exist was good, but this is even better. I also love the white vinyl with the minimalistic white labels and font that give a holistic white total. My pressing is almost perfect flat and sounds great. I'm really glad to have new music from Orbital. Still desperately waiting for the reissue on 4 LP of In Sides!

Superb. Was Reccomeded this in my local indie store, and i hadn't listened to Orbital since my youth.... Took a punt and was not let down at all. Really impressed. Nice Pressing, not perfect as it is a touch warped but not horrendous.

Mine was pre-order, signed, but not in plastic (hence no sticker).

Great album overall, sounds pretty good, but be careful with white vinyl like mine ,both records are warped. I opened the sealed album today in the store (Rough Trade) and another one,was the same. So in the end I left with one of them.

Can someone comment on the sound quality of this particular pressing? Colored vinyl often has a lot of surface noise. I am not shure which version too choose, so plese let me know if this is one is good to go, thanks!

Another fine release :)
I’m really enjoying this album for the most part. Some stuff I don’t like in the vocals but the sound design more than makes up for it. Lots of nods to their older stuff (Snivilisation and In Sides mainly) which really got me. Standouts are The New Abnormal, Ringa Ringa, Are You Alive and Day One - with The Crane and Year of the Bat rounding things off nicely. I like Dirty Rat a lot but alternate between vocal and Instrumental

There are bits that I don’t like - You Are The Frequency, What A Surprise aren’t for me, I didn’t feel Moon Princess was going anywhere but I need to listen to it a few times. It’s gonna ruffle some feathers but the Hartnolls are nothing if not thought provoking.

My main gripe is the track lengths - a lot of the tracks feel like they were edited a bit too hard - I got my digital scalpel out for a few and did some tweaks 30-1.30 on top and things flow much better :)