Orbital have released a stunning remix of their current single ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ featuring The Mediaeval Baebes by renowned Drum & Bass producer, Breakage.
The single is the second to be taken from Orbital’s new album Optical Delusion, out February 17 (pre-order), following the BBC6 Music playlisted lead single “Dirty Rat”, an incendiary collaboration with Sleaford Mods.
The opening track on the new album, ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. A chugging, 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 two brothers 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.
