We break open this week’s bag of beauties with Optical Delusion, the new album from legendary electronic music duo Orbital. The Hartnoll brothers’ first studio album since 2018’s Monsters Exist was recorded in Orbital’s Brighton studio and includes contributions from Sleaford Mods, Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and – perhaps most surprisingly – The Medieval Baebes.
Whether inhabiting the realm of dreams or nightmares, the primordial drive of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs is more powerful than ever and Land Of Sleeper, their fifth record in a decade of rancour and revelation, is testimony to this. Arguably the most potent and assured record of their life so far, it’s the product of a band energised and fortified by their individual passions to incendiary effect. After the travails of the two and a half years since 2020’s Viscerals, the Newcastle-based quintet are not so much reinvigorated as channelling a furious drive which only appears to gather momentum as the band’s surroundings spin on their axis.
With Nowhere And Everywhere, Rachel Unthank and Maxïmo Park’s Paul Smith, both from north-east England and foremost talents in their respective fields, set out to collect songs and pen originals that claw at the beating heart of the region. Though Rachel Unthank has been immersed in the folk world from childhood, Paul Smith’s route towards folk began in his teens with a love of Martin Carthy, Karen Dalton, Nick Drake and Bert Jansch, especially their fingerstyle guitar-playing. Echoes of that approach can be heard throughout this album, albeit simplified and merged with a more direct sound akin to US avant-rock.
Inhaler return with Cuts & Bruises, which includes the singles ‘These Are The Days’ & ‘Love Will Get You There’. The album is the follow-up to Inhaler’s debut, It Won’t Always Be Like This, which debuted at no.1 in both the UK & Irish official charts and became the fastest-selling debut album on vinyl by any band this century, with Inhaler becoming the first Irish group to top the album charts with a debut in 13 years.
Inhale/Exhale is an album that elevates the signature hard-hitting rock of Those Damn Crows to dizzying heights. The band whip up a storm of atmospheric hard rock, with Shane Greenhall’s trademark rousing lyricism, delivered by molten-smooth melodies and ever-passionate emotion, backed by drummer Ronnie Huxford’s earth-quaking percussion, the twin attack of guitarists Ian Shiner Thomas and David Winchurch’s rampaging riffs and glacial auras and bassist Lloyd Wood’s juddering bass thunder. Those who show up in hope of the band’s highly esteemed anthemic, piano-based balladry will also not be disappointed.
Our release of the week comes from half man, half melody Ron Sexsmith, whose new album, The Vivian Line, features 12 new songs written and performed by Ron, including the single ‘What I Had In Mind’. The who, what, where, why and how of the record are best explained by Ron himself: “The Vivian Line is a rural route right near where we live in Stratford (Ontario). Whenever we have to get out of the city we jump on The Vivian Line and it dumps us out onto the highway. I wondered about the name when we first moved there and thought it was intriguing … it sort of represents escaping from our old life in Toronto to this new phase we’re in. And it’s also like a portal to my old life when I have to get back there. The songs were mostly inspired by this stage in life that I find myself in and trying to figure it all out.”
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