This one is a BIG winner at Music Republic Magazine HQ. Utter legends Orbital joining up with the irrepressible Sleaford Mods on this juggernaut of a track: “Dirty Rat”.
This joint single is first track to be lifted from Oribtal’s incoming new long player, “Optical Delusion”, due 17th February 2023.
What began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ “I Don’t Rate You”) has morphed into a bass-driven harangue against our rulers and the 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.”
![](https://musicrepublicmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sleaford-Mods-3-photo-credit-Johan-Ronnow-scaled.jpg)
Jason Williamson provides a typically searing vocal over Orbital and Andrew Fearn’s kinetic, driving beats. Old school dance music vibes, bits of The Shamen and The Prodigy maybe.
![](https://musicrepublicmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Orbital-Sleaford-Mods_Dirty-Rat_Digital-single_3500x3500_5060555218867-scaled.jpg)
“Optical Delusion”, is Orbital’s 10th studio album and their first since 2018’s “Monster’s Exist”, and features contributions from Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and….The Mediaeval Baebes.
![](https://musicrepublicmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2620_opticalDelusion_Packshot_Artwork-scaled.jpg)
The video was directed by Luke Losey (Smiley) and shot in Leysdown-on-Sea on The Isle Of Sheppey.