CityLife

Must see: Delphic

Delphic

IF at first you don’t succeed, try again: it’s an old adage, but it’s one that Delphic know all about.

Because even though they’re lording it near the top of every Ones To Watch poll for 2010 less than a year after their first release, they’re only making waves on their second big stab at stardom.

The quiet, premature demise of their first band, Snowfight In The City Centre, taught them more than a few lessons (not least among them, how not to name a band). The biggest lesson?

Don’t write for record sales; write music that you want to hear.

With that basic principle to guide them, Delphic were born – a giant, raving monster of a band capable of a dozen levels of light and shade from quiet solitude to explosive euphoria (get a listen to This Momentary and you’ll see what we mean).

Feedback

They’ve been pitched as the new New Order, and there’s certainly a little of the Bernard Sumner about James Cook’s gentle vocals on tracks like Counterpoint as well as numerous musical reminders of New Order’s distinctive sound on their debut record, Acolyte.

But they’re walking a path perhaps more recently trodden by Underworld, Orbital, Tom Vek or Bloc Party – those 808 State-style samples adding some techie sparkle to an otherwise solid guitar-bass-drums set up.

Call their debt to Manchester music a cop out if you like; certainly Delphic can’t claim the kind of visionary Eureka! moment that Hooky, Sumner, Morris and Gilbert had in the summer of 1980 when they put down the formula for modern British dance music.

But they’re more than just a homage. Their futureindie approach is one that could wrestle back the reputations of indie and dance, both of which spent the last part of the Noughties descending into hairdo wars.

The proof, of course, has got to be in the feedback. Trawl the internet and you’ll struggle for a bad album review, which is a fine starting point for a band keen to cement their reputation.

No wonder they want to kick it off the way they know best: with a big party back in the bosom of their home town.

Islington Mill - January 29, 2010 - SOLD OUT.