Delphic return to Liverpool on Valentine’s Day to spread their electro pop charm, Getintothis’ Stephanie Heneghan finds love in a hopeless place.
We are, as our mum would say, ‘between beaus’ at the moment.
Not in a sandwich situation (chance would be a fine thing) but as far as Valentine’s Day was concerned, it didn’t really feature highly on my list of priorities. No hot dates lined up, Ryan Gosling has obviously lost my number and all we received that morning was a handful of bills – not of the William variety.
So we did what every self-respecting slightly lonely single girl would do, put on my favourite trainers (Nike Air Max 1 Black Leopards – we’re smitten) and headed down to the O2 Academy to nurse a pint of Diet Coke and check out a band. We’re so cool.
The band in question are Delphic. When they hit the scene a few years ago we were all over them like a cheap suit; we had the album, went to see them three times, even had a t-shirt. That t-shirt is at an ex-boyfriends house, we’d quite like it back now.
Anyway, then they didn’t release anything for a while so we forgot about them and moved onto the next big thing because we have a short attention span and am incredible fickle.
Recently they released Baiya, a new single (they’d been ‘in the studio’ – music doesn’t happen overnight, you know) and we got excited and then immediately deflated after listening to it as their new direction didn’t really light our fire. We liked the old stuff lads, here’s a map, go and retrace your steps.
So, we were largely hoping that they’d just ignore the new stuff – the material they’re touring to promote – and just repeat the set we’d seen them do in 2009. This is our inner idiot speaking.
On cue, they open with the new track that we’d been so disdainful about and it sounded MEGA.
This segued straight into Halcyon and the place hit the roof. Literally. Well, not literally but you get the idea. Freedom Found was up next, a big piece of 80’s yacht rock pop (YACHT ROCK POP, are you for real – Review’s ed).
By this point we were made up – all our previous concerns about the new material had diminished, what sounds slightly flat recorded is transformed in the live act.
They’re very tight live, the three of them flow together through tracks, working the EQ’s, and vocals have improved 110% (*Simon Cowell face*) since their initial tour.
With noticeably less of the Hooky style guitars that garnered so many inital New Order comparisons, this works in their favour – they’ve developed their own personality rather than aping their idols.
That’s not to say that glimpses of their influences aren’t scattered throughout. It’s a sprinkle of the Chems here, some Daft Punk there, a bit of a love letter to old school rave at one point but never so much that it feels jaded. They move effortlessly from one style to the next – very little audience dialogue, preferring to mix directly into the next track.
Ending on the double barrelled whammy that is Counterpoint and Acolyte, no one seems at all eager to leave, loitering about for one more track.
As a gorgeous blonde elbows her way past us, she then stops to point her finger at the (admittedly handsome) lead singer and yell into my ear, ‘I think I’m in love with him, don’t tell my husband, he’s behind you!‘.
Aww, love IS all around. Just, err, don’t tell her husband.
Photos courtesy of Matt Thomas
