Going global

"Delphic are going to blow a lot of minds this year," anticipated the British daily The Telegraph this past January. The group's rave-meets-rock sound was already bringing down the house at illegal raves in northern England in 2009, while their two vinyl singles, Counterpoint on Belgian R&S Records and The Momentary on France's Kitsuné, helped make Delphic the latest darlings of the United Kingdom's music press.

With this year's release of their debut full-length album, Acolyte, and tour dates in the United Kingdom, Germany, Ibiza, the United States, Australia, China and Mexico, Delphic has gone global. The source of Delphic's wide appeal is a high-voltage electro approach that points back to Donna Summer, Georgio Moroder and Kraftwerk's autobahn beats, topped with a forward-looking layer of early '90s British rock.

Given Delphic's Manchester origins, it is difficult to avoid comparing them to their hometown's legendary Factory Records and Hacienda club. It's a reputation even Delphic's Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson can't shake off. Besides his production work with the likes of Tracey Thorn and Delphic, Pearson is also known for more than a decade of DJ work, mix albums and remixes that include Depeche Mode, the Chemical Brothers and the Pet Shop Boys. When asked about what Delphic shares with these synth-pop pioneers, Pearson says, "The emotional wallop I got from listening to New Order and people like that when I was younger. And you don't get the sense that Delphic are trying to simply copy the sonic trappings of a genre - but rather, they are going towards the ecstatic effect, the mixture of elation and melancholy."

With a synth call-and-response echoing between the English and German rock scenes for decades, the aptness of Delphic's first CD being produced in Berlin is clear. As Delphic co-founder/keyboardist Richard Boardman says, "We really feel there is a definite parallel between Manchester and Berlin, probably forged by a history of unrest, struggle and subsequent development. And that struggle spawns creativity, and the cities flourish as a result. On another level, the persistent rain our cities seem to endure keeps us locked up in our homes and makes us unhappy."

But Pearson offers another theory about the Anglo-Teutonic electro connection: "With all the places synth-pop was popular, at least where I'm thinking of, in Britain, Germany and places like Detroit, where people were early on listening to Kraftwerk and techno, these were places where industry had already made mechanization and technology a musical theme. For instance, with Motown and the whole notion of the hit factory. And then you look at Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham, the West Midlands where I'm from - that's where the industrial revolution started, and Kraftwerk are definitely from an industrialized part of Germany."

Delphic's formula may have been cooked up on a trio of laptops, but it was immediately road tested on dance floors with live guitars, drums and vocals. Often impromptu, illegal venues were vital in forging Delphic's sound. As Boardman recalls, "We've always had a love of the epic, and so always wanted to create music that exploited the tension/release prevalent in dance music. But it was always important for us to balance our enjoyment with that of the audience and try to create something that people could connect with and, more importantly, dance like crazy to."

As Delphic arrives this Thursday in Prague, concertgoers have a chance hear what the buzz is all about. Although we can't guarantee they will blow your mind, if Delphic's Acolyte is any indication, they will certainly deliver a lively, danceable set. Delphic are already looking forward to the opportunity of playing in Lucerna's intimate Music Bar, as Boardman explains that "the smaller settings definitely create a different atmosphere, and one that can lead to really special experiences both for us and, hopefully, the audience."

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at
features@praguepost.com