I wonder how Ellie Goulding, Marina and the Diamonds, Delphic, Hurts and The Drums actually feel about being voted the top five sounds of 2010 by the BBC.
The list is compiled each year by 165 UK-based tastemakers who pick their top three acts for the upcoming year. However, it seems a flawed concept to me.
These tastemakers, who comprise of Radio 1 DJ’s, top magazine editors and top bloggers, are obviously going to vote for acts who will be featured heavily by themselves over the next twelve months, thus ensuring the acts voted sound of 2010 will be pushed into the limelight and hyped not on their talent alone but the amount of media exposure they receive.
It seems a double edged sword, on one hand you’ll be exposed to many more people and potential fans. On the other expectations are inadvertently pushed higher and higher with each progressing month which passes before your debut album release.
Delphic has managed to tackle this in the perfect way by releasing their debut album ‘Acolyte’ just days after the final list was unveiled.
As expected, comparisons with New Order are already rife, every review I perused earlier today highlighted some sort of comparison with the original electro/dance/rock infusing masters and the Madchester scene of the late 80′s/early 90′s.
Perhaps the comparisons are justified, perhaps not but one thing is for certain, this is 2010, 30 years after New Order first got together. Many music fans will be unaware of New Order, their early material and the impact they had and still have on the music scene as a whole.
For many, Delphic offer a fresh sound which takes one part dance music and one part indie music and creates a concoction of beeps, blips, guitars and drums which fuse together immaculately.
‘Acolyte’ opens up with ‘Clarion Call’, a track which begins strongly but manages to somehow become a Bloc Party track somewhere through it’s 2:57 duration.
What follows the difficult opening track is a mixture of brilliance and mediocrity. Some track are immediately immersible and offer replayability by the bucket load while others seem to fall at the final hurdle and lack that something extra to really catch your attention.
Other tracks such as the albums namesake ‘Acolyte’ and ‘Halcyon’ offer a good insight into what’s possible but lack that something extra. Often tracks follow a similar pattern and style with both lyrics and music beginning slowly and quietly, rising to a faster BPM as the track progresses and finishing with an instrumental verse followed by the chorus again. All in all it makes some tracks on the album easily forgettable.
‘So what’s missing?’ I hear you ask. Well, to me ‘Acolyte’ as a whole feels somewhat impersonal, lacking in the soul, warmth and depth felt most in ‘This Momentary’ and ‘Counterpoint’.
Perhaps it’s the production which contributes to this, making the album seem overly manufactured and cleansed of any impurities over and over again until you’re left with a skeleton of the original raw passion and talent which Delphic obviously do posses.
‘Counterpoint’, ‘This Momentary’ and ‘Doubt’ promised great things from Delphic but sadly ‘Acolyte’ doesn’t quite manage to deliver the goods.
‘Acolyte’ is out now on Polydor.
