This is a feature that originally ran in the Canberra paper before I tweaked it for inthemix, and I liked it – or rather, the chat with James from Delphic who was delightfully genial and articulate – so I wanted to put it up here. It’s kind of Australia-centric, so apologies for that, international hordes.

Delphic – Counterpoint (Tim Goldsworthy Edit)

Phoenix – Fences (Delphic Remix)

Delphic: DJs Without Decks
By Dave Ruby Howe

Arriving on the scene earlier this year with their debut album Acolyte, you’d be forgiven for almost writing Delphic off. Looking at their track record, the Manchester three-piece had all the touchstones to present themselves as just another buzzed about UK group that wouldn’t manage to live up to its own hype. For starters their concoction of electro and brooding indie could be viewed as some opportunistic trend-jumping and there was their hook-ups with hipster-centric labels like Kitsune and Modular working both for and against the band.

But thankfully they delivered an album of dense and ambitious electronica and when I tracked down Delphic frontman James Cook for our interview ahead of the Splendour In The Grass festival any lingering doubts were dashed. Delphic aren’t too cool for school, not at all, they’re just a bunch of music nerds thankful for the chance to do what they love.

Kicking back in his London flat, Cook’s spinning a weathered copy of Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde, in tribute to Delphic’s recent tour across the United States. “We’re just back from playing some shows over there and I think everyone of us going through a big Americana phase because of the trip,” Cook says with a grin. “I don’t know if that means you’ll hear it creep into the next record, but I wouldn’t want to rule it out! I think we could find a way for dance music and harmonicas to be paired together.”

The impetus for the US tour was some promo duties for Delphic in conjunction with the North American release of Acolyte, which comes nearly six months after the UK and Australian release dates.

“That’s quite frustrating for us,” Cook explains of the delay in international synchronisation. “Firstly it’s frustrating because if somebody wants to find out about us and they can’t buy a record in a store then they’ll actually be forced to go and download it illegally. But it’s also frustrating because in a way I think we’ve moved on from Acolyte already. We were in the headspace of that album back when we finished Acolyte in October last year and now we’re almost bored of it,” he laughs. “You have to put yourself back in that headspace when you’re playing those songs live around the world, and that’s kind of hard.”

To keep things interesting for himself and Delphic’s other musically adventurous members Cook says that the group put all their energy into making the Delphic live shows as inventive and exploratory as possible.

“We made a decision very early on that we wanted to have our live shows very mixed together and that we would kind of treat it almost like a DJ set with live instruments,” Cook explains. “There’s the tunes from the album, but in between we get the chance to do some live jamming and that bridges it all together. That keeps it interesting for the audience but also for us, it gives us something to do because we don’t like to be static on stage. There are changes in our set every single night so it’s constantly moving forwards and mutating and I think that’s the coolest thing about the live format.”

The description of Delphic’s live set as a hybrid DJ gig is an apt one, with the band bending their Acolyte material into new shapes and forms over an hour’s set, mixing it up with fresh tweaks and interludes that transport audiences back to an acid-house rave in the Hacienda nightclub.

“We’ve taken a lot of queues from acts like Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers when creating our live show,” Cook says of the band’s influences. “I remember watching The Chemical Brothers at Glastonbury in 2003 I think it was and their show was just absolutely immense. I stood in the front-row and waited for them all day, it blew my mind and that’s just stayed with me since then. The Chems and Daft Punk are acts who do everything on computers and studio equipment so they have to do everything possible to make their live shows as exciting as they can. And we want to do a new take on that but still leave the same lasting impression on people.”

Speaking in such reverential tones about those artists, it’s evident that Cook and his bandmates have a deep respect for their dance music heroes, and as it turns out, that admiration turned surreal when the opportunity to work with The Chemical Brothers was floated before Delphic.

“When we were first getting approached by record labels we said that we’d only sign a contract if the label could start a conversation between us and The Chemical Brothers to get Tom Rowlands to produce the album. And I couldn’t believe it but it actually happened, and Tom got in touch and started working on Counterpoint.”

As delicious a combination as that sounds however, the pairing of Delphic and The Chemical Brothers was not meant to be, and the band chose to pull the plug on the initial sessions, something that is obviously still hard for Cook to believe himself.

“It was unfortunate because what he did just sounded awesome. It sounded too awesome, it was like a Chemical Brothers track. We were very focused on what Delphic should sound like and, as much as we admire them, it was what they sounded like, not us. It was the strangest experience to almost be working with them and then to turn it in.”

Tags: Delphic, Interview, Phoenix, Remix, Tim Goldsworthy, UK