On the Bristol stop of their Kitsuné Maison tour, Delphic talk to Matt Grimble of their plans to resuscitate the album

Delphic have been enjoying an ever-mounting wave of success of late. Their music has taken them across Europe and to Japan for a hectic festival schedule over the summer, and they have earned prestigious tour support slots for Bloc Party and Orbital, all before the release of their debut album. As their headline slot on the Kitsuné Maison tour brings them to Bristol for the first time, guitarist Matt Cocksedge seems blind to the following they have garnered.

“We just turn up at all the gigs and expect there to be five people scattered around the room and some dodgy looking old guy with a long mac with his notebook. When there’s people there it’s just absolutely brilliant.”

This Manchester-based three-piece have just returned from Berlin after working on Acolyte with Ewan Pearson, a techno DJ with a relatively short production CV, having proven himself through his work with m83 and The Rapture.

 “He just got it immediately, just understood the tunes. There’s such a big scene over there and we kinda got immersed in a different side of music, it just seeped into the record. But it’s not really a techno record. It’s a record full of songs, with bits of programming which hint at different styles,” explains synth man Rick Boardman.

Despite similarities in their live performances, Matt insists that they haven’t merely created a Chemical Brothers record for the decade to come. 

“We have a real love for the album, and what albums can be as a whole body of work - It’s something that we feel has been missing for a while. If we’d tied all the tracks together then it just wasn’t gonna work on that level, and that’s the level we really wanted to try and attain. You’re in a band because you just love music, and you wanna be involved on the deepest level you can. I really think it’s the pinnacle, like a movie director making a film, or playing in the world cup final. You’ve got to get it right.” 

So what is the grand design to Delphic’s output? 

“The music we make is just made for the night time. One of the things we really wanted to do when we were conceptualising the record was to make a record for that time just at 5 o’clock in the morning, when the skies are bluey-purple, and the streets are still empty but it’s kinda day, and you’re all on your own.”

 The Delphic package is deftly and passionately crafted, with every aspect from the artwork to their well-turned-out stage presence and light show meticulously tied into their grand aesthetic, as Rick explains. 

“For us, the music and the visuals, it’s all part of the overall concept of Delphic. We all have really strong ideas of what we wanna do, and what we wanna try to be. We look up to artists like Björk and Bowie, who really embody the whole being of what an artist can be. I think there’s a definite aesthetic running through our first album, with everything connected, and I can’t wait now to do the second album and just fuck it all off for something new! That’s what keeps it interesting.”  

The Cooler is transformed into a smoke-filled neon paradise, decked out in a purple haze which appears to stretch the horizon of the stage to infinity. With each soaring arpeggio and every rumbling build-up, Delphic prove themselves as masters of multi-sensory immersion. 

“We really try to go to town live so we tell our light guy just to make it like a rave, just to take it out of context. We try and make it different from other bands that we see. It all gets a bit boring. We just went and got these mad lights, and a lot of it’s being done on a bit of a shoestring budget – we got all these things from B&Q, then we somehow connected it all to the midi notes, so when the synths are playing various arpeggios they’re triggering the lights in real time. It’s a real visual experience.” 

It isn’t just for the benefit of the audience, however. 

“I think live you have to think about all the auxiliary elements of the performance, even at the stage we’re at. It means we enjoy the gig more as well. There’s a certain vibe to being temporarily blinded a lot of the time!” Laughs Matt. 

Amid the inevitable demise of Manchester’s grumpy uncles Oasis, Delphic seem at home in a city with one of the richest musical heritages in the world. 

“I think we’re a Manchester band, just a different side of Manchester. It’s so easy to fit into any Manchester stereotype because it’s produced so many good bands that almost any musical genre’s been covered by a Manchester band. You’ve got Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Oasis, then if you’re a pop band you’ve got Take That and Cleopatra.” 

Rick adds, “Especially when Manchester was so huge with the Factory thing, and all the acid house that Manchester really embraced, and dance culture, as much if not more than any other city in the world. Then that obviously all died out, and there were the Oasis-type bands, and then just nothing really. You’ve got Doves and Elbow, who are cool, but there’s nothing really just grabbing the city by the balls.” 

As with everything they do, it all comes back to the music. 

“We just want to make music that interests us and keeps us excited. Just being music lovers and listening to so much music, we try and take that all in, process it and come out with something that’s more than the sum of its influences. We try and make something new, something fresh, and if it excites us then we hope it’s gonna excite other people.” 

It’s deeply refreshing to see a band with such uncompromising ambition, going against the current swathe of kitsch throwbacks and token synths. In the enveloping euphoria of their performance this evening, they surely signal the dawn of a new decade in British music.