GIG REVIEW – Delphic, Oxford Academy

O2 Academy Oxford, 18th February 2013
Support: Delphic DJs

Having recently released their second album, Collections, to a largely underwhelmed response, Delphic are back on the live circuit and are currently on an 18 date European tour. The new album sees a departure from the guitar and synth electronica of their first album, Acolyte, to a new direction which is heavily influenced by 80s R&B and hip hop. Their current tour is supported by what is billed as “Delphic DJs”.

Breaking out with a strong start, the band launched the show with the lead single from the new album, Baiya. With the new addition of live drums the set cantered straight into old favourite, Halcyon, before slowing for Freedom Found from the new album. This track worked extremely well live, with the simple bass and shaker background of the verses providing a good contrast to the busier choruses. The set continued into Memeo, which again worked well live before slowing into a hip hop style intro for Clarion Call, which was one of the highlights of the whole set.

Don’t Let The Dreamers Take You Away followed, and although this track is one of the weaker ones on their new album, the addition of a new upbeat section at the back end of the track really lifted it, turning a mediocre track into a good one. To a massive whoop from the crowd, the band then embarked on Red Lights, This Momentary and Doubt from the first album, with all tracks including some epic bass and guitar licks and great vocals. Closing the set with Atlas from the new album seemed to be a strange choice, but again this track worked well live even though the bass was slightly overwhelming in some places.

After the briefest of intervals the band came back for a 3 track encore (or “non-core” as the band put it) consisting of The Sun Also Rises from the new album followed by old favourites Counterpoint and Acolyte from the first album. The former song was the weakest of the whole set but was mercifully cut short in favour of launching (albeit in a slightly disjointed manner) into the final two tracks, both of which were great but which both suffered at times from being overwhelmingly loud, meaning that some of the best parts of the tracks were sometimes lost amongst the sheer wall of noise.

During the set the band largely dispensed with any chit chat in favour of stringing tracks together and, although this is sometimes a disappointment to the audience who like to feel part of the band that they are watching, in this instance it really suited the set well. Despite a lukewarm reception to their new album, Delphic really showed why live music rocks by completely changing the feel of that album and adapting it into a great live performance which lived up to the brilliance of Acolyte.

My review score: 7 out of 10