Delphic are ones to watch in 2010

Little Civic, Wolverhampton

words and pictures by James Watkins

Manchester's newest indie-rave group, Delphic, brought their dynamic, no-frills set to the West Midlands as part of their eagerly-anticipated first headline tour.

At the rate things are going for them, it may turn out to be the last time they play in such small capacity venues. Tipped by many of the music industry's leading critics to be the breakthrough act of the year, it's easy to see why the Manchester four-piece are re-writing what we thought we knew about indie-rave.

Combining the huge influential sound of New Order with a soupcon of Chemical Brothers, Delphic are doing for indie-tronic what primal scream did for indie-dance.

Walking out to a sardine tin venue, crushed with 200 revellers, they launched into album opener, Clarion Call, and proceeded to show why they have the potential to bustle their way to chart success.

Frontman James Cook's voice stands solid through the fusion of guitar riffs and synthetic keys and literally destroys the competition.

Many lesser educated music fans would compare Delphic to Klaxons. They shouldn't. This band have it all as opposed to the wham bam thank you mam that comes with the aforementioned.

Strolling through the whole album, highlights included Counterpoint and the guitar ravaged indie-pop sounds of Halcyon, ahead of a 10-minute curtain closing rendition of their synthesized Acolyte, the title track for their debut album which ended the night perfectly.

There were a few sound issues during the set that threatened to spoil the party, but ultimately these faded with the general feeling from the crowd that they had seen a band that could quite possibly the music industryby storm in 2010. Watch out for Delphic. The signs point to a great year ahead. The debut album Acolyte is released this week.