Take any city in the UK, and almost
literally, you can find an unsigned scene that's completely saturated
with bands and artists from a myriad of genres and backgrounds that
are all vying to put their city on the musical map. At best, only a
handful from each city will get signed and fewer still will go on to
make it. There's those that approach their music with a cocksure
arrogance soaked liberally in sense of self-entitlement who,
unfortunately do end up going places. Then there's bands like Stoke's
Delamere; a band whose music isn't their own way of certifying their
own arrogance, but a cathartic means for them and their listeners to
escape the drudgery of the everyday monotony.
Rather than release a single EP, the
band meticulously write then rewrite singular tracks and release them
on an almost monthly basis. Indeed, having only been together a short
space of time, releasing each track individually allowed them to
garner a fan-base from a small yet steady stream of tracks while the
fans in turn eagerly await each single, as opposed to hearing an EP
and tiring of it quickly.
Not that that would be the case, however. Each track released by Delamere upholds a distinctly anthemic ideal; there's an underpinning sense of ambition, hidden brilliantly by a darkly optimistic veneer. The first track to be uploaded to their
SoundCloud page, 'Vampire', quickly asserted Delamere as a band with
a penchant for aesthetics and suggests an understated intelligence to
their song writing rarely exhibited in the indie scene. I caught up
with the band earlier in the year, and the same quiet intelligence
came through then, though conversely, their sincerity is manifested
in their music and in conversation the band are light hearted and
chatty. This is a side seen in their most recent track 'Colour Me
in'. Uplifting and optimistic, a perpetual high hat drives the song
forward and gives texture and grounding to guitars that threaten to
float away. Singer James Fitford excels himself in each and every of
the band's releases, and it's been an absolute joy to hear them
progress and mature over the five months I've been following them.
Support slots with hotly tipped bands
such as Peace and Palma Violets suggests that people are beginning to
take notice of Delamere, and well they should. The band are so much
more than the majority of bands that grace the pages of the nations
music press. They harbour a youthful energy that's all too aware of a
darker more sincere side of life; it's this dynamic that the band
thrives on and it's this that gives them the edge over so many of
their contemporaries. Set to release the début EP towards the end of
Summer, there's bound to be big things happening with Delamere and
they couldn't be more deserving of it.
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