Monday, 6 March 2017

Morgan Delt - Phase Zero


(This review first appeared in issue 58 of Shindig! magazine)

Sub Pop LP / CD / CASS

Despite the implied clean slate, Delt already has a self-released six song cassette and a full length LP to his name. Yet this latest outing makes the best starting point, with Delt having honed his mix of home-made bedroom psych and trippy soft rock. Experimental but never at the expense of melody, with his falsetto vocals low in the mix the ten songs are performed entirely by Delt in his Topanga Canyon studio. It's a modern take on west coast psychedelia, avoiding retro re-hash errors and sound-a-like faux pas.

The poppy 'I Don't Want To Know What's Happening Outside' begins the inner journey before giving way to the heavier, more ominous tracks that characterise the rest of the album. Coming across as the Californian hippy cousin of Jacco Gardner, Delt has created a comforting blanket of sunshine dappled lo-fi layering, albeit one that hints at darkness in the sunshine state.


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