| CD REVIEW Delorentos |
 |
|
Band : Delorentos Hailing from the small town of Portane (10 kms West from Waterford, which itself is situated about 130 kms South of Dublin), the Dublin based Irish Alternative Rock foursome of Rónan Yourell (lead vocals, guitar, occasional piano), Kieran McGuiness (guitar & 2nd lead vocals), Nial Conlan (bass & backing vocals) and Ross McCormick (drums & backing vocals) had been playing together in several combinations earlier on, when in 2005 they founded Delorentos together. Never heard of the band? Me neither, but they already have some nice accomplishments to their name. An overview… From the get-go, the band was rather popular on home soil, with the November 2005 released debut EP Leave It On (released through the band’s own label Delo Records with a decent Irish distribution through Cottage Records – also their own, by the way) going to #24 in the charts. The single for the title track off that EP did even better, shooting to #1 in the Irish Singles Charts. The band followed this up with a tour, including an appearance at the UK industry show In The City. They were also invited to participate in the 2006 series of the annual music show Other Voices. Follow-up single The Rules (issued May 2006) only went up to #14 in the singles charts, but it did remain there for 3 weeks. In March the band had come to broader attention when representing Ireland at the National Student Music Awards, where they were chosen “Best Student Artist in the UK & Ireland”. Their prize included free time at the BBC’s Maida Vale recording studio and an invitation to UK tv show CD:UK, where the band confirmed the distribution of their debut EP in the UK. The band followed up their success with another Irish tour, and during the rest of 2006 and earliest 2007 were enabled to tour off home soil with more established bands Idlewild, Bell X1, Whitey, The Futureheads, Gang Of Four and Tapes ‘n’ Tapes in such locations as London, New York, Chicago, and Toronto. They also became the first unsigned band to play both the Oxegenand Electric Picnic festivals in the same year (2006). To coincide with US dates in New York and a series of performances at Texas’ South By Southwest, the band released the single Basis Of Everything (did nót chart) in February 2007. Delorentos released their debut full-length In Love With Detail in April, and saw the album shoot to the #7 position in the Irish Albums Charts, and staying in the charts for 5 weeks. At that year’s Heineken Green Energy event, the band supported Sinéad O’Connor and Kila. They also supported the Dave Matthews Band in late May, and supported ArcticMonkeys on two separate shows at Dublin’s Malahide Castle in June (other bands playing there included Supergrass and The Coral). Festival slots were done at Oxegen, Electric Picnic, and Cois Fharraige. The single Stop (did not chart) was released in July, and in November came the EP Do you Realise (which díd chart for 2 weeks, peaking at #34). 2008 turned out to be a somewhat “calm” year for the band. They díd return to South By Southwest (their performance hailed by The Irish Times as the best by any Irish band on the event) in March, and played at Barcelona’s Razz Club, but on home soil the band’s live activities were constricted to performances at festivals including Oxegen, Brandon Music Festival and Drogheda Arts Festival. It was generally believed that the band’s live inactivity was due to preparations for their sophomore album, which was to be released on a proper label…but in December of 2008 the band announced that the prospective deal had fallen through due to the label encountering financial problems. To make matters worse, distribution company Pinnacle collapsed, denying the band the possibility to release their album in the UK. Following a series of shows with fellow Dubliners Director in early 2009, the band announced their break-up on February 17, the split coming about from lead singer Ró desiring to “do other things”. The others decided to continue and finally record their second album (with songs written during the previous year) in March, and it was agreed that Ró would still help the guys out. He would also still be part of the line-up for a series of “farewell” tour. Reaction to the band’s split was generally as one of shock. Several people had recently been championing the band’s sound, neighbouring bands who were influenced by Delorentos wrote to ‘em in astonishment, and noted artist Jacqui Carroll attributed her discovery of Irish music to an early show by the band. In a positive turn of events, the band announced on April 22 that they would not be splitting after all, claiming to have found a new excitement for recording as the reason. Ró would later confess that the band signing away their independent status only to be let down hard by their record company had “knocked us out of our stride”, and had led him to considering his future as a musician (info for the above & below text taken & re-shaped from the band’s page at Wikipedia). As mentioned in the caption above, You Can Make Sound was released in Ireland through DeloRecords in early October 2009, and at the same time the band made the album title track available as free download. On October 16 they released S.e.c.r.e.t. as the first single off the album. No idea how well it faired, but the album made #2 in the Irish Album Charts. This year, the band has already appeared on TG4 music series Ceol Ar An Imeall, have represented their country at the Eurosonic Festival in Groningen (Holland), were announced as one of the first to appear at this year’s Indie-Pendence event, and headlined Livestock on June 5. In other words, the success of this band is slowly but certainly rising. By the way, iin the past the band has already won some more awards besides that at the National Student Music Awards…having been nominated for 4 Meteor Music Awards (“Hope for 2006” in 2005, “Best Neew Band” in 2006, and “Best Irish Band” & “Best Irish Album” in 2008 – losing the latter to veteran Rock band Aslan). The album In Love With Detail was nominated for the Choice Music Prize in 2007 and lost to Super Extra Bonus Party’s self-titled album…but won the 2007 Róisin Dubh award “Album Of The Year”. In February 2008 the band won the “Best New Band” award, handed over by The Irish World in London. All of that ain’t no surprise anymore once you get to hear the band’s latest album. Naming Arcade Fire, Pixies, The Cure, and the Clash as their influences, the band’s Alternative Rock is a very Poppy one, full of compellingly beautiful and melodic twin guitar play full of hooks and harmonies, which also come forth in the vocals (nice medium-high pitch with the slight touch of a moan all-over). Occasionally (check “Hallucinations” and the album title track) the band rock out a bit more, and this comes through mainly by adding a rougher sound on the bass. There’s apparently a lot of hidden keyboard work on the album, seen as all members are credited for having contributed on that instrument. Weirdly enough, it’s only on closing ballad “I Remember” that one clearly hears the piano being played. In essence, this band could make it big internationally, given the backing of a high-profile (say major) label. Regretfully, we live in awkward times, and these days major labels will only sign on bands who’ve proven themselves already (how contrary could that be?). Anyway, although Delorentos will never get a year-list nomination in my personal book, their material is something I can listen to without feeling sick about a possible exaggerated gearing towards commerciality…and listen to with a certain degree of enjoying myself too! Check out the couple of full-length songs (except for the album closer, all 3 mentioned songs off the new album are there) at myspace.com/delorentos. For samples of àll tracks, check the “Disc” section of the band’s website (www.) delorentos.net. 85/100 Tony. |