Album Review: Delorean - Subiza
- Written by Jim Merrett
A lesson in both history and geography, then. Suitably named, this Spanish outfit have pointed their stainless steel time machine at a certain white island in the Mediterranean and set their flux capacitor for the moment when it was at the height of its power, the beating heart of time and space – that mythical high ahead of the inevitable fall, before it became just another “place where the wave broke and rolled back” that Hunter S Thompson spoke of in relation to another counter-culture hub.
Like the heady hippy era before it, if you can remember Ibiza in the late 1980s you probably weren't there. Not that that should worry Delorean, who were all probably in school at the time. Their take on a subject that could so easily be dismissed as nostalgia here writhes with fresh vitality.
Named after the Basque town in which it was recorded, the similarity between the album title and the fabled epicentre of blissed-out house is certainly no accident. If you take one word away from this review, “Balearic” would be a wise option. From the looping vocals, whoops (!) and build-'em-up, tear-'em-down piano bridges of opener 'Stay Close' onwards, this is a band that are never afraid to wallow in the halcyon days of pill-popping revelry.
Stimulants are largely unnecessary, mind, given that the soundscape of Subiza creates itself. Proceedings occasionally stray uncomfortably close to chintzy Italian disco pomp – 'Infinite Desert', we have your number – but it would take a brittle, blackened soul not to get caught up in this record. It is, after all, like having liquid sunshine drip-fed into your ear.
Merging the sensibilities of indie with the clattering dynamics of dance music is hardly new in an age of mashed-up iPod playlists – Animal Collective notably pulled off a similar trick last year – but what Delorean offer is conventional pop created out of house beats and not the other way around. Instead of taming two opposing forces, the band play to the best of each genre. And what is remarkable is how effortless the results sound. Ignore the tabloid scare-mongering – a coalition is not the first step towards the apocalypse. Further to that, this is evidence that we should be embracing Europe. Or at the very least hugging Europeans and telling them that we love them.
When the term 'derivative' pops up in a music review, it's normally loaded with negative spin, but here stealing the best bits of the past and rewriting history is no bad thing. Get sucked into the hedonistic rattle of this and you won't regret it. But don't fight it or the spell will be broken.