“All the right influences are intact (Pavement, Weezer…)” – says Ghettoblaster. The Delicious are “shooting from the hip… throwing of splashes of numerous flavours of ramshackle pop” according to Daytrotter. But the best till last: “I’m so proud of my grandson” – Grandma. What better advertising sticker could possibly be slapped upon the cover for this tasty new album?

(How can you have “the right influences” by the way?)

The Delicious play sweet sweet indie-rock all the way from Indiana, with nothing frighteningly novel coming from the speakers but there are some decent tunes.They decide not to take the most conventional road down pop/indie lane. Songs are very well-written and unpredictable in the best sense of the word, fitting together like a charmingly motley jigsaw. The stomping beat in ‘One Leg’ is infectious, and so is the general joy that the album brings.

It might sound really patronising to deem this album ‘pleasant’ or ‘uplifting’ but it really is. It’s not going to charm the hairs off your leg but there’s enough ol’ toe-tapping rock, and very memorable, very catchy songs on this one. Get stuck in then!

The Delicious

Pascal Ansell

(Originally posted April 2003)

Hey kids. This month, I’ve been VERY, VERY EXCITED INDEED about my recent promotion in the diskant staff to diskant Talent Spotter, which now means that I have a duty to you, the diskant reader, to hand pick some great new bands and write words about them that say stuff like what they sound like and whether they’re any good and stuff. So to start you off, here are five lovely new bands you might want to go and seek out. Well, four bands and a record label from Italy, anyway. Happy listening.

4tRECk are random, beautifully random. A ‘”musette’-style cover version’ of ‘Slave Ship’ by the almighty Jesus Lizard (what is off of their album Liar). Only there are no mind-blistering David Yow screams and no squalling, urgent walls of guitar noise. Instead, we’re treated to a drum machine, a piano and 132 accordions battling it out in the all-in National Touch & Go Sea Shanty competition 2003. All told, it’s a right glorious knees-up around the old Joanna and a fascinating way of making something new rather than attempting a note-for-note retread with unbearable indie earnestness. Interesting also that it’s the lead track on the EP, with second track ‘Socasam’ sounding for all the world like a one-minute theme tune to a nightmarish children’s TV show, presumably featuring monsterdragons knitted from the remains of kids who didn’t go to bed when they were told to. ‘Frankensinatra’ does exactly what it says on the tin, a ghostly proto-hip hop beat backing snippets of Ol’ Blue Eyes dipping in and out of the mix hypnotically – and all, apparently, deriving from an initial accident. And closing track ‘Eye of the Tiger’ is 35 seconds of Rocky meets Alice in Acidland, stabs of instrumentation mutating into a drunken cover of ‘Eye of the Tiger’. There are some great ideas at work here, partially formed by chance and improvisation, but with the imagination to carry it through to completion. The main drawback is that without the backing of a solid structure to carry an idea through to completion (as they have when taking the Jesus Lizard as a template), the ideas remain half-formed, embryonic and frustratingly full of promise while not quite getting there. It’s crammed with imagination though, and that’s one of my favourite things, along with ice cream, Sundays and Turkish Delight.

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…so here are some brief mentions of decent recent pop music to get you in the right frame of mind:

Various: The Wetherbeat Scene 1988-1991 (CD, 555 Recordings 555CD88) About as niche as compilations can get, this is a collection of 35 tracks by bands that were part of a tiny scene in the tiny town of Wetherby, Yorkshire, as the 80s became 90s. What that means is Hood, Boyracer and a variety of associated bands and pseudonyms.  Ramshackle as you like, it’s squarely aimed at listeners like me who used to exchange post with these people around the time of these recordings. Pure nostalgia, through a filter of noise, faltering voices and the occasional glimmering of greatness. 555 Recordings

The Bumblebees: EP (CD single, self-released) It’s just like the old days, getting a handwritten letter (replete with stickers and whatnot) in an envelope along with this CD. It doesn’t get more indie-pop than that, or than this music, which is super-perky and, I imagine, amazingly annoying if you’re not in the right frame of mind – it’s like somebody going ‘come on, chin up! chin up!’ repeatedly after you’ve just had a major trauma. Given that, it raises a smile for all its intentional messiness and simplicity, cutesy Casio melodies and relentless ba-ba-ba-ing. The Bumblebees

Shrag: Shrag (CD, Where It’s At Is Where You Are WIACD016) Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Prolapse, Huggy Bear, Bis, Johnny Foreigner, Shrag. Excellenté! Buy this and write your own description. Shrag

Merchandise: Listen Up! (7″, Cityscape CITY-S-009) Okay okay, this single is available on CD as well, but the CD doesn’t come on white vinyl, now does it? Regardless of the technical implications of pressing a CD on vinyl, you just don’t get 7″ diameter CDs. Merchandise are like Baby Bird’s cheerier brother, like the Badly Drawn Boy knock-off act it’s okay to like because they’re about fifty times better. They do accomplished, layered pop music with one foot in the ‘literate, dour Northerners’ camp and the other in the one that says ‘we’ve got beards, but we’re fun and approachable’.Merchandise

Sarandon: Other People’s Records (7″, Little Car MINI 1) Jerky, angular pop music that most refreshingly doesn’t sound like Oxes, American Football, Foals or any other band that everybody still mystifyingly wants to sound like. Sarandon have more of a grip on their history than that, and sound like they’re just enjoying themselves rather than worrying about their haircuts/tuning/tapping technique/etc. Why, it’s every bit the combination of mid-period Beatnik Filmstars and Big Flame. And if you know what that means, you’ll know whether you’ll like it or not… Sarandon