Deluka
Deluka
Vel Records
Vel Records, a Brooklyn-based collaborative venture between several established music industry professionals based on the philosophy of embracing the ever-changing landscape of recording, producing and promoting music and artists, brings the Birmingham, England-based Deluka across the pond for their stateside debut with the release of Deluka’s self-titled EP. And from the keyboards, hand claps and electronic blips, bloops and boops of the album’s opening track, “Cascade,” Deluka quickly establishes themselves as part of a recent spate such as Garbage, Ting Tings, Shiny Toy Guns and others. Indeed, the similarities between that Deluka has to all of these bands is pretty uncanny and fairly obvious – all are particularly known for their forays into electronica and dance rock, and all are fronted by very attractive, super confident women. The main differences between all three are the vocal stylings of their leads. Garbage’s Shirley Manson exudes a seductiveness that makes it impossible not to pay attention to her. The Ting Ting’s Katie White sings with a girlish, bratty glee – it’s annoying but somehow cathartic. Shiny Toy Guns’ current singer, Sisely Treasure isn’t particular remarkable and isn’t all that distinguishable but it somehow works. Innocenti’s vocals throughout the EP seem to exude both a girlish, cheerleader braggadocio and a seductive suggestiveness that on a certain level is reminiscent to someone like Gwen Stefani – but with a much better voice.
Musically, the album’s songs are densely layered and complex – to the point that it can take several listens to process all that’s going on. As I mentioned earlier, not only are there the prerequisite electronic boops, blips and beeps, there’s a healthy amount of keyboard, slick synthesizer, deep, rolling bass, precision drumming and guitars that make brief screaming appearances like on “Finito” and “Wake Me Up” For a debut, this album is funky and club-ready and that’s impressive but there are a couple of unfortunate knocks against this album that must be made. The album’s production is so slick that it makes Deluka sound almost indistinguishable from Shiny Toy Guns. And lyrically throughout the album there are some real clichéd groaners – including a line that goes, “on/off like a light switch” early on in “Cascade.” In many ways, as focused at the album is, it feels and sounds a bit unoriginal. If Deluka can refine their sound to be distinguishable from the pack of sound-alike bands, they may very well have a big future on both sides of the pond. Until then, they may be relegated to one or two hit wonders.
Release Date October 2009
Track Listing
1. Cascade
2. OMFG
3. Finito
4. Wake Me Up
5. Mixed Messages
