With two shimmering singles under their belt, Manchester trio Delphic have released their debut album Acolyte – arguably the first great album of 2010.

Splicing New Order’s patent Mancunian brand of indie disco intellectualism with the unbound, arms-aloft euphoria of Orbital or the Chemical Brothers, Delphic are the next top drop in a long line of UK acts to make timeless pop music from sonic fragments of the future. It’s Muse gone minimal, or Kasabian on Kompakt, a debut album of ecstatic everyman anthems equally at home on a main stage or lost out in the middle of a dance floor.

The three main brains behind Delphic are Rick Boardman, Matt Cocksedge and James Cook, and Acolyte was produced with Berlin-based techno émigré Ewan Pearson, the man behind the boards on recent records by M83, The Rapture and Lost Valentinos. Recorded mostly in Pearson’s Berlin studio, it’s evident the city’s flourishing techno scene was bleeding into the album’s crisp grooves – however never to the detriment of the band’s emotive songwriting.

 “With a lot of dance albums, you search out the singles but the rest is all a bit samey and boring,” says Cocksedge. “We wrote the album as a whole and weren’t afraid to lower the tempos and concentrate on the songs.”

For more information on Delphic, check out www.delphic.cc . Acolyte is out now.

Acolyte

4.5 stars

Reviewed by Garrett Bithell

This just might be the first great album on 2010! Delphic are an indie dance four-piece from Manchester, and Acolyte is their debut album. Preceded by two awesome singles, ‘Counterpoint’ and ‘This Momentary’, and a trail of exemplary live gigs, including support slots for Bloc Party, the anticipation was indeed high. Well, the boys have met that anticipation, and then some. The album is consistently great, and the boys have created a fresh, imperative sound that will hopefully form the basis of long, successful career. The sound owes a nod to a combination of seminal outfits including Hot Chip, New Order and Cut Copy, but the fusion is irreverent and unique.