DELPHIUM
NOBODY SEES THE MONSTER IN THE LIGHT OF DAY...
ALBUM MOLOKO+ RELEASE: SUMMER, 2000 REVIEW: AUGUST 1, 2000


The British Delphium is a dark leftfield electronica act, who've been working more or less in the shadows for the last seven years. "Nobody Sees the Monster in the Light of Day..." compiles songs recorded between 1994 and 1999. It swings between ambient dub, rough jungle, noise and pseudo-orchestral atmospheres. Most successful is the opening "Emperor (Dark)", reminiscent of The Third Eye Foundation's 1995 noise'n'jungle classic "Ghost".
In other places the clashes between dub bass, roaring guitars and twisted loops make for fascinating, innovative music. But sometimes the lo fi attitude turns into an unpleasant feeling of sloppiness. Then the fuzzy samples and glitching loops stop sounding exciting and start feeling amateuristic. And the "classical" tracks are the worst - Foetus created way better "fake" orchestral instrumentals on "Nail" 15 years ago, so it's hard to find excuses for theirs sounding so thin.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN