Morgan Delt - Morgan Delt

by Adrian Janes

published: 28 / 1 / 2014

Label: Trouble in Mind
Format: CD

Inspirational and startingly unique debut album from Californian singer-songwriter/musician, Morgan Delt

Review

Sounding like a pirate broadcast beaming from 1967, ‘Make My Grey Brain Green’ clashes together a guitar tone so sharp it’s almost painful, a scrambled vocal which periodically ascends into ethereal harmonies, vigorous rhythm guitar and traces of raga-rock, all the while swimming in echo. This brief sound sortie of under three minutes introduces Californian Morgan Delt’s extraordinary debut. ‘Barbarian Kings’ offers a slight calm after the opening blitz, but retains that evocatively piercing 60’s guitar tone, to the extent that in pace and atmosphere the song bears some resemblance to the Velvet Underground’s ‘Venus in Furs’. But at the same time it is drenched in echo - a beautiful sibilant chorus bringing to mind Curt Boettcher - and yet also laced with unnerving harpsichord phrases. If Delt appears chiefly influenced by music from approximately 1966-72, his scope is so wide that he can draw upon the era’s entire rainbow, from its brightest to its darkest shades. ‘Beneath the Black and Purple’ varies the tempo once again, with a dynamic, driving rhythm guitar and drums paralleled by strong, fluid bass.In this connection, it should be noted that the only album credits are for Delt as producer and the engineer who mastered it. So I can only infer that, as well as being an accomplished producer and melodic songwriter, Delt is also a highly talented multi-instrumentalist and singer. It’s no light thing to say that the immediate comparison that comes to mind is Todd Rundgren at his 1970’s peak. Like Rundgren, he is able to be at once catchy while simultaneously pushing at the boundaries. On ‘Mr Carbon Copy’, the rapid changes of pace from fast to reflective and back again ensure its construction is too odd to make a chart single. Yet the blend of breathy vocals, bright guitar figure, agile drums and buzzing fuzz bass show his skill in marrying the memorable with the imaginative. If you have ever been plagued by the question, “What would a collaboration between Crosby, Stills and Nash and Lee Perry in 1973 have sounded like?”, Delt suggests an answer with ‘Obstacle Eyes’. Lyrical, almost country-rock guitar is allied with soothing Californian harmonies, all of which are increasingly subverted by echo sweeping over everything like an incoming tide. What could have been quite conventional is, once more, elevated into something else. In its first part, ‘Little Zombies’ has some of the density of sound that is typical of Spiritualized (Jason Pierce being someone similarly steeped in 60’s and 70’s influences who also turns them to his own account). The vocal harmonies and guitars arguably work against each other here, with so much happening at once. Perhaps realising this, Delt gradually strips back the sound to just his heavily echoed voice over a two-note bassline, a dark atmosphere like that of Love on occasion, or the Chambers Brothers’ ‘Time Has Come Today’, before a short keyboard coda rounds off the song. The outstanding ‘Chakra Sharks’ then boosts the energy level back up. As ever, the words are largely elusive, although it’s possible to make out the determined “I’m gonna ruin your meditation.” Perhaps it’s all about Delt’s anger at gurus exploiting the gullible. However that may be, it’s a totally compelling combination of slashing guitar and fuzz bass as fat as a buddha. This and the next song (‘Sad Sad Trip’) are among the highest points on an album with enough to constitute a veritable High Sierra. The latter is a relatively stark lament, Delt’s harmonies backed by deft organ notes, guitar jabs and rumbling bass. Disorienting electronic sounds rise and fall at odd moments like a musical lava lamp, and by the end the sorrowful voices are powerfully reflected in a soaring, searing guitar line. After this, ‘Backwards Bird Inc’ is a little disappointing. But it says something about the standard of this album that a song which includes relentless drumming, a guitar motif like something from the car chase in a thriller, and completely backward vocals that appear to be by Alan Vega’s younger brother, counts as one of the less interesting tracks. ‘Tropicana’ is another slow, brooding number, the intertwined vocals like the Association exploring their shadow side. The forbidding mood is accentuated by juddering guitar, insistent piano and horror film harpsichord. As if acknowledging the filmic qualities of some of his music, Delt ends on ‘Main Title Sequence’. After the richly varied fare offered by the rest of the album this drifting piece, its blissful vocals recalling David Crosby’s ‘Song with No Words’, takes the listener to a place of relative calm, as it fades into the ether. To my knowledge, all that Morgan Delt previously has to his name is an E.P. (on cassette - this man is unquestionably following his own path), released about a year ago. Even his name is an intriguing pseudonym, taken from the 1966 film ‘Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment’, a black comedy about an artist who ends up in a mental hospital. Nothing has been publicised about any previous bands or collaborators, which only makes his emergence with such a fully-realised and original debut all the more impressive. Naturally it is possible to hear influences, but everyone has these: it’s what is done with them that counts. So this album could be pigeonholed as psychedelic, but only if that is understood as music and production which give the imagination free rein. And Morgan Delt is clearly possessed of a startling musical imagination.

Track Listing:-

1 Make My Grey Brain Green
2 Barbarian Kings
3 Beneath the Black and Purple
4 Mr. Carbon Copy
5 Obstacle Eyes
6 Little Zombies
7 Chakra Sharks
8 Sad Sad Trip
9 Backwards Bird Inc.
10 Tropicana
11 Main Title Sequence