Delorean: Ayrton Senna EP
In the Black Books episode ‘Fever’, Irish misanthrope Bernard dreams of finding himself a girlfriend for the warmer months: “She’ll be a summery girl… She’ll play tennis and wear dresses and have bare feet, and in the autumn, I’ll ditch her, because she’s my summer girl!”
Spanish quartet Delorean make music that could act as the soundtrack to this kind of fleeting romance. Their latest EP, Ayrton Senna, is comprised of five tracks of electro-pop that’s been marinated in Barcelonian sunshine. The 1960s chanson-esque “oohs” of opener ‘Deli’, and its repetition of the phrase “I like the time I spend with you, girl”, result in an expression of summer love so straightforward that even Bernard might not struggle to express it. Its simplistic, fun-loving spirit brings to mind a less ponderous take on the playful request of YACHT’s ‘Psychic City’: “come on over, we’re having a party for you”.
‘Monsoon’ is more danceable, with a searing electric guitar line and fast-paced drumbeat providing a backdrop for frontman Ekhi Lopetegi’s clipped (and sometimes unfathomable) vocals. Subtle increases in texture maintain the listener’s interest and temper the track’s repetitiveness, while a keyboard riff reminiscent of that of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘All My Friends’ imitates that track’s sense of reflection.
To my mind, ‘Seasun’ takes itself too seriously to equal the charm of ‘Deli’ and ‘Monsoon’—its female vocals are suggestion of Enya, and its grandiose piano chords, of Vangelis’ ‘Chariots of Fire’. The added percussive elements of John Talabot’s ‘Kids & Drum’ remix gave the track much-needed energy, while the final number of the EP, ‘Big Dipper’, restates the dreaminess of Delorean’s vision: “Baby, if you want to, we could run away up into the sun.”
Delorean makes for a different sort of summer playlist than Discovery’s debut LP, or Wolfgang Ama-deus Phoenix do, as their lightness of touch creates a sense of spaciousness and distance that’s unheard of in Discovery’s thumping synths and the jittery piano of ‘Lisztomania’. Indeed, Delorean’s dancing pace, feathery guitar strums and detached synths create a sense of nostalgia and yearning that is at odds with the futuristic focus of the band’s name.
Therefore, perhaps it’s best to describe Delorean as making music for good times gone by. When you hear ‘Deli’ in autumn or winter, it will remind you of driving down a highway to nowhere in particular, with the windows drawn and your elbow resting outside of the vehicle, while at the time you were listening to the Top 40 countdown on the radio—or Discovery. In short, it’s the sort of music that will remind you of summer, when summer is over and done.
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