{"id":503,"date":"2014-05-06T09:51:27","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T07:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/?p=503"},"modified":"2014-05-12T19:46:20","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T17:46:20","slug":"reasons-to-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/?p=503","title":{"rendered":"Reasons to believe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo Michael Spano<\/p><\/div>\n

When the latest batch of city slickers<\/strong> \u2014 Bongos, dBs, Raybeats, Fleshtones et al \u2014 staked their claim to a nice slice of the New York pop pie they left out one vital factor.
\nChiming choruses, twanging charm, smiling beat and razor riffs all have their place, but where the hell was the missing link?
\nIdiosyncracy’s what we’re talking about \u2014 or the lack of it. In their eagerness to avoid the dominant street punk image of the city’s musical tradition, the new New Yorkers headed straight for the past, plundering Sixties pop and R’n’B, but forgetting those essential quirks. And where was the present?
\nEnter the Del-Byzanteens. Five individuals cloaked in a shroud of enigma, the Del-Bs \u2014 and what a great name \u2014 were responsible for \u00ab\u00a0Girls Imagination\u00a0\u00bb, an exquisite 12 inch that captured the Melody Maker Single-Of-The-Week spot when released last july on the Beggar’s Banquet offshoot Don’t Fall Off The Mountain.<\/p>\n

\"dbgi2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0Girls Imagination\u00a0\u00bb floated in a middle-Eastern dreamworld, folding wistful melodies into a writhing twist. Ears pricked, noses sniffed; the scent of significant talent was in the air. \u00ab\u00a0Lies To Live By\u00a0\u00bb proves the vision is no lie. If a sharper group has come out of the East Coast in the last couple of years we’ve yet to hear it.
\nDivided into two distinctly separate sides, \u00ab\u00a0Lies\u00a0\u00bb shows the Del-Bs as a group with two personalities, the first a sophisticated breeze of mentholated pop, the second a wised-up bunch of tougher delights.
\nThe pop side of the Del-Bs is nothing like the cynical opportunism practiced by some of Britain’s spivvier new stars, just a sensible exploitation of a natural shine \u2014 hear \u00ab\u00a0War\u00a0\u00bb or the haunting title track and you’ll soon get the drift.
\nIt’s on the second side that the group get the chance to show the heavier side of their mettle; the new version of \u00ab\u00a0Girls Imagination\u00a0\u00bb is less Egyptian, more musclebound and as seductive as ever, \u00ab Apartement 13 \u00bb is an intriguing collage of assorted percussion, tape loops and random synthesizers colliding and drifting at will.<\/p>\n

Finest moment, though, is \u00ab\u00a0Welcome Machines\u00a0\u00bb, a slow-fuse burner that sizzles darkly against a backdrop of mysteriously wailing keyboards. The general feel of latent power behind early Can seems the only relevant reference point, and that’s only a vague approximation. This is mighty stuff.<\/p>\n

Apart from its length \u2014 a mere 30-odd minutes \u2014 the only complaint about \u00ab\u00a0Lies\u00a0\u00bb is that it’s a collection of tracks rather than an LP. The Del-Bs, as displayed, almost revel in their versatility \u2014 hey, look what we can do, this is easy! \u2014 Instead of narrowing the focus for a clearer identity. Okay, most groups just define a style and repeat themselves endlessly. The Del-Bs sound too knowing to fall into that trap, though.
\nGo to it, boys.<\/p>\n

Lynden Barber
\nMelody Maker<\/strong><\/em>
\n05\/08\/1982<\/p>\n

\"Alt<\/a><\/p>\n

The Del-Byzanteens
\nLIES TO LIVE BY
\n<\/strong>Don’t Fall Off The Mountain X-14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the latest batch of city slickers \u2014 Bongos, dBs, Raybeats, Fleshtones et al \u2014 staked their claim to a nice slice of the New York pop pie they left out one vital factor. Chiming choruses, twanging charm, smiling beat … Continuer la lecture →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[24],"tags":[48,94,95,96,97,25,65],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42T3l-87","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/del-byzanteens.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}