Category: Delicatessen
Delicatessen was formed in Cologne, Germany in 1999. They recorded their first album Deface the Music in 2000 in the middle of an oil refinery in Dusseldorf, surrounded by hissing, smoke and fire.
They reflect this heavy industrial environment in production-line tracks which characterise their work. Their sparse style, based on repeated rhythmic figures and simple harmonies, was employed as the basis of more hypnotic compositions on 2001’s Space Cowboy.
In 2002 the band moved to London, England and issued the double-set Double Space, composed of their first two German albums. Noted influences are John Cage, Terry Riley and Karlheinz Stockhausen. The albums are filled with the harsh, mechanised sounds of heavy industry, the everyday reality of modern German life: sudden noises, unidentifiable bangings. They use the studio to make phase-shifts, speed-up tapes and treat their sounds. The first two albums are experimental and show the group finding their feet among the electronic elements at their disposal.
Removal (also 2002) showed increased confidence, being a more exuberant, enthusiastic album with fresh surface texture and a strong beat.
Delicatessen now live and work in London, where they have built their own studio, where they finished recording their fifth album, Glitter Pop in 2008.