Album Review: DELS - Petals Have Fallen

“Man I should have been a blizzard ‘cause I’m that cold,” claims London MC DELS on his second album ‘Petals Have Fallen’. Despite being a headrush of industrial, electronic blasts, the follow up to debut ‘GOB’ packs a warm heart.

It’s most evident in a seven-minute long, closing title-track, which mixes lush orchestration with the distant, London-accented slurs of Tirzah. As well as being DELS’ best work to date, it also showcases a host of bright sparks, from Micachu and Kwes’ production on ‘RGB’ to Rosie Lowe’s graceful addition to ‘Burning Beaches’.

Some tracks stick too rigidly to a “reduced” approach, where subtle minimalism is traded for flawed simplicity, and Kieran Gallear’s lyrics sometimes come off like one-dimensional statements, but each track offers a glimpse of a brave new side of UK music.