Delta 5
Issue #27
Singles and Sessions 1979-1981 (Kill Rock Stars)
By Angie Vo
Published: March 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
This reissue from seminal funk-punk band Delta 5 only partly captures the band’s ingenuity, but it’s enough to make any listener wish they could see them live.
Delta 5 was a five-piece that rose from the Leeds music scene and helped foster a type of political musicianship present in their local contemporaries Gang of Four and the Mekons. From the band’s setup (two men playing alongside three women) to the actual delivery of the songs showcasing two basses, Delta 5 carved out their own niche with songs that conveyed a message but were danceable too.
The tracks that stand out in this collection have served the band well in the past. Opener and debut single, “Mind Your Own Business,” is, lyrically, a series of innocuous and ridiculous questions spoken didactically and compulsively taken to the point of absurdity. It makes good use of Delta 5’s strengths: witty women working the mic over irregular bass beats.
For all their sarcastic bravado, Delta 5 made their mark by writing songs that combined fun jams with subject matter pertinent to the lives of women. In “Make Up,” the driving refrain asks, “Do you wear it / Does it wear you?” In “Shadow,” a live recording from a show in Berkeley, a man experiences the fear women have who venture out in the dark by themselves.
After just one full-length album, the band changed its original lineup and eventually broke up in 1982. The choice offerings on Singles and Sessions prove that we’re the ones who are missing out.
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