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The lads are warming to their theme now; “Our favourite albums are things like Bowie, Björk and Radiohead,” Rick tells us. “It’s about a combination of things, like when Radiohead tapped into the Warp Records thing, and got something new out of it. I was 16 when Kid A came out. That was a big record for us, because of the combination of sounds.”

House and techno are also at the core of the Delphic sound. “There are certain dance albums that do go with part of your life. I remember being in the car on the way back from Glastonbury listening to Surrender by The Chemical Brothers, and every time I listened to it after that I thought of that moment,” James says. “But, you hear a lot of electronic dance music and it’s got no soul. We wanted to tap into dance music, and get the emotion as well.”

Primarily recorded in Berlin, Acolyte is a bold landscape of German electronica, bellowing house and eerie introspection. Indeed, ‘This Momentary’ sounds like ‘Born Slippy’ if Thom Yorke had provided the lyrics. But at the heart of the album, such as on the recent single ‘Doubt’ or the breathless ‘Halcyon’, lurks some great pop tunes. “If you strip away all the electronics, at the heart you’ve got a pop song. That’s what we’re really into; you can dress it up any way you choose. We’re obsessed with Brian Higgins and the whole Xenomania thing. It’s really fascinating to us; we’ll go and dissect Girls Aloud tunes,” Rick freely admits.

The sum of these influences all seem to come together on the album’s centrepiece, the eight-minute title track. A raging storm of full-blown progressive house, sharpened by metronomic Krautrock overtones, its genesis nearly killed Delphic. “The track was basically two years in the making,” Rick admits. “It was the first thing we wrote and the last thing we finished. It was the bane of our existence. We had the idea before we had a band name, we knew the title of the song and that the album would be based around this epic track – an eight-minute instrumental. But it became this huge monolith. However, as a result of it being written throughout, it’s a marker for the whole record, as it contains a bit of everything.”

AU then raises the thorny issue of New Order, well aware that the band are tired of comparisons by “lazy” journalists. But it’s a tricky one, because even though Delphic talk a good fight about taking Manchester music forward, it’s very difficult not to hear a familiar throaty bass on ‘This Momentary’ or the Technique-era happy house of ‘Halcyon’. Throw in song titles such as ‘Counterpoint’ and ‘Submission’ and Delphic’s argument for originality begins to deconstruct just a little. James seems particularly exasperated at the notion. “I just get bored by the constant comparisons. The Manchester music scene is so nostalgic. They’ll listen to our tunes and say, ‘It sounds like New Order or 808 State’. OK, we might sound a little bit like it, but look elsewhere, look down south a little bit! We take influences from everything.”

At this point, the third pillar of the Delphic triumvirate, guitarist Matt Cocksedge, joins us. Bespectacled and wrapped up against the wintry wind, he has the air of an Oxbridge student styled by a New York fashionista – or the missing member of Vampire Weekend. His bandmates immediately allow him to vent. “A lot of it depends on what aspects you classify it as. Musically, we don’t think we sound like New Order. That’s the aspect that’s always a bit jarring with us. As for the song names and whatnot – we just like nice words.”

As the others momentarily disappear to answer phone calls, Rick leans towards AU rather conspiratorially, “I don’t mind the New Order thing, the first record I ever got was ‘True Faith’.” And, therein lies the dilemma: there is a sense of Delphic treading a perilous path between distancing themselves from the Mancunian past and reaping the benefits of association.

Rick has the final word on the matter, “Manchester has this great heritage, but it is so stuck on the past – so focused on the old Factory heydays. Maybe we’re contradicting ourselves, but in one way we want to remove ourselves and live in our flat, in our own little Delphic world, and not worry about anything. But on the other hand, we’ve got this passion for Manchester – this civic pride. We want to point Manchester towards the future – we want to make Manchester exciting again.”

But AU can take a hint, and decides to end that particular line of questioning. Sitting at the table next to us is a woman from the BBC. She’s also here to meet up with Delphic, to do some “pre-filming”. She’s clockwatching our chat as it overruns, mindful of her evening train back to London. When, earlier, AU asks her what the filming is for she becomes secretive and “couldn’t possible say”. AU guesses it has something to do with the BBC’s Sound Of 2010 list and she looks a bit sheepish – we think we’ve sussed her.

And we may have been on the money; it was announced last month that Delphic had been placed third on the list – a fast-pass to Successville if previous years are anything to go by (Florence and the Machine were number three in 2009). We offer our congratulations on this mighty achievement, and wonder how the band are bearing up against the weight of hotly tipped expectation? These are cool men, and they don’t appear flustered by the bluster. “We feel sorry for the people who haven’t made a record and they’re on the list,” Rick says. “Although it’s nice to be on it, we don’t take media stuff too seriously. We put everything into our music, and put pressure on ourselves to make an album. If we hadn’t made an album and were on the list, we might have felt more pressure. But at this stage, it’s done.”

However, what did have Delphic quaking in their Chelsea boots was their first live TV experience, late last year on Later… With Jools Holland. “That was a bit more pressure,” admits James. “We were on with Joss Stone and Alice In Chains, so we didn’t feel too self-conscious. It was cool seeing Joss Stone dancing to us.”

So, it would appear that 2010 could, and should, be the year that Delphic burst into the mainstream consciousness. They’ve delivered a powerful statement in Acolyte, and are in control of the ‘Delphic vision’. AU is intrigued by the concept, which is repeatedly mentioned by the band. What exactly is the ‘Delphic vision’? “That’s a mean question,” grins James. Matt is happier to explain, “It has different elements to it. Visually we want to look at things differently. It’s all about looking forward instead of looking backwards. It has the indie element, in that we’re bothered about songs, but we’re just bored with guitar music.” That’s cleared that up, then.

And if we were to reconvene in 12 months time, with four cups of green tea but minus the BBC camerawoman, how will Delphic judge a successful year? “For us, the most important thing is growing the band. If we can be at a stage where we’ve not totally sold out and become awful, that’d be nice,” says Matt. He gazes out of the café window, and adds, “We just want to be making our music and videos for as long as possible – that would be success. Just getting away with it.” Sounds like a good title for a song.

DELPHIC PLAY LIVE AT THE NEW PROPAGANDA CLUB NIGHT AT THE ACADEMY, DUBLIN ON SATURDAY MARCH 6.

WWW.DELPHIC.CC

Posted on: March 5, 2010