Sub Pop Records announced yesterday that it has signed LA psych-rock auteur Morgan Delt. Last July, when Delt played Chop Suey, Sub Pop's A&R staff was out in full force scoping that night's headliners, Fever the Ghost. But Delt must've made a greater impression then, because he's the one with the new contract. Delt immediately becomes one of Sub Pop's stranger artists, as his debut album, Psychic Death Hole (reissued as Morgan Delt by Trouble in Mind last year), demonstrates. (Check it out below.)
"I'm really excited to work with Sub Pop!" Delt said in an e-mail interview. "When I first started talking to them, I kind of nerded out and thought, 'Wow itâs the label that put out Jennifer Gentle!' Because The Midnight Room and Valende were a big influence on me."
Delt says that he's "in the middle of working on the new record and Iâm probably not as far along as I should be, but itâs coming along. Itâs hard to say what it will sound like at this point, but Iâm going to try to stick a little more bubblegum and sunshine in there."
Previewing Morgan Delt's 2014 show in The Stranger, I wrote:
To smoothly assimilate the opiated feel and sonic trickery of late-â60s psych rock in the 21st century requires a special skill set thatâs beyond the earnest record-collector pantomime artists. Enigmatic California phenom Morgan Delt is one guy whoâs mastered the gloriously disorienting and intricately designed song structures of that eraâs best psychonauts. He released Psychic Death Hole in 2012; it sounds like a long-lost psych classic from 1968, but not in any corny-ass way. Delt deploys a light instrumental touch and reverbed, willowy vocals to create songs that approach you like a watery mirage. For example, âLittle Zombiesâ seems to have sprouted from the strangest bits of âStrawberry Fields Foreverâ and gone into an even deeper zone, the better to alter your brain waves. If Delt can manifest the magic of his debut LP live, weâre in for a spectacular treat.
As it happened, Chop Suey did receive a spectacular treat. It'll be interesting to see where Delt takes his rarefied talents while backed by Sub Pop's presumably bigger budget. You can catch him onstage next at Barboza February 7.
