As it entered the new millennium, Detroit – the once mighty Motor City and music capital of the world and the erstwhile home to Motown Records, the MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges – had become a byword for industrial decline, bankruptcy and despair.
But as the first signs of urban renewal start to emerge, the music of local six-piece band Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas has become synonymous with the city’s rich musical heritage, its more recent troubled past and this nascent regeneration. An intoxicating brew of rhythm and blues, soul, garage rock and pop, their sound is laced with a dark, Gothic underbelly and then shot through with hope. And in Hernandez they have the most perfect frontwoman, a searing focal point in possession of a high-octane voice that is pitched somewhere between Lisa Kekaula of The BellRays and a mythological siren.
Originally signed to the famous Blue Note records and an incendiary performance on Letterman are clear indicators of Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas’ standing in the States, but next month sees their first ever live venture across the pond. A series of European dates – including a headline show at London’s Old Blue Last on 14th April – will be accompanied by the release of their debut EP in this country, ‘Caught Up’.
Do yourself a massive favour and look and listen to the record’s title track here. The B-movie quality of the video images cannot hide the sheer sophistication of this hi-energy blast of garage rock and soul as Hernandez’s huge voice punches a great big hole through the song’s irresistible melody.
The Caught Up EP will be released in the UK via New York’s Instant Records on 20th April 2015
Photo credit: Julie Simon
