Deli Teli have reached back more than sixty years for their latest single. “San Theo” (Σαν θεό) is the Marseille band’s take on “San Theo S’ Agapo”, the 1960 love song in which Manolis Angelopoulos and Giota Lydia declare “I love you like a god” over music by Stratos Attalidis. Deli Teli play it on electric bouzouki, with its bright, amplified lines in the lead and a synth floating high above them. Underneath, the bass and drums lock into a tight, cutting groove made for dancing, edged with the surf and psychedelic rock the band bring to all their laïko covers.

Laïko, Greece’s popular music of the 1950s and 60s, took the tsifteteli belly-dance rhythm and mixed it with rock’n’roll, surf and Latin influences. Deli Teli have been digging through its old singles since Tassos Tsitsivakos (electric bouzouki), Arthur Bacon (keys), Christos Karypidis (bass) and François Rossi (drums) met in Marseille in 2019. The Greek and French line-up spent the 2020 lockdowns building the repertoire that became their 2021 EP, Tsifteteli Club.

“San Theo” is the second single from Tsao Tsao, the album that follows that EP five years on, released on 16 October by the Toulon label Hazard Records. It comes after “Tyropites”, an instrumental with a class of children from the conservatoire in La Seyne-sur-Mer singing along.

Stream and listen to “San Theo” HERE