Delorean Please the Masses in New York

Regardless of how its records are classified -- alternative dance, indie house, maybe even chillwave -- Delorean make communal music. The Spanish band contains only four members, but its sound is grand and celebratory, big enough to fill the giant courtyard in the heart of New York City's Stuyvesant Town.

Performing Wednesday as part of the East Side apartment complex's Music on the Oval summer concert series, the quartet turned in 45 minutes of user-friendly techno, no glow sticks required. As drummer Igor Escudeo jumped from hi-hats to electronic drum pads, adding live percussion to beats piped in via synths and samplers, bandmate Guillermo Astrain fussed with a not-quite-audible guitar, his pose signifying Delorean's indie-rock leanings.

Just as the show marked a confluence of genres, it brought together groups of people that seldom mingle. Near the front of the stage, skinny-jean Brooklynites bobbed to the music, moving slowly in the 90-degree heat. Further back, kids clutching balloons perched on parents' shoulders, towering over a field dotted with lawn chairs and picnic blankets.

In the middle of the courtyard, behind the tent housing the sound board, an old lady stopped and listened, drawn in by a sound that also snared white-haired chess players and folks passing through on their way home from work. Delorean's music is simply that inclusive. The rhythms get repetitive, and the lyrics -- delivered with plenty of reverb by singer and bassist Ekhi Lopetegi -- are hard to make out, but Wednesday standouts 'Real Love' and 'Stay Close' proved pleasant in ways other dance songs aren't.

Most Delorean tunes start with a kick drum or simple beat and build as they go, incorporating Mediterranean-warm washes of synth and pre-recorded vocals. That latter effect -- layers of human voices, wordless and soulful, exultant over the music's electro-organic throb -- may well be the secret ingredient, the one that enables four scruffy dudes from the Basque country to rock an early-evening block party, pleasing hipsters and toddlers alike.