Delgados - Noise-pop on two wheels

Spain's Pedro Delgado won the Tour de France in 1988. The following year he didn't show up for the start of the race, offering this justification: “I'm too busy reading the papers”. The Delgados (Alun Woodward, vocals and guitar, Emma Pollock, guitar and vocals, Stewart Henderson, bass, Paul Savage, drums) are true cycling fanatics. After dedicating the title of their debut album to the support riders of the champions, “Domestiques”, with their second record they went as far as naming the whole pack, “Peloton”, borrowing a Franco-Iberian term. But their love of cycling is just the most curious trait of these four lads from Glasgow, who have by now become a cornerstone of the extraordinary Scottish music scene (Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai, Arab Strap etc.), thanks to their creative and operational independence.

Their three albums, along with all the others released by their label, “Chemikal Underground”, represent some of the greatest success stories of recent years: bands like Mogwai and Arab Strap were launched by this independent label, which has proven to be one of the most interesting and important on the world stage. The idea of starting a label is explained like this by Paul Savage and Alun Woodward: “We'd been around for a while, but there was no real chance of working with a label. We started with a single, with no promotion at all, just to test the waters. We quickly realized we could do it ourselves and that we could help other bands get started. From the very beginning, our ambitions for Chemikal Underground weren't limited to the Delgados. Little by little we managed to work with a number of projects that gave us enormous satisfaction. Being able to give a band like Arab Strap - who themselves were convinced no one would ever take a risk on music like theirs - a chance to get started was a huge joy for us”.

The band formed in 1994 in Glasgow out of that scene of bands dubbed New Underground, like Bis and Urusei Yatsura. They founded Chemikal Underground the following year, in 1995, with the release of the EP “Lazerwalker”, and in 1996 came their debut album, “Domestiques”. The sound leans towards lo-fi, with a dirty tone reminiscent of Pavement, though some tracks already hint at those melodic flashes, similar to the ones generated by Pixies, that would come to define the band's evolution. In 1997 came a collection of radio recordings, “BBC Sessions”, followed in 1998 by their second album, “Peloton”: a turning-point record for the band, who began building a wider audience as well as winning praise from various industry figures, including Pavement themselves. The pop melodies grow stronger, though still mixed with the dirty noise of the guitars. For the first time flute and violins are brought in, as on “Everything goes around the water”, a track that glides along on a flute line recalling Mercury Rev, or on “Pull the wires from the wall”, where Emma Pollock's voice is simply thrilling. On a track like “Repeat Failure” we find again those rougher sounds that had characterized “Domestiques”, but the whole album alternates pop melodies with rougher ones: noise-pop of rare quality.

But the Delgados are certainly not a band lacking the courage to change, and so in 2000 came “The Great Eastern”, an album that breaks decisively with their first two records, edging towards an orchestral folk-rock that earned the band considerable acclaim (British magazine “Mojo” named it one of the ten albums of the year). Flawlessly crafted melodies, accompanied by a constant use of strings, define the record, made up of ten songs sung beautifully by either Alun or Emma, or built on the interplay of both voices, as on “Thirteen Gliding Principles”. There isn't a single predictable moment, as shown by the intricate “Accused of Stealing”, with its constant, almost reckless shifts in tempo. A track like “No Danger” comes close to a masterpiece, but the whole album works perfectly, helped also by the production of Dave Fridmann, who had already worked with bands of the caliber of Mogwai, Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev.

The growth of the Scottish band is plain to see, and they're well aware of it themselves: “Listening back to our first record – says Alun – I still find it good, but now it's as if we're developing those same ideas more consciously, with a sharper focus and less wasted energy. Now we have a clearer awareness of the elements that make up our music, and we've grown as songwriters too. We feel like we're in the middle of an ongoing progression”. And on Chemikal Underground: “Evolution is inevitably present in the label too. But the fundamental concept is the idea of independence, which is the very foundation of Chemikal Underground. We'd rather the label be talked about as an example of independence than as a reference point for a certain kind of music. The identity of Chemikal Underground lies in offering someone the chance to do whatever feels right and true to their own personality. Nothing more”.

Confirming Alun's words was the decision, in 2002, to release Hate through Mantra. The reasoning was noble: a complex album like this carried too high a cost. Had the record come out on Chemikal Underground, other bands would inevitably have had to forgo a release under the Glasgow label's banner. Pity that this long-awaited work falls short of expectations. Orchestral excess paints an irritatingly baroque picture. The band's genetic disposition surfaces in "Child Killers" (dark-hued) and "Woke From Dreaming" (sugary sweetness), but these are exceptions that fail to redeem the overall mediocrity.

Whether or not they were aware of the misstep, two years later Delgados took three steps back. Universal Audio, besides marking the return to Chemikal, comes across as the successor to Peloton. Exquisitely simple, it's a journey into the most fleeting, purest pop, tinged with an indolent melancholy. Lilting melodies ("Keep On Breathing" is quite simply one of their best songs ever) are joined by an inspired Emma on vocals ("Come Undome"), while Alun keeps his storytelling spirit intact ("Get Action!"). Violins and piano are companions that sneak in only rarely, never turning into unwelcome protagonists. This rediscovered immediacy bodes very well for the future.

Emma Pollock as a solo artist

In the wake of the end of Delgados, Emma Pollock decided to go solo. Watch the Fireworks thus came out in 2007, released by 4AD, with the Scottish songwriter trying her hand at a folk-pop with orchestral shadings. 

Three years later came The Law of Large Numbers, this time for the band's home label Chemikal Underground. An album that further develops these traits and refines Pollock's songwriting, as shown by tracks like "I Could Be a Saint" and "Letters to Strangers". 

Six years after that came her third studio record, In Search of Harperfield. An album in which Emma Pollock examines her past, pairing pop and folk leanings with a wider use of orchestral arrangements. But it's the variety of approaches, set against sharper, richer songwriting, that makes the difference. 

The inspired "Don't Make Me Wait" and "Clemency" favor elegance over frivolity, and even the tracks wrapped in an intimate sacredness, like the airy "Cannot Keep A Secret" or the more austere "Intermission" and "Alabaster" (the latter delivered ever so gently) invite the listener to explore a private dimension, to take part in it, until letting themselves be carried away by the sweet arpeggios of the wonderful "Dark Skies". 

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