The Delgados will probably be remembered more for including the two founders of Chemikal Underground Records, than for being an extremely good, but generally underrated, band. They also get mistakenly associated with the bizarre 'twee' movement, if you can call it that. The fact is the Delgados are about as twee as the film 'Trainspotting', and they have more in common with Mogwai than with Belle and Sebastian.

The Delgados are one of those bands who don't shy away from using a great deal of instrumentation, whereas some indie bands avoid strings in case they start sounding like The Verve, which I suppose is fair enough. But The Delgados records are at once complexly layered, and essentially very simple and unpretentious. They also have a healthy grip on the power of loud guitars as much as they do on the equal and opposite power of quiet. Which is why they're good, you see. John Peel once called them the best band in Britain. He's not usually wrong.
 

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The Great Eastern (2000, Chemikal Underground / Matador)
Once again they start an album with another slow-building track, like 'Everything goes around the water' on 'Peloton'. Despite some really appalling stereo effects not used since about 1969 (which makes listening to the track on headphones a very uncomfortable experience), when it gets going, it gets to be really great, and like much of the rest of the album, it rather grows on you.

In some ways, this is more polished than their last two albums; although maybe polished is the wrong word, it's certainly true this album does seem to have had more time spent on it, despite only having 10 tracks. And though the Delgados have always embraced multi-instrumentation (or 'putting a bit of a flute in the background' as it's otherwise known), here it's probably even more dense than before, but even more well-used.

The tunes are what matter, of course, regardless of all the bevy of additional musicians. But they're as good as ever, at once simple and complexly layered. 'Accused of Stealing' is a prime example; a simple guitar line builds up to full orchestral magnificence.

Actually, all over this album are Dave Fridmann's fingerprints; not just in the subtle use of the orchestral (and the xylophones), but in the pretty obviously fact that this is a lot less heavier than their past works. Not that the guitars don't churn, that is, as they do, they just don't really crash anymore; but oddly, this doesn't really to matter. It seems the Delgados perhaps have more confidence in their melodies, lyrics and songs generally that they feel less of a need to smash them to bits. Not that the excellent 'Thirteen Gliding Principles' doesn't do plenty of smashing, but it's fair to say this is less of a rockist album. But with tracks like the sublime 'Witness' and 'No Danger', they just don't need it anymore.

This might be the album where the Delgados break through into the mainstream, and though they have done it by turning down the distortion very slightly, don't hold that against them, as this is none the worse for it. In fact, maybe it's all the better. <
 

Peloton (1998, Chemikal Underground)
The Delgados seem to have a thing about openings; namely, the first thirty seconds of their albums tend to not be very good. The rest, however is. Very good, that is.

'Peloton' was their second album, and despite the band having since said that they didn't put all their energy into their earlier records, it really bloody marvellous. It does the quiet, lo-fi folky thing, then it does the heavy indie rock thing, then it does things which don't fit into any categories; take the killer couplet of the lushly melodic 'Pull the Wires From the Wall' and the downright mental 'Repeat Failure' which sounds like My Bloody Valentine massacring Belle and Sebastian, as heard over a knackered short-wave radio. It's really good.

'Russian Orthodox' is nearly as heavy, while the quieter tracks (generally those with the longer titles) pull off the almost impossible feat of sounding as good as the loud ones.

Guitar pyrotechnics aside, there's nothing her to justify any reputation for whimsy The Delgados might have earned by daring to be both Scottish and use acoustic guitars. The lyrics are as biting as every; Emma Pollock's voice, more versatile than Alun Woodward's, ranges from softly-softly to cutting with a metallic edge. Alun Woodward still sings like a big wuss, but in a good way.

Very few other bands in Britain really can do the melody/power thing, and write songs which have both tunes and The Rock. The Delgados, then. Good band.

#LINKS#
Chemikal Underground
this has the official delgados page, with some pictures and music press reviews (although only the good ones, I've noticed)
 
 
 

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