The Delgados Press Releases
Universal Audio“After Hate, we felt very strongly that it was time to do something different: we wanted to make a positive album, that was immediate and enjoyable to listen to while still being an interesting and diverse piece of work. There was a lot of enjoyment in keeping the album simple and hopefully that comes across when you listen to it.” ALUN WOODWARD
Four albums into their critically acclaimed careers and the delgados have decided to throw everyone something of a curve ball. Dispensing with the lush orchestrations of their previous two releases, the delgados withdrew to their Chem19 studio in Hamilton last year and started work on ‘album 5’. It would take them five months to write and a further four to record with the help of their long-time collaborator Tony Doogan (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, Super Furry Animals) but when they finally emerged, blinking in the sunlight with Universal Audio, they had an album that promises to confound expectations, delight diehard fans and convert the uninitiated.
Smothered in guitars; drenched in hooks; loaded with melodies and overflowing with harmonies, Universal Audio is a pop triumph: articulate, eclectic, overwhelmingly immediate and thoroughly captivating, it represents the same level of seismic leap taken by the band on their third, Mercury nominated album The Great Eastern and a brave departure from the dark, symphonic follow up of 2002’s Hate. The delgados (Alun Woodward – vox/guitar, Emma Pollock – vox/guitar, Stewart Henderson – vox/bass, Paul Savage – drums) entered the studio with a real sense of purpose: to make a largely guitar-driven pop record by developing three and four part harmonies, pushing the bass and guitar parts to the front and, above all, concentrating on the main vocal melody. In no time at all, Universal Audio began to sound more effervescent than its bombastic predecessors – a different feel for a very different record.
I Fought The Angels sets the tone: a lone, crunching guitar rings out where previous albums have opened to the sound of sweeping strings or mournful brass sections. The song builds to a climax of melody and counter melody and from here the album ebbs and flows between the panoramic elegy of Is This All That I Came For? to the irresistibly upbeat gallop of Everybody Come Down; from the haunting strains of Come Undone to the rousing, communal anthem of Get Action! Universal Audio is a thrilling record: a creative exploration of musical styles that flits between the breakneck and the languid.
“This time, it was all about the tune. We’ve been cautious in the past about going too ‘pop’ - you know, going instead for the grandeur, the epic, rather than getting to the point as quickly as possible. This time, it was “cut out that verse, we don’t need that intro, throw in the fake handclaps and fuck it, turn the guitar solo up…”” STEWART HENDERSON
Not since 1998’s Peloton have the delgados recorded and mixed an album on their own with Tony Doogan. The instrumentation may not have been as orchestral but it remained firmly in the realm of the unconventional: irn-bru cans were plucked on Sink or Swim; stage weights were hammered for Come Undone; empty flight cases thumped for Now and Forever; obscure Spanish laud’s strummed in Bits of Bone. While Get Action! starts off all Harry Nilsson, Keep On Breathing sounds more like Rachel Stevens getting off with Yann Tiersen. In attempting to write a simple, guitar driven pop record, the delgados have inevitably succeeded in creating much, much more: an intelligent and breathlessly creative album that is as lyrically provocative and as melodically engaging as any artist around today. The delgados are uniquely gifted songwriters and with Universal Audio, they have produced a torch song for the great albums of the past and a timeless addition to their increasingly spectacular body of work.
The Great Eastern
Built in the late eighteenth century as a fully operational textile mill, the building was given over to the public in 1907 as a hostel for men. the building still exists today, as a hostel for the homeless, drug-addicted and alcoholic ironically housed in one of Glasgow’s most historic buildings: two hundred yards away from the Tennents Brewery.
Recording of the album effectively began in September of 1998. Needing b-sides for The Weaker Argument Defeats The Stronger, the delgados went into Chem19 and wrote some songs. One of those songs was considered ‘too good’ to be a b-side and was then regarded as the first song for the new album.
In November of 1998, the band went into CAVA Sound Workshops with Peloton engineer Tony Doogan, to record the new version of 1996’s 13 Gliding Principles and what was now being referred to as B-Side. From the outset, these songs were treated in a different way from Peloton; the idea was for an album of unmistakable grandeur – everything would be bigger, broader and bolder than Peloton.
The album was put on hold temporarily while the band concentrated on Chemikal Underground’s release of Mogwai’s CODY in March 1999. Returning from a US tour in early April, the delgados went into CAVA studios again, with the intention of finishing the album. The session was an arduous one: twelve hours a day; seven days a week; six consecutive weeks and it wasn’t enough. After the session the album wasn’t mixed and everyone was exhausted – hopes were not high of getting it finished. The recordings were incredibly complex (often upwards of seventy tracks per song), brass, strings, and woodwind were all arranged in the studio, along with several piano and keyboard parts performed by Mogwai’s Barry Burns. The number of session musicians involved had slowed things down and inflated budgets.
Still unhappy with some of the tracks on the album, it was decided that more writing had to be done: in one song especially, every chorus was erased and replaced with a new one (demoed at Chem19) in a different time signature. Additional backing vocals were recorded by Jim Putnam from the Radar Bros, days were spent programming samples and drum loops at Irian Jaya’s home studio and then more time was booked into CAVA to finish the recording.
By this time, it was decided that the album needed a fresh input: someone without the baggage of the recording sessions who would mix the songs with an adventurous and bold approach. Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and Mogwai) had previously commented that “…the only thing wrong with Peloton was that I never worked on it” so, knowing that he was an enormous fan of the band, Chemikal Underground asked if he would be interested in mixing the record.
Dave agreed and arrangements were made for Paul and Stewart (from the band) and Tony Doogan to go to upstate New York to complete the record. It was a trip of firsts: Dave had never mixed a record he had not previously recorded: the delgados had never allowed anyone else relative autonomy with a final mix and above all, the quantity of raw material was considerable. They took over eight 2” reels, 1 hard drive, 2 DATs, CDR’s of samples/drum loops and notes on how to record final guitar parts. The albums first track The Past That Suits You Best, had never been heard by any band member in its entirety before the reels were taken to the States.
The final outcome of the mixing sessions was extraordinary. The album flows with an ambition and grandeur far beyond even what the band had initially expected. Recorded over 15 months in three studios, the Great Eastern is by far the delgados most accomplished piece of work to date. Given the fractured recording process, the duration of the project and the fact that Chemikal Underground released a year’s worth of material in the interim, the album is nothing short of a miracle.
P.S. B-Side eventually became Reasons for Silence
Peloton
Between the banks of the Clyde and Celtic Park lies Glasgow’s very own lower East Side, an area that is home to the freewheelin’ delgados and their Chemikal Underground organisation. The delgados are set to bring you the new rock revolution with the release of their second album “Peloton” on June 8th.
“Peloton” is the long awaited follow up to their ’96 debut “domestiques”. Recorded in their native Scotland, the self-produced “Peloton” sees the delgados putting their own spin on that thing called pop music. And make no mistake that this is what the delgados make. “Peloton” is an outstanding and ambitious record, incorporating a chamber orchestra, elements of the post-rock revolution, and some pure pop brilliance. The LP includes the singles “Everything Goes Around The Water” – a ‘single of the week’ in both rock weeklies – and the new beaut ‘Pull The Wires From The Wall’ – which precedes the albums release.
A potted history of the delgados run thus: they were formed a couple of yeasr ago and quickly established themselves at the forefront of Glasgows flourishing music scene. Since the release of their first single “Monica Webster / Brand New Car”, the delgados have consolidated their reputation with an acclaimed debut album, some stunning sessions for Radio 1, and with the remarkable rise of their record label: Chemikal Underground.
Chemikal Underground was christened with the delgados debut 7” and went on to release the first two singles by bis including ‘Kandy Pop’ which resulted in a Top Of The Pops appearance and a number 23 chart positionwhile the label was still being run form a kitchen table. From that point the label has gone from strength to strength with albums from Arab Strap, Magoo and Mogwai. Indeed they now not only have their own offices but a stake in a recording and rehearsal complex – catalogue number CHEM19. Your Chmbawumbas can stick their playground politics up their collective arse for the delgados and Iain Mackaye’s Fugazi are the only bands to have truly seized the means of production.
Say hello to the delgados. Say hello to a new sonic folk explosion.