THE LATE ISABEL @ the 5th Backdoor Ventures ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL

In the dreams of those she haunts, Isabel is always leaving. She has been sighted barefoot and pale, by various sleepers, at the doorstep of a familiar downtown cinema, the gates of a university building at closing time, departing a smoky club and exiting a convenience store at twilight. She vanishes when she steps to the curb, just as the high beams of an approaching car freeze her. Those who do wake, often wake in sweat.

“I was playing with a visual concept, a series of posters showing this half-familiar woman always in transit,†says Allan Hernandez, explaining the basis of the name and the band’s wraith-like, female persona.

The music of THE LATE ISABEL is the origin, product and nature of this haunting rolled into a single koan. It is music that makes of funerals and wakes a celebration -- a time to sing and a time to dance as tears run down your face. The character of Isabel, the vignettes and scenes of her life (and probably her demise) live on in the band’s songs. Aural creations that crest and break like a wave of grief to wash over both viscera and brain with the force of psychedelia, ambient, shoegazer, dark wave and goth.

The band started in 1998 as MADELINE USHER then renamed itself OLD WORLD CHARM in 1999, shedding and gaining a few members along the way. Earlier still it was a death metal outfit named THANATOPSY, and so on to THE LATE ISABEL DELGADO, now remembered even more easily -- and fondly -- without her surname. The band is currently composed of WAWI NAVARROZA (vocals), ALLAN HERNADEZ (guitars), JP AGCAOILI (drums), and ROVAL BACALE (bass), all veterans of the Manila goth-punk scene.

Coming of age in the post-punk era, the quartet grew up with a love for bands that eschewed the freewheeling go-go of ‘80s mainstream music. With this came the intuitive understanding that music had to function on all to achieve a holistic effect.

“Art is not an isolated experience. It is deeply personal and deeply communal. I believe that the visual aspect of the band needs to be included in the package,†relates JP Agcaoili.

“If I could put music, painting, poetry, literature all in one package, then I would love to do that,†agrees Wawi Navarroza.

Their debut album, DOLL’S HEAD, is a collection of eight exceptional tracks composed of equal parts lament, anguish, awe and snapshots of everyday tragedies. From the sinuous and seductive chant of the title track, the hungry eloquence of “Fingers Around the Wineglass,†the demented agitation of “Follow (The Mad March),†to the exploration of the urban abyss that is “Midnight City,†the record is indeed the culmination of two years’ labor in the subculture fringe.

Meanwhile, their live performance has been praised by local media as a “tour through the dark corners of . . .dreams,†adding that, “to watch The Late Isabel live is to be intrigued. . .and entranced.â€

DOLL’S HEAD crystallizes the quartet’s skill for leading the listener to precision rapture via a swirling palette of textures and sonic landscapes that bring to fore the monsters, beautiful or otherwise, lurking in the depths. Proof that being haunted can be a ravishing, rhapsodic experience.

(From an article by Karl S. de Mesa)
Why this name?
Isabel is a person. Isabel is a personification. She embodies the textures, feelings, visions and other sensory manifestations of the experience one gets from listening to the music. But Isabel is also everywhere. Isabel is a legend. And her story is ongoing, fed by the consciousness of The Late Isabel's listeners, other followers and every other person with the capability to think and feel. For an answer to "who is Isabel" try to check out http://www.geocities.com/thelateisabel/myisabel.htm
Do you play live?
Yes. Mostly around Metro Manila's rock music bars and clubs (Mayric's, Freedom Bar, Millennia, etc), but sometimes also in venues outside of the Philippine metropolitan capital. Also in live rock concerts and events periodically held in Manila.
How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?
It's a whole new medium for music, the same yet utterly different. It will change the way music is made, from concept to marketing, probably in much the same way, if not more so, than the way music videos have changed pop music culture.
Would you sign a record contract with a major label?
I guess the members of The Late Isabel are not very conscious of that as an issue. We want to make our music, and probably get it out into the ether as well, with a life of its own. Doing it indie or with a major label is not something we consciously ponder on.
Your influences?
The band has always been partial to Siouxsie and the Banshees, as well as other late-seventies and eighties acts like The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Joy Division, etc. Digging deeper, we looked to artists who in turn influenced these acts, and so now for covers we do our own twists on songs by David Bowie, Velvet Underground, The Doors, or even off-track renditions of unexpected songs like "My Favourite Things" (from Sound of Music) or "Diamonds are Forever" (from James Bond). The band members all have eclectic tastes and we try to feed that musical knowledge into a sound that we like to think is distinctly The Late Isabel - glassy guitars, insistent basslines, primitive beats... It may be worth to note that there is a conscious absence of keyboards, which we like to take as a challenge and distinct feature in our coming up with a heavy atmosphere and ambience in our sound coming out from just percussions, guitars, bass and vocals.

Favorite spot?
The inside
Equipment used:
Basic drumset, bass and electric guitar. Some percs thrown in.
Anything else...?
http://www.geocities.com/thelateisabel/default.htm