The Late Isabel

“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. They released their first album Doll's Head back in 2003. The video for the title track won as Best Indie Video in the MTV Pilipinas 2004 awards. The Late Isabel is currently recording their second album, under the working title "Imperial"