Delgres - 4:00 AM (LP) - Transparent Orange Vinyl

Delgres make the kind of blues that smells like hot asphalt after rain, and 4:00 AM is the record where that mood sticks to everything. The Paris based trio of Pascal Danaë on guitar and vocals, Baptiste Brondy on drums, and Rafgee on sousaphone keep the setup spare, which lets every scrape of slide and puff of low brass hit your chest. Released in 2021, it is their second album after the breakout Mo Jodi, and it doubles down on the band’s signature blend of Delta grit, Guadeloupean Creole swagger, and a shadowy New Orleans pulse.

If you have not heard Delgres before, the first surprise is the bass. There is no bass guitar here, just Rafgee’s sousaphone, a marching band staple that he drives like a steam engine. It gives the music a rolling, human breath at the bottom, somewhere between a tuba in a second line and a baritone sax growl. On top of that, Danaë’s metal bodied resonator guitar cuts through with a dry, slightly overdriven tone that nods to the Hill Country blues of North Mississippi. Brondy finds a pocket that is closer to gwo ka and second line than straight twelve bar, so the grooves creep and sway instead of stomping in a straight line. It is a simple recipe, but 4:00 AM proves how much color you can pull from a limited palette.

The title points to a liminal hour, the time when a city is quiet and your thoughts get loud. That feeling runs through the record. Danaë sings in Creole and French, and even if you do not catch every word, the phrasing tells you plenty. There is a heaviness to some of these tunes, a sense of carrying history. The band is named after Louis Delgrès, the Guadeloupean freedom fighter who resisted Napoleon’s attempt to restore slavery in 1802, and you can hear that legacy in the way the music leans into defiance without losing tenderness. It never turns didactic. It stays physical, made for rooms with low ceilings and glasses that sweat.

Production wise, 4:00 AM keeps the trio close and unvarnished. You can hear fingers slide on strings, you can hear valves click on the horn. The drums are dry, the guitar sits in the middle, the sousaphone breathes like a living thing. It feels tracked with the band in a room, listening hard to each other, and that choice suits them. A lot of modern blues rock piles on layers. Delgres carve away until the song stands.

Put this album on vinyl and the whole picture snaps into focus. The low frequencies from the sousaphone bloom in a way digital often flattens, and the hand claps and stick work sit right in the room with you. If you are crate digging for Delgres vinyl, 4:00 AM is the one that will win over friends who think they have the twenty first century blues map memorized. I first heard it played in the corner of a Melbourne record store on a drizzly afternoon, and a small crowd gathered by the listening station just to figure out where that bass throb was coming from. Since then I recommend the 4:00 AM vinyl to anyone who likes their guitars raw and their grooves a little crooked.

The songs hang together with a steady emotional arc. Some move like work songs, shoulders down, locked into a call and response. Others open up into mournful ballads where Danaë’s voice rides the guitar like a slide of its own. The trio never showboat. When a solo comes, it is short, melodic, and gets you back to the chant. That restraint gives the record replay value. You notice how Brondy sneaks ghost notes into a tom pattern, or how Rafgee shifts rhythm to push a chorus forward without getting louder.

Delgres arrived with a strong identity on Mo Jodi, but 4:00 AM is where the sound feels inevitable. The French Caribbean roots, the New Orleans connective tissue, the American South references, it could be a patchwork, yet it plays like a language the band has spoken for years. If you like Tinariwen’s desert trance, Bombino’s lean bite, or the hypnotic side of the Black Keys, this sits comfortably on the shelf, right between them and the rougher Fat Possum spine titles. And yes, if you buy Delgres records online, make room for this one, because it gets better at volume. Delgres albums on vinyl tend to age well in a collection, and this is the keeper.

Whether you come for the story or just for the sound, 4:00 AM works. It is a late night record for early morning heads, a small band that plays with big purpose. Spin it loud, let the horn shake the floorboards, and see if you do not find yourself walking a little different by the time the needle lifts.