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In Emma Pollock’s Loop: “Escape From Colditz”

EmmapollocklogoTo those who loved them, Glasgow, Scotland’s Delgados were the near-perfect blend of churning, indie-rock edginess and stirring, girl/boy vocals, wrapped in gasp-inducing orchestral arrangements that made time stand still. A tough act for vocalist/guitarist Emma Pollock to follow, you might think, when the band split amicably in 2006. And yet, Pollock’s ’07 solo debut, Watch The Fireworks, wasted no time in identifying how crucial she had been to the unique sound of the Delgados. Three years later, the former physics major returns with The Law Of Large Numbers (Chemikal Underground), which goes down like a couple of dry martinis after a savory meal, welcoming you to Pollock’s expanding universe of sound. Pollock will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with her.

escape-from-colditzPollock: Escape From Colditz is a very bizarre game that I bought when I was young, probably about 12 or 13. The idea was that you played either the German guards or one of the allied countries’ prisoners of war captured during WWII. You would try to escape from Colditz Castle or prevent escape, of course, if you were playing the Gestapo. Colditz had the reputation of being one of the most impenetrable high-security prisons at the time. The game was designed by British army officer Pat Reid, who did actually successfully escape from Colditz in 1942 after spending two years there as a POW. I still own the game now, but it does seem a very strange thing to have been designed and put into production in the ’80s, with the war still only a few decades behind and still easily in living memory of so many people. Video after the jump.