Four years on from its release, the title of their debut album Domestiques still encapsulates much of what the Delgados are about. Healthily obsessed with the problematic ways of human interaction, the Glasgow quartet's forte is identifying the tiny details that add up to the major scenes in households everywhere, and turning them into music of singular drama. It's hard to imagine any other band who could open their set with a song seemingly about infanticide and have an audience sighing in supplication.

For live purposes, the group's core is currently augmented by keyboards, flute and a four-strong string section to make up a sort of chamber-folk orchestra. Emma Pollock and Alun Woodward, the band's notoriously diffident vocal pairing, seem to enjoy life under the lights more now than they once did. Much of the show's magic derives from watching the Delgados weaving complex patterns of sound around each other before landing the emotional uppercut in a triumph of sensuous style and substance. Amid a pop world of opportunist sluggers, the Delgados represent a purer brand of pugilism, boxers as opposed to fighters, masters of their noble art.

• The Delgados play the Hop & Grape, Manchester on Wednesday, then tour.

***** Unmissable **** Recommended *** Enjoyable ** Mediocre * Terrible