Duologue - Underworld

We mentioned the usual suspects of Radiohead and Aphex Twin when previously featuring Duologue on the blog back in 2010 (here) and 2011(here), so let’s move on with comparisons because we’re sure we’re all in agreement that every single piece of rock music written plagiarises something else, with intention or not. Instead let’s just focus on the important facts – this is a transcendent beaut of a tune.

With Jim Abbiss (Adele, Arctic Monkeys) at the controls Duologue’s Underworld finds the band finding a purposeful clarity in their sound.  The spotlight starts by shining on a lone anguished vocal and guitar until the track shape shifts into deep late night atmospherics, emotional solitary piano chords, clicks, beats and strings. This is spectral rock music for the modern age.

Duologue release Underworld as part of a double A side with another song Zeros through Killing Moon on October 29th and their next gig is on 26th September with Seasfire, The Vestals and H.A.M at the Bull and Gate, London.

Duologue - Underworld

Duologue - Get Out While You Can

Music bloggers are a verbose and earnest bunch sometimes aren’t they? Take this quote “Duologue’s sound billows like a gust of desert dust and city dirt.” Or this one “A sultry cut of melancholic beauty that simmers phosphorescently on bedroom beats and ochre orchestration.” You see, sometimes we get a little over the top. As the creative ideas of rock and pop music enter the angry about speed bumps, sagging waistline, cardigan wearing equivalent of middle age it becomes very easy but incredibly boring for every blog post just to be a list of comparisons with other bands and genre categorisations, so sometimes imaginative description is required to jazz things up a little.

Alas when we introduced Duologue back in November last year we went for the straightforward and direct approach, talking about electronic beats, rock riffs and Radiohead. Maybe it would have been more exciting to describe their song Cut and Run as “A kinetic and malevolent beast that turns monochrome into a glistening rainbow of blood,” or other pretentious bollocks, but we didn’t and therefore failed to achieve hip blogger status.

So as we hang our heads in shame and shuffle off back to our indie / pop / electronic / folk I tunes playlists, we’ll continue to keep it straight and just give you some basic facts that you probably don’t yet know about Duologue. Because this is a band that up to now have been keeping things pretty much to themselves. Duologue are a five piece, consisting of founding members Tim Digby Bell on vocals and Toby Leeming doing live programming and beats backed up by a violinist, guitarist and bass player. The group are London based and have a four track EP due soon – the lead track Get Out While You Can streams and is available for free download below. It’s a powerful opus of blown-out rock riffs and bone-bruising computer beats that savages the heart with spat-out kicked-in devastation. And for now that’s as wordy and pretentious as we get.

Duologue - Get Out While You Can (free download)

Duologue - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

Radiohead – one of the most influential rock bands of the decade and more? Possibly, maybe. They’ve certainly influenced our listening taste. Their fusion of leftfield electronic beats pioneered by the likes of Aphex Twin and Autechre with rock music has left both Kid A and In Rainbows as two of our favourite records of all time. It has also given us a natural leaning towards bands that are doing a similar thing – witness our support of bands such as Worship and Kid Adrift recently, both of whom blend edgy electronica with guitar based sounds.

Here’s another band of this ilk that came our way today and immediately made us sit up; although they seem to have been floating around for quite some time now, having won Steve Lamacq’s BBC6 Music unsigned contest, garnered play on John Kennedy’s show on XFM as well as performing a live session on NME Radio.

Massive rock riffs and tense restless beats lead the way to introduce us to the band. Their name is Duologue. Of the five songs we’ve heard so far, all of which are powerfully good, Get Out While You Can launches full-frontal assault rock riffs that give a gentle nod to Led Zeppelin, whilst Marching Orders penetrates and pounds leaving you feeling beautifully exhausted. Racketeer wheels out weighty post-dubstep beats and Cut & Run which streams below carries falsetto vocals, gritty guitars and slamming rhythms. You may also recognise their song Talk Shop, which appeared on teenage TV show Skins.

The next Duologue show is being promoted by Fucking Dance blog and is in a secret location in London – for the time being you can safely guess it’s not the O2 Arena or Buckingham Palace. Tickets are available here which can include for an extra £3 the bands 10" record. You can also download live versions of Get Out While You Can and Marching Orders from the bands website in exchange for the obligatory email address. We suggest you do all of this. Now.

Duologue - Cut & Run by Breaking More Waves