The Duke Spirit
Roll Spirit Roll [E.P.]

Thanks to this E.P., the Duke Spirit caught the attention of the British media, always on the lookout for new bands to idolize and then maybe flush away after their first off-key single. For better or for worse... still New Wave.

Thus justified is their presence on last summer's 'NME Riot Tour' stages, opening for Johnny Borrell's Razorlight. Awaiting the debut album, ‘Roll Spirit Roll’ offers a great glimpse into the potential of a strongly inspired band, saturated to the brim with seventies hallucinatory references that even Terry Gilliam in his most successful films couldn't match. All those who were impressed by the Warlocks' Phoenix would do well to pick up pen and paper. Psychedelia and rock. But old-school rock, without new high-frequency precision metronome-style filtered sound drums. A gutsy sound, powerful when needed, distortions and ballads that sound like evil lullabies.

Leila's voice, with a truly irresistible tone, leads along the most fascinating of paths, before leaving the listener in the grip of 'rather angry' guitars, descendants of William Reid. In the first interview they granted me (which is also the last one!), they swear that their sound doesn't match much with that of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. They shouldn't try to be clever at all: they resemble the “men in black” alright, especially for that affected and distorted bass, the backbone of a rock that, when it tries not to be obsequious, like ‘Salt The Stings,’ touches on noise sounds, but in a way that's never annoying.
Not original, rather derivative, but no less promising and valid for that. ‘Howling Self’ is simply one of the best indie rock songs I've recently hummed. The Concretes can't hold a candle to them for even more than ten seconds. A good preview.