Marmaduke Duke - Duke Pandemonium Album Review

Review of Marmaduke Duke's album 'Duke Pandemonium' released through 14th Floor.

It isn't until the third track on this album, 'Silhouettes' that you will decide whether or not you are going to take this band seriously and endeavour to listen to the rest of the album, or hurl it recklessly into the bin in a desperate attempt to regain the previous 6 minutes of your life. For the record, I chose to persevere. It was a pivotal 2 minutes and 16 seconds, that one.

The opening two tracks, you see, they sort of veer somewhere between the stuff that Tom Vek released a few years ago before he fell off the planet and the kind of stuff that the rest of the music world tried to make when they realised that everybody was creaming over absolutely everything that Justice put their minds to. Either way, not the most tantalising prospect out there. There's bit more depth to Marmaduke Duke though, thank the Lord.

Consisting mainly of one member of Biffy Clyro (hmmm) and one member of Sucioperro (don't worry, it's not important, but it needs mentioning so that boxes can be ticked), Marmaduke Duke have a little depth to them. They're no torch-bearers, don't get me wrong. And the primary function here is probably nothing more emotionally advanced than to shift the listener from reluctant bystander to dancefloor participant. But they do have a clutch of moments that twitch the synapses, as well as the leg muscles, such as the mildly disorientating drums in the aptly-named 'Pandemonium', or the frenetic vocal on 'Erotic Robotic'.

Timed cunningly for the start of the period that we call 'Spring' (which, as you know, is a precursor to the even more exciting period that we try, each year, to call 'Summer'), Duke Pandemonium is primed for mass-pleasure of the mass-festival going mass public. Give it a few weeks and they'll be giving away free disposable barbecues with every purchase.

Hayley Avron