Review of Duologue's debut LP, 'Song & Dance'

There are some artists and bands out there who are ruined by adopting the mentality ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ far too literally for far too long. There are some bands out there who are too ‘artistic’ to be ‘pinned down’ by labels and consequently make it their mission to dabble in every genre going, thus alienating their already somewhat perplexed fans. Then there are the artists and bands who get the balance just right and, if you’re lucky, create their own ‘sound’ in the process. Judging by their debut LP,Song & Dance (which you can buy here), Duologue is one of those bands.

The strength in depth, the sculpted eccentricity, of this record is simply staggering. You could say this is solely represented by Zeros – how often does one come across a combination of guitars that are rocked as hard as the drums, piano that is played as elegantly as the accompanying strings and dubstep, let alone one that actually works? – but the rest of the album simply wouldn’t allow for it. For example, whilst Sinner and Snap Out Of It have the gutsy aggression of a band just coming into their own (the latter is reminiscent of Muse’s Plug In Baby days, with the most adequate way to describe the former being the kind of song the forces of Good and Evil would fiercely battle to), Underworld, with its relaxed beats and soft chimes, reveals the other half of Duologue in a way that is a little more subtle than the crash-bang dubstep evident on Cut and Run.

Rather oxymoronically, it’s to the epic Push It, clocking in at more than ten minutes, that one can find instances of the five piece’s intricacy and tenderness. Rather than forever trying to impress with how much noise their guitar strings and Korg machines can make, and thus place themselves in the dangerously repetitive ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ category, Push It, and the LP as a whole, is diced up when the band illustrate what kind of noise their tools can make, as well as how little. Just as the band show how they can do dark and ominous synth as well as they can plucky math rock on just a couple of the many sections of their recent single, such blood, sweat and tears have evidently been dedicated to the likes of the heartfelt Escape Artist and the soft Constant in the hope to maintain the high attention to detail and complexity omnipresent throughout the album.

It is their ability to compose a not-so-subtle rock anthem that’s as good as a more subtle detailed electronica beat, to embrace two hugely contrasting genres in such an innovative way, that creates their very own sound and consequently makes both the band, and their debut LP, so exciting.