The Return Of Stanley Duke
It’s not often we pick a hole in the lengthy absence of an artist, but in a music scene deprived of pure, high-grade, and tasty Rock & Roll, we have to ask. Where did Stanley Duke go?
Pastel Colours (l-r): Josh Gibbs, Stanley Duke.
Apart from some recent Lost Dawn shows dotted around Falmouth, the Psychedelic Rock & Roll duo having been on temporary hiatus since the shows for the ‘Strange Town EP’ last year. Frontman Stanley Duke delving into the abyss of other musical ventures, forming the 5-piece ‘Freakbeat’ outfit Hazards last year, who subsequently followed in the Lost Dawn tradition of opening the Boardmasters main stage last summer, and with latter-half of the duo Ben Woods drumming for the recently NME-hyped rock outfit Gorgeous Bully (based on the Art Is Hard label), ad the recent take down of all five of the Lost Dawn EP’s , the duo left the local music scene reeling with questions.
All said and done, the Dawn has certainly been absent.
But fear not you psychedelic children! The Duke is back, and has teamed up with Hazards synth maestro Josh Gibbs to form Pastel Colours, a new musical outfit channeling some of the most notable aspects of Duke’s previous exploits; no excuses, this will not be worth missing. With band practices for live dates including Hazards drummer Morgan Lloyd-Matthews, as well as Daniel Morris and Matthew Robert Oliver from soul-surf rockers Lonely Hunters, Pastel Colours promise to be a fully fledged local Rock supergroup in no time, and with a debut EP in the works, we can certainly forgive Duke for a degree of absence from his standard musical ventures. Last night we received the first demo from the Pastel Colours debut, here’s our verdict:
With a brief reversed psychedelic guitar intro reminiscent of some classic Ratatat riffage, ‘Hands Like Silk’ begins with suave Cornish surf-rock guitar licks and solid grunge drum beats. The track bursting into double-time ride cymbals, strung-out vocals, and a phat (with a definite ‘ph’) bass line that drives your metaphorical music camper van off the cliff of The Black Keys rock aesthetic and the Strange Boys vocal style we're familiar with, and into the ocean of Tame Impala-based Psychedelia. Cooling down a piping hot sun/surf rocker instrumental with a cool, Korg-riddled chorus, Duke’s stint in Hazards hasn’t gone without leaving a sultry, synthy mark.
“With your face contorted and out of shape, I think about escape”, he sings in a verse similar to that of our sonic escape in this four-minute daydream, unorthodox scale descents and euphoria-edging oscillations build up an intense final instrumental chorus (synth solo included). It seems that summer is far from over, and a new chapter for Stanley Duke is just beginning.
'Hands Like Silk’ drops tomorrow (Sunday 1st). Veryan Leaper