Tucked away down an alley behind Angel tube station, opposite tanks and mini monster trucks lies the still functioning Islington Metal works. When the machines are turned off at the end of a working day the fairy lights come on, creating shadowed cobbled corners, an old tube carriage transforms into a bar and performance spaces emerge.
It feels like a secret without being pretentious or egotistical. It felt perfect for seeing a band that is just that.
Duologue are very much in their infancy, up on stage they look like they’ve just taken their first tentative steps out into the world. Problems sound checking seemed to stretch on and left some in the audience wondering if the set had indeed started. A shambolic start was then utterly eclipsed.
My companion and I spent most of the night trying to pinpoint Duologues influences. They kept us on our toes. Shades of Hadouken in Craze, decadent prog-rock a la Muse in Half Heart Rag. Kasabian, The Infadels, Foals, Radiohead. Moloko. Fleeting snippets that briefly swept past your eardrums only to mutate into something different the second you thought you labeled it.
In a way I find baffling and am likely to never understand, by drawing all these influences they have created something refreshingly new. Not for this 5 piece a predictable path.
Anyone lured in by the warm, haunted tones on Endless Imitation (which could be the indie scenes next great break-up anthem) would have had a short sharp shock in finding their bones being shaken by deep bass reverb.
Duologue specialize in getting all up in your grill like Thom Yorke has just damned his meek, mild appearance and decided to experiment with grime. Their love song will be, I expect, the track that leads all to their path but I hope people stick around to hear Push It (below) and Get Out While You Can.
I’m a sucker for bands that are true musicians and Duologue moved seamlessly around one another, picking up what someone had just abandoned. But more than this they have a frontman with a wide range vocally, and while lyrically they may not be creating poetry that will make you weep, his voice is like a blanket wrapping around you when you’re cold and alone, whispering in your ear that you’re not the only one that feels this way, this feeling won’t be forever and ever.
Time is on their side. Glastonbury isn’t until 2013. I fully expect to be at the front of The Other Stage, cider in hand; rain on my face, telling all and sundry that I first saw them in 2011 and knew… just KNEW that they were destined for this moment.
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