Album Review

Filthy Dukes – Messages

• 4th Jul 2009

Do you remember when blurring the boundaries between dance and range of styles such as indie, folk, blues and rock sent glow stick abusers back to rehab? Well, now there seems to be a lull in this particular practice, due to the fact that many observers feel that the likes of The Rapture, CSS, Late Of The Pier, Kasabian and Shy Child have all done what needs to be done on that score.

However, through their debut album ‘Nonsense In The Dark’ and this simplistically structured, yet strikingly groove turning single, ‘Messages’. Filthy Dukes take a different approach by tracing dance and pop back to its basic and striking origins, when a sturdy beat and a gigantic chorus was what got the nation’s motors running. This Olly Dixon and Tim Lawton bred project have always done a good line in a catchy chorus.

The versatility of this simply swirling approach is shown up through a series of pace switching remixes. A ‘Brookes Bothers Remix’ ups the tempo, sending the track racing into Pendulum territory. The vocals are distorted in order to loosen the song’s catchiness, in favour of adding a touch of grizzle.

Filthy Dukes are inadvertently challenging the ethos of many of their contemporaries, by showing off the fact that despite all the fan-dangled technical advances at their disposal. You just can’t beat the basic impact and pride you get from a simple structure.