Play 90 second soundbite of 'The Father, The Son And The Harlot's Ghost' @ 'CD quality'
With 'Kingdom Underground' Matt Duke offers the listener a sensational ride though his diverse but wonderfully exciting musical world - from relatively plain and simple acoustic musical poetry to hugely melodic orchestrated 'anthems' that burn holes in yer speaker cones, Duke does it all his own way, a very likeable and very rewarding way I have to say!
Duke's music is acoustically biased so he's immediately thrown in with the plethora of similarly ilked musicians currently doing the rounds. However, Matt duke can certainly hold his own with the best of 'em! This guy has a presence that's joyously compelling, wonderfully commercial and just so easy on the ear. Duke makes music making sound oh so easy as he silkily vocalises his way through this ten track beauty. He mixes cool and pretty-much unplugged with bold and 'orchestrated' with a churnin' urn of burnin' rock but, the result is similar no matter which dynamic route or genre persuasion he seems to choose; Duke knows his way around musical composition, he can certainly write a pretty mean ditty and his performing prowess is quite obviously wide-ranging and all-encompassing - what a talent!!
Call Duke nu-folk, simply acoustic or alt-acoustic, it doesn't make any difference how you want to label him and his music, the final product is what really matters and this album is quite exceptional and covers a multitude of musical 'sins'. Duke sings with exceptional ease and yet he can emote no matter what the tempo and/or mood of the song; his ability to seemingly 'sing to you and you alone' is breathtaking. If you've never encountered Matt Duke's music I suggest you seek out this brilliant album and see for yourself just how good the guy is. 'Kingdom Underground' isn't just beautifully conceived, written and performed; the mix is crystal clear and the final production is as good as it gets and allows the listener to hear, understand and feel every last nuance of Duke's work. It really is a fine piece of work!!
'Kingdom Underground' by Matt Duke is a fantastic piece of trans-Atlantic acoustic music - perhaps solidly American but with just enough British-ness to make a successful journey to this side of the big pond without losing any of Duke's 'native' honesty. Highly commercial as an album but also holding in its heart several tracks which would work very well as stand-alone singles, 'Kingdom Underground' seems to have all bases covered and surely the future is gonna be a rosy one for Matt Duke on the back of this superb album. 'Kingdom Underground' by Matt duke is restful yet inherently 'ballsy', subdued yet dynamically vibrant, a mildly rockin' piece of modernistic acoustic brilliance - a must-have album from an artist who sounds like he's on the crest of a wave and about to come crashing onto our British shores - excellent stuff this - try it - I dare you!!
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