Duke Pandemonium is the new album by Marmaduke Duke. It is Part II of a musical trilogy that began with the acclaimed debut The Magnificent Duke, released in 2005 on Captains Of Industry.

Marmaduke Duke is the self-created surreal musical word of enigmatic Scottish duo The Atmosphere and The Dragon, two frontmen better known as Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro and JP Reid of Sucioperro respectively.

“We’re second cousins,” explains The Atmosphere. “We were drawn together by mutual friends, but it was only after we started making music together that we found out we’re related.”

“Our bloodlines can be traced back to a royal dynasty over 1000 years ago,” adds The Dragon. “Our great, great, great uncle was a gypsy Duke and as a result we're very regal gentlemen.”

Cousins, compadres and joint perpetrators of many musical crimes then, Simon and JP came together in 2004 to create the iconic fictional figure of Marmaduke Duke as a conceptual conduit for their more errant musical ideas. The Duke is a wandering soul, a personification of man’s most primitive and often under-explored impulses: think Don’s Quixote and Juan, Machiavelli’s The Prince or Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man. This is no side project though, but rather a musical yin to their more commercial day-job yangs.

Pretentious? Hopefully not. Fun? Always.

If Marmaduke Duke duo’s 18-track debut album The Magnificent Duke introduced the mythical character of The Duke and charted his slow descent into psychosis as represented by three differing musical suites– larynx-shredding rock, head-mashing ambient and heart-melting acoustic – Duke Pandemonium marks a massive musical U-turn The Duke’s back and he wants to party.

A collision of twisted disco, white boy funk and out and unadulterated nu-pop weirdness Duke Pandemonium is the soul-tinged version of ‘Caligula’ - the madness, the mayhem – that Marmaduke Duke have been threatening to make. This is a soundtrack to hedonism, decadence, deviance and dancing. Lots of dancing.

Just check out the minimalist electro-falsetto of ‘Heartburn’, the dancefloor call-to-arms chant of ‘Everybody Dance’ or the sexed-up automated beats ‘Erotic Robotic’ for aural proof that skinny white Scotsmen can get down with the best of them. That’s before we get round to the singles – ‘Kid Gloves’ and ‘Rubber Lover’.

Expanded to a live six-piece band (augmented by fellow members of Biffy Clyro and Sucioperro) Marmaduke Duke have been known to feature two drummers, a lot of masks and drag clothing. Then there is the masked Marmaduke Duke himself in a role of court-jester/vibesmaster, out there pressing flesh with the front row, hip-hop style.

Followers of the band always make an extra effort too. Dressed in a variety of capes, masks, wigs and occasionally brandishing plastic weapons in a non-threatening way, to step into a Duke gig is akin to be being on the set of Ken Russell’s The Devils or maybe the puff powder-dusted court of King Louis XIV.

Though on the surface Duke Pandemonium may appear to fit neatly into a contemporary style magazine’s idea of glow stick-waving party music, a more apt comparison to Marmaduke Duke’s live shows – and they’ve only played a dozen to date – might be the impromptu psychedelic happenings of the 60s, the Brit-folk festivals of the 70s or free acid parties house of the late 80s, albeit all with a distinctly futurist bent.

This is no bandwagon-jumping release either – we hear everyone from Prince and Chic to A Certain Ratio, Funkadelic and Billy Joel in there, not to mention excursions into calypso, euphoric house and electro. The dancefloor will be the only true judge though: two-step, go-go, disco – there’s room for all moves here, baby.

But let’s forget about scenes, comparisons and influences for a minute: Duke Pandemonium is an audacious collection; subversive and accessible, minimalist yet expansive, and tainted with joy, melancholy and soul throughout. It is the most fun you can have without getting arrested.

In the darkened clubs and back rooms of Britain Marmaduke Duke are already gaining a cult-like following. Cult, as in: people will lay down their lives for this band. With their forthcoming one-song conclusion to the trilogy, The Death Of The Duke, already in the bag and promising to be “dark, dark, dark – and dark” it looks like Marmaduke Duke are set to win over all who dare to dip into their strange musical world.

To conclude then:

Part I. The Magnificent Duke (2005)
Part II. Duke Pandemonium (2009)
Part III. The Death Of The Duke (to be announced)

Ben Myers. December 2008