The new year finally brings with it the self-titled debut album by Italian band Dust & The Dukes. Available on CD and on all digital platforms on 29 January 2021 via Santeria Records, with physical distribution by Audioglobe and digital distribution by The Orchard.
Dust & The Dukes burns in the wake of the best desert rock music, drawing on the roots of Americana under a sky of lysergic atmospheres. The power trio from Florence, formed by Italian-American Gabriel Stanza (vocals, keyboards, trumpet), Enrico Giannini (guitars) and Alessio Giusti (drums and percussion), rides towards the stage of their first full-length record, anticipated on November 27 by the brand new single Bueno’s, an explosive heavy blues anthem in line with Dead Weather by Jack White and Alison Mosshart, as well as particularly eloquent in reminding us that, attention, “Dust storms may exist.“
The imagery of the ten songs in Dust & The Dukes track list recalls the epic nature of classi,c western movies, but listening is an adventure to be experienced on your own skin. The album includes the previous three singles, released between 2019 and 2020 with excellent feedback from critics.
Starting from the animal power of Run, which translates into music the primal instinct of the band with pulsating blood and tense muscles, with obsessively tribal rhythm and pure rock ‘n’ roll, recalling Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds shadyness and Rolling Stones thrills.
To continue with the more reflective blues—the kind of blues that Tom Waits would like very much—of Life In A Bottle, enriched by the contribution of Uberto Rapisardi (The Veils) as a guest on the Hammond organ, and with the irresistible energy in Queens Of The Stone Age style of the sunniest Secrets In The House, a “ghost dance” to be danced on the toe of your boots.
Dust & The Dukes is then completed with Just Fine‘s perfect saloon country, Sit & Listen‘s imperative garage feel, Plus 18‘s cinematic electricity and the surprising piano ballad Feather. The ending is given by the two overwhelming parts of Losing Tune: a crepuscular intro to be sung on the river bank and a crescendo that, driven by daring rhythms and pro-mariachi wind instruments, works often as a perfect climax even during live performances.
Founded in 2016 and just a year later winner of the 29th edition of the Controradio Rock Contest, the most important Italian competition for indie musicians, after a self-produced EP and the recent appreciations by Marc Ribot, Dust & The Dukes realize now an enormous potential by firing their first official work. Dust & The Dukes was recorded and produced at SAM Recording Studio by Andrea Ciacchini (Blonde Redhead), preserving the attitude and the engaging feeling of the band playing live.
Live dimension, after all, is the ideal one for Dust & The Dukes, which have also played in support of international names such as the already mentioned The Veils and Tinariwen. The trio’s first European tour, which was supposed to take place last spring and was interrupted due to the global health emergency, will been soon rescheduled. If you ask the dust, the sound storm from Dust & The Dukes will arrive as a reply from now on. Remember: “Dust storms may exist.“
