THE duke spirit

The rest of the band mercilessly power their instrument’s forwards, and together they make sublime sonic union seem like a breeze. A few songs in we get ‘The Step And The Walk’ and the crowed is whipped into euphoria while Moss trills out that cathartic chorus: ‘Without joy joy joy in the rain, I might be forever the same…’ and it gets a just a bit moshy down the front. Some might think that The Duke Spirit are just too cool - after all, there’s little if any humour in their songs. But like The Velvet Underground or The Pixies before them, to listen is to them is to nourish the soul and to lift the spirit. ‘Neptune’ is tinted with bittersweet themes of loves lost and found. Moss’s lyrics are triumphantly poetic and she conveys them with a silk soft voice that it is still yet powerful and luxurious. They aren’t afraid to use a dark kind of beauty in their music or to write lyrics with real meaning – and for a band to lay themselves on the line like this is a virtue that often seems lost in modern popular culture. After a generous encore I leave the ornate Camden Palace smiling, buoyant and feeling almost taller having taken a little of The Duke Spirit away with me.