Bloom – Duchess Leo (Stream)
Childhood friends, Dan Ryan and Todd Buchler, began putting their talents together back in 2007 as Duchess Leo. Their music, growing from a catalogue of songs Dan had collected over a period of over ten years, was strengthened and solidified by the skills that Todd brought from his time as part of the breakbeat and DJ culture. Now, with a full-length album coming out January 25, the two are fine-tuning their talents and expanding upon the sound they originally found with each other.
The Duchess Leo EP, the duo’s first release, is surprisingly diverse in how it’s put together. The product of ten demos funneled down to just five, the collection brings with it a display of this band’s versatility and creativity. “With Love”, a track that carries an acoustic-driven quality that slowly expands, “Tucu Tucu”, which explores an array of different sounds and vocal styles, and “Boots”, with a mysterious undertone, combine with the others to form a unit of sound and a body of work that goes above and beyond the expectations generally found for a newly formed group.
Production for Duchess Leo’s first full-length album, Golden Gray, began taking shape earlier this year. Recorded in studios that span Alabama to Brooklyn, Ryan and Buchler put an enormous amount of effort into honing their sound. The product of composition and piano instruction and personal efforts to better understand the fundamentals of digital audio science, Golden Gray is sure to be an expansion on the already bare talent found in the EP.
The first single from the new album, “Bloom”, with melodic guitars and a slow build to resolution, immediately drew me in. While the track remains relatively simple in its approach throughout, the captivating riffs and distinctive beats give it a fullness that goes beyond the repetition. Through the echoes of the vocals, you can hear the distance and mood of confusion in the song, as well as the talent of the writers behind it.
