- American Primitivism
- New Weird Wales
- Weird folk
- Post-folk
- Free folk
- Indie folk
- Experimentalism
- DIY
- Anti-folk
- Freak folk
- Ambient folk
- Psych-folk
- Avant-garde
- Electro-acoustic
- Lo-fi
Comment: Mr Duke is a
Welsh busker/musician Gwynfor Dafydd Edwards (born in 1983) who had previously played
in a London-based prog band, Elysium Field, before he decided to embark on his
solo project. His debut album under the excellent label Earth Monkey Production
kicks off (Bikes Piss Past My Window)
in the vein of so-called American Primitivism providing restrained guitar
chords, simple countryside feeling and little changes in chords the
long-running track throughout. However, the next compositions (with some
exceptions) used to surprise with intense experimentalism and with-it feeling.
More concretely, the tracks are filled with guitar chords and vocal lines
turned inside out, schizoid stereophonic and reverb effects and uncanny noises
and bleak ambient-tinged (or not) electronic/electro-acoustic coming out from
both channels. Of course, Mr Duke stylistically seems to be related to the
anti-folk and New Weird movements, though, his ideas might ideologically derive
from the experimental concepts of krautrock either (for instance, reminding of
Faust-esque sonic mayhem). Highly impressive. Finally, I do recommend to listen
to such artists as Chad Golda, Felicia Atkinson, and Speculativism as well.
