"Whats Going On Tonight" by Duke Keats
Review
Are you looking forward to Duke Keats' heralded ‘Avalon 2' EP? I know that I am.
However being the thoughtful as well as talented artist that he is, he has decided that with its more autumnal vibe, he'll hold it back until the right season & instead is treating us to an interim R&B flavoured EP.
As we've long known, his tastes and competences are so incredibly broad that switching from one tone to another is probably a daily occurrence: he almost certainly has his mind set on a variety of different musics at any given time & while his fertile mind can process in this way, he is compassionate enough to recognise that some of us need a little more structure to get our heads round what's going on in his.
First up is the single "What's Going On Tonight" and like everything else with him, has more than its fair share of new departures.
Temporarily putting his various guitars aside, he's playing synths this time out, and while it's not the first time he's done that, this time the gumbo he offers us manages to include afro beats as well as R&B (which is fair enough given the ancestry of the latter) but then overtly playfully drops in old school 1970s synth sounds in tribute to Paul McCartney while also channelling Eno: not an easy task I'd have thought.
It ends up all lush too: a bit of a Gauguin tropical island paradise vibe going on in there to my ears, a backdrop and inspiration to his contemplation of the cycles of life which is the gist of the lyrics. I suppose any R&B track with both the words "What's Going On" and a reference to night time conjure up a Marvin Gaye type of song which to couple to but I rather like how Duke subverts our expectations with this gentler philosophical song: as I say, there is plenty of playfulness in the night air.
At some stage someone will need to compile a ‘Best of Duke Keats' album: which will be massively eclectic and probably very difficult to make choices for. When that comes, perhaps "What's Going On Tonight" will be seen as a little too laid back but I'd make a plea for its inclusion right now for its depth, wit & subtlety.
