Duels - The Barbarians Move In

1. The Furies
2. Sleeping Giants
3. Regeneration
4. Perimeter Fence
5. The Healing
6. Wolvesland
7. The Wild Hunt
8. This Year's Man
9. Forgotten Babies
10. The First Time/The Last Time
11. The Barbarians Move In

The Leeds band's 2005 debut sank without trace, so Duels have emerged with an even darker, almost Orwellian opus that bucks prevailing trends. Out go the debut's jauntier tunes in favour of Krautrock repetition, totalitarian chants, cascading pianos and, on songs such as The Perimeter Fence and The Healing, a sense of peering fearlessly into the abyss. When vocalist John Foulger hauntingly sings of wanting to "chew through the walls and meet you on the outside", you can taste the frustration of being in one of Britain's most ambitious but mystifyingly unrecognised groups...www.guardian.co.uk