Duke Special

I know Safety Officer Alex is already a fan but I thought I'd pread to word to the wider community.

He's been compared to people like Rufus Wainwright and his music has a kind of traditional, almost vaudeville style, sung in a distinctive Northern Irish accent. Like Ben his music is piano-based but he also has a fondness for strange instruments and his drummer likes to play the cheese grater and whisk and a thing called a stumpf fiddle.

He has the ability, a bit like Ben, to cover other people's songs and make them his own (although in a slightly different way). I'm especially liking his cover of Razorlight's Stumble of Fall, which you can hear on his MySpace.

It's also available as part of a free mini album, which you can download here.

Here's a couple of YouTube videos if people are interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=queSqeVcLY4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar_RKa2US1w

As tippex as said, I'm a pretty big fan of the Duke. I was introduced to his music when he supported The Divine Comedy, and his influences are literally identical to my own (Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, The Flaming Lips, The Divine Comedy and Elliott Smith) so I felt hugely inclined to check him out. He looks like Robert Smith of The Cure, yet sings like Rufus and plays piano like Ben... Pretty amazing.

I recommend getting the free mini album; it has quite a few awesome tracks from his EP collections and is certainly worth the money (seeing as how it's free).

i just took your advice and downloaded the free minialbum.  i better not regret this, boys.

More Duke Special stuff - he's done a new single with Neil Hannon (of The Divine Comedy) and Romeo Stodart (of The Magic Numbers) called Our Love Goes Deeper Than This.

Go listen to it here. It's ace.