Deuce: Deuce | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Deuce are a new duo out of Naarm / Melbourne, comprising Curtis Wakeling of outfits like Ocean Party and Pop Filter and a new face on the music scene, Kayleigh Haydon. Their self-titled debut is a softly considered experience of being together and apart in a time where there hasn’t been much else to think about.

The pair took the ethereal and moody dreampop sounds of Mazzy Star, Galaxie 500 and Beach House as a jumping off point but, maybe surprisingly for such a sparse sounding outfit, there’s a lot of things going on in their record. It still sounds a bit like the jangling of Ocean Party: subdued, reserved jangle pop backing up the guitars and drums with synths and beats. The jangle is at its strongest whenever Curtis is on the vocals, his sung-spoken drawl and thick Melburnian accent are the very essence of it as he delivers very matter-of-fact, slice of life vignettes like “Sunny path, countryside / Cut on your face split open wide / Bed against the wall / Coffee drips down" on recent single Language Of Love.” It’s so archetypal that it might seem like it takes Kayleigh, with her more melodious tones, to let the band explore other genres.

The slow croon of opener Heatwave, is much more obviously evoking those dreampop influences. It has another debt to Mazzy Star, in its country twang; I thought I might have been imagining it for a while, but it returns in later numbers, like Swim and Antipodes courtesy of the mournful pedal-steel guitar.

Minimal adjustments of this kind are made to work quite fundamental changes in Deuce’s sound. Swap in a drum machine paired with a sinuous bassline on Skyscraper and we’re in post-punk territory. The sound flits back and forth between tuneful snatches of new wave, skeletal post-punk and mournful pop-rock, be it jangle or country. It’s quite engaging, with a lot to keep your attention, despite being so ostensibly minimal.

It also has a surprisingly positive core. For all the bittersweetness of Kayleigh’s country odes and the emotional deadpanning of Curtis’ grey and monotonous vocal additions to the post-punk and jangle-pop, the pair draw strength from each other. At its most cold, existential and synthetic moments I imagine Deuce as a version of HTRK where instead of discovering that they’re dead inside, they somehow find what it takes to get them through. There’s a sentimentality that warms the edges, a memory of time spent together that salves the pain of being apart on Antipodes and smooths the edges of lines like “These things they hurt, sometimes / I’ve been away too long / It’s a long way home.” Conversely, the sadness also serves to stop the sweetness becoming cloying on an oldschool love duet like Wildflower. As Wakeling and Haydon murmur “Stay With Me, Wildflower”, you can simply enjoy it, guilt free.

We’ve all had to come to terms with a more spartan existence, unable to reach out to the experiences and people we used to take for granted. Deuce make it a virtue, taking something simple, spare, with a vein of sadness woven through and finding an unexpected richness of experience and personal connection; an embrace that’ll outlast these times.

- Chris Cobcroft.
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