Greetings from the Oslo underground! Not from me, however, but from the up-and-coming post-punk sensation that is Duvel. Birthed from the basement of the renowned Blitz house, Duvel stepped confidently into a saturated scene with their debut Attempts At Speech. The youthful group now look to the future and expand their sound, which you can hear immediately in their new single “Hong Kong Sex Toy Shop”.
Youth isn’t something that is getting in the way of Duvel. They are channeling the angst and energy they bring into upbeat and poppy punk music tinged in melancholy and saturated in reverb. Looking to grow from Attempts At Speech, “Hong Kong Sex Toy Shop” has an added layer of keys to the mix and is teeming with more Britpop sensibilities than their more direct prior take at post-punk. This track is brimming with vitality from the opening line of bass and guitar until it comes to a sudden end. The vocals of Jack Holldorff are a perfect fit and feel incredibly evocative of the greats of the genre.
“Hong Kong Sex Toy Shop” seems like an odd song title, and the song itself might seem a little odd without a bit of contextualization. The idea for the song came to Holldorff while visiting Hong Kong. He saw a sign for the respective shop, and while sitting at a posh rooftop bar where he felt out of place, the chorus came to him. When thinking about his quickest escape, the short fence beside him was the quickest option. Thankfully, he decided to take the elevator instead! After arriving home from the trip, he sat with bassist Zacharias Flaathe and they wrote the guitar parts from his hashed together chorus. The result is a song as hazy as the fog Holldorff wanted to plummet into.
Duvel are more than a handful of Norwegian pretty boys. They have proven that their skill is there and that they can write a killer song. This first single from their as-of-yet unnamed sophomore effort is already a serious step up in composition and execution, and I certainly can’t wait to hear the rest. Be sure to listen to “Hong Kong Sex Toy Shop”, and keep an eye out on the bands Facebook page as well as the Fysisk Format page for more news!
