The Quack In Space

Welcome one and all to another critical bubble from the silty word swamps of Murphy. And an especial welcome to all Oriental spambots out there, we love you guys.

RUBBER DUCK – demo

It sometimes feels that there’s precious little between some of the bands we come across, but Rubber Duck have one thing that sets them apart before they start playing, in that three quarters of them are Italian, which is pretty unusual around here. One of these visitors, Rosario Glorioso is celebrated on their covering letter as a “Musical drummer”. Err, as opposed to what? An architectural drummer? Philological? Episcopalian? Believe me, we’ve got a nice long list of amusing percussive adjectives built up whilst listening to Rudder Duck’s first track, because there wasn’t much else in evidence to occupy the mind or lift the spirit. It’s been a rum old time for demos, and this doesn’t do much to lift the bar, a clump of vague ramshackle funk rock. “Let’s get the party started” exhorts vocalist and composer Wojtek Domagalski. After you, boys, after you.

Thankfully it all picks up pretty swiftly thereafter and so long as we ignore this introductory stillbirth, Rubber Duck have left us with a diverting, if unspectacular demo. Track two (no names supplied) is the best thing on offer. The rap is OK (well, just about) but the song is buoyed by an infectiously cheeky organ riff and a surprisingly taut and funky horn section. My God how we love horn sections, and this one doesn’t overstay it’s welcome at all, stabbing into the music with precision. Our feet are tapping, and we’re not even beginning to think about adjectives. Track three is a little less exciting, but it’s still a decent enough little groove. Admittedly, Jaberwok could knock this into a cocked Jamiroquai hat (and if it happened to take the little twat out at the same time, we wouldn’t be running to dial 999) but this passes the time pleasantly.

Track four and it’s slinky 70s spy theme keys proves that RD have a knack of embellishing their tunes with interesting elements, even if the songs themselves are hardly revolutionary. It also implies that keys/electronics player Alain Torri may be the most exciting member of the band. The letter doesn’t make any mention of timeframes, but we suspect that RD is a relatively new band, so we’ll rein the judgment in for now. Like the Beard Of Zeuss demo we recently stumbled across, this is one to file under “Wait and see”, and if this record doesn’t prick up the ears as much as BOZ, it still reminds us that there may be a little mileage left in just plugging in and having a funky good time. All right, this demo definitely doesn’t make us want to get up and feel like a sex machine, but it doesn’t make us feel like the twisted miseries we normally are, so that’s a point in its favour whatever its obvious faults.