Shop

Description

Release: February 1, 2024.
Written, performed recorded and produced by DUFFHUES.
Audio mastering by Pieter Kloos (The Void Studio).
Format: CD, digi pack, with 8 page booklet.
Available on all streaming platforms.
Also available on Bandcamp >>

Tracklist

1. ENEMY
2. FARM CLEANER
3. HUNTING
4. DOORBELL
5. HEATHLAND
6. WARLOCK
7. WALKING
8. MIRROR
9. LETTER
10. BURN
11. RIVER SONG (BONUS, ON CD ONLY)
12. WOLF BOOGIE (BONUS, ON CD ONLY)

Music album or musical audio book? Ten dark stories by outsider singer-songwriter DUFFHUES.

Often the songs of DUFFHUES (Netherlands) are like short stories, sometimes with but mostly without a plot, with characters that experience everyday or absurd situations, contemplating current affairs or the imagination, reflecting a dark and tragic humanity. The songs are embedded in avantgardistic blues, roots, lofi and folk music, with atypical song structures. Paradoxical? In the world of DUFFHUES it’s pure logic.

Above all, DUFFHUES is an author bringing dark stories, since 2001 and counting 10 albums. Always with an existential look towards the world. Like a writer, creating writings and putting them out, DUFFHUES writes short stories and puts them out as songs and music albums. Just as well, these song can be called ‘short stories in a musical frame’. His work is rooted in the ancient craft of the troubadours, who observe the world and share, in a musical sense, their findings with their audience. And his art is razor sharp, with a certain amount of tragedy, existing in the present. In this he always remains himself. DUFFHUES’ work is in fact a unique literary reinterpretation of the blues from older times, when roots music originated.

WARLOCK ENEMY is DUFFHUES’ tenth album. A warlock addresses the unseen and imagination, especially in a world that pursues a realistic view, like our present world. The enemy of the unseen and imagination is everywhere, and sees the world as a one dimensional place where just one truth applies. Maybe it’s also a broken system, failing to implement imagination and empathy.
He made his previous album Murder Call (2022) all by himself, and continued this way of creating for his new album Warlock Enemy. He wrote the songs himself, recorded them, played all the instruments and mixed the album. He recorded the album in a bunker, where the temperature was 13 degrees Celsius. In a world where people are constantly looking for comfort, DUFFHUES looked for discomfort in making, sharpening and strengthening his art. Like the previous album Warlock Enemy is also mono, just like the old blues and folk recordings that have always inspired DUFFHUES.

Track by track info…

ENEMY – Who is the enemy? Is it the other, you yourself, is the enemy fictional, are humans themselves their worst enemies?
FARM CLEANER – As a teenager he worked as a farm hand, while listening to loud bands on his walk man reverse cassette player. In the weekend he went to gigs in the local bars.
HUNTING – A song about hunting for romance and magic, in a world that is surely falling into the abyss.
DOORBELL – Suddenly and unannounced, the worlds maddnes is standing at your front door.
HEATHLAND – A horror tale in a nocturnal, sultry and swampy landscape, where witches hunt for souls.
WARLOCK – A song about rock & roll magician MES (Mark E. Smith), who sang about the unseen, and also a little bit about DUFFHUES himself (he hopes).
WALKING – The local bar as the centre of the world. Where booze, the blues and duende are always near.
MIRROR – A poetic song about what you see in the mirror: yourself, the other, the enemy, all these at once?
LETTER – The recurring and sinister letter in many blues songs. This time from the Devil himself, who has come to claim the soul.
BURN – The world is on fire, fleeing is pointless, let go of everything, set all animals free.