Text by CLOT Magazine
Just when London is basking in scorching temperatures, we turn away from our more dark and abrasive electronic sounds to bring you a new mixtape soothing as a fresh summer breeze by Dukes of Chutney. The transcontinental trio of Dustin Lynn, John Paul Jones, and Petra have been exploring different spaces and places with their productions, between nothingness and nature, that nurture inner and outer peace. Cosmic yet intimate, long-gestating and free-flowing, diffuse and centred.
Jones’ has established a beguiling production touch to various edits and remixes Under the moniker Tom Croose. Lynn is an accomplished filmmaker who has collaborated with artist Gabriel Orozco and directed campaigns for designers Alexander McQueen and Corto Moltedo.
The trio’s recently published their debut album Hazel (rvng Intl); the Dukes turned towards their immediate sanctum and a network of friends and colleagues. As they say, Hazel explores life’s wandering ways while widening its path. Recorded from remote yet commonly tranquil corners of the world over six years, Hazel is illustrated from a colourful palette of dub, folk, Balearic, and otherwise blissful sounds, somehow escaping categorisation in its pursuit of uninhibited joy.
It was a long, not necessarily strange trip as much as a revelatory journey, with recording sessions taking place from Venice Beach to Sausalito, Mexico City to Minneapolis, Sicily to Berlin (where vocalist Petra calls home), national parks to beachside drifts, with an East Village studio apartment thrown in for good, gritty measure. Each landscape seeps into Hazel and causes the colours to run even more.
Very much following Hazel’s steps, this mixtape is inspired by an island fantasy trip to Indonesia with elements of Rastafarian mountain ceremonials and Balearic hedonism, featuring an unreleased original by Dustin Lynn and a Dukes of Chutney remix by Peter Kruder.
