Headlines

Remember The Others, the infuriatingly catchy Dukes Of Windsor single remixed into an ARIA- and APRA-nominated chart smash and dancefloor annihilator last year? Well, it's time to move on. The Dukes certainly have.

On Minus, the Victorian five-piece's second album, they don't so much find their feet as notice what daring stunts and sexy moves they can do with them. You'll already know the ubiquitous taster single It's A War - the mere mention of it may have put its infectious chorus in your head - but that's just one flavour on an album fresh with ideas, energy and, most importantly, tunes.

"There's nothing better than a good pop song," says Dukes Of Windsor singer Jack Weaving. "When you're hit with the good stuff you forget [the bad]. There are so many different acts that are well respected that have pop sensibilities."

The Dukes formed only three years ago in the Melbourne suburb of Windsor (as opposed to the regal English borough of the same name). Weaving met guitarist Oscar Dawson at a local swimming pool where both were working for spare cash. Dawson was studying music with bassist Joe Franklin. Their paths crossed with Cory Blight (drums) and Scott Targett (keyboards), two schoolmates from Tasmania who had moved to Windsor, and the five bonded over a shared sense of humour and outlook on life, rather than a passion for a particular type of music.

This pretty much explains why Dukes Of Windsor's rushed debut album, 2005's independently released The Others, by Weaving's own admission lacked focus. "Last time I think we were searching for a sound that we hadn't found yet - which is a process that I guess everyone has to go through before you really discover what you're about".

Now they have rather emphatically discovered this, how would they describe that sound? Electro pop? Synth rock? Yet another new wave of '80s-style new wave? "I wouldn't give it any of those, to be honest. I wouldn't even put it anywhere near the electro world. At the heart of it we're a rock band that uses electronic elements for atmosphere, pretty much."

Hence their choice of collaborators on Minus. Pelle Henriccson and Eskil Lövström produced one of the band's favourite albums, the seminal The Shape Of Punk To Come by '90s hardcore-punk giants Refused, so the Dukes endured the sub-zero temperatures of the Swedish winter (hence the album title) to work with them.

"They'd given The Shape Of Punk To Come a real sort of groove I don't think hardcore had really had before that," Weaving says. "That's what they brought to our album. I kept getting yelled at, down the headphones, to give it more Al Green and more Marvin Gaye... [Pelle and Eskil] really wanted us to give it more soul, which I hope came out in a strange sort of... clinical Swedish way!"

With its cool, crisp beats and dark basslines, Minus often reflects the environment in which it was made. But not always. "Although there wasn't much light and there wasn't much warmth, it was a really warm and giving place; there was a real happiness in the air," Weaving says. "It was still a bit of a wonderland."

The singer thinks of the finished product as "a collection of tastes" rather than an album with a particular theme running through it - "I think the best way to tell a story is to paint an unfinished picture for someone that they can complete themselves - then it becomes their own," he says.

Indeed, Weaving understands much of what makes Dukes Of Windsor special. "It works for and against us, not being able to put us in a box. Everyone just reaches for that electro tag but I think the magic of what we've got is five people that are from such different backgrounds, musically, and that are such good musicians that you never know what's gonna come out next."

"There are certainly no rules that we have to work within - which is a wonderful place to be. It's that whole Madonna syndrome of being able to reinvent what you do and progress. If you can't do that you're just gonna be dead in the water."

They're ready to join the ranks of Australia's pop greats, too. After a recent day in Windsor's Revolver Studios, getting ready for the It's A War tour, Weaving went for a beer with a mate working in the rehearsal room next door - Something For Kate's Paul Dempsey. Someone in the pub asked Weaving to describe the Dukes' sound and Dempsey stepped in.

"He said, 'It's the new INXS. It's not funk, it's not dance. It's pop but it's rock'n'roll.' I like that idea 'cause I wouldn't know how to describe INXS either, other than pop. But it's much more than that."