Suki Tawdry’s debut album, "Night of Joy" plunges you into a Portishead- tinged seductiveness and progresses through shades of 70's influenced neo-funk-jazz grooves, meandering and punctuating Barbara Ann Duffy's voice, which comes on like an absinthe glow. Madame D's throaty vocals steam and soar in all the right places, with breathy emphasis on her clever turns of phrase.  She inhabits her characters so completely that one can sense a chorus of women's voices trading their stories in a dark parlour lit by candlelight.   And what stories they are... A real neo-noir page-turner.

Jeff Kettle, musician and dj for Suki, keeps the tempo fluid, moving from tantalizing keyboards to plinking xylophones. This instrumentation he combines with clever samples which constantly re-shuffle his various genres of references: from jazz to punk to movie soundtracks.  Cinematic snippets of sounds - storms, hands clapping, footsteps - lead us in and out of each new track, and each new track opens up one into the other, like a series of rooms in a shotgun shack,  all connected and unfolding, increasingly piquing your curiosity and drawing you in for the next adventure. 

"Night of Joy" is lushly cinematic and sensually satisfying.  Suki Tawdry's blend of cooled passion and deft rhythym massages the spinal cord into swaying to and fro, leading straight from the hips of course.
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I've taken awhile to write a review for this CD because it is so difficult to encapsulate in nugget form. Barbara's voice is a sultry anchor to musical backdrops that range from melancholy to pure sex...I definitely feel the urge to light up after a listen. Highly recommended for dark, passionate nights.
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This music is trip-hoppy, topped with sexy storytelling by burlesque performer Barbara Ann Duffy. She has a great voice that makes everything sound positively filthy, even if it's not. Lovely, raunchy, well-written.
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LA duo Suki Tawdry consists of multi-instrumentalist Jeff Kettle and vocalist Barbara Duffy. This, their debut album, offers 11 tracks of ambitious and dreamy trip-hop with a theatrical, jazzy edge. A late-night blue runs through the album, wonderfully underscored by Kettle's careful and minimalist arrangements that emphasize pulsating rhythms over elaborated detail. But it's Duffy's sultry voice that dominates the music; her storytelling is pushed to the front of the mix, and her haunting melodies accentuate the essence of Kettle's musical compositions.

Suki Tawdry is obviously drawing from the wells of Massive Attack and Portishead, but their lack of sonic uniqueness is more than made up for with the sheer consistency of their writing and performance. Much of this may sound familiar to you, but the band's ambition and eloquent performance make Night of Joy a captivating listen, holding much promise for the future.
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