Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
Les Inrockuptibles
A Classy CD, right up there with Divine Comedy & Rufus Wainwright.
Open Mag
Elegant & bewitching, current music press reviews are not holding back in showering praise on this English band and their latest album. Beautifully written & luxouriously orchestrated this CD is to be put on the shelf next to XTC, Divine Comedy & Crowded House.
SK8 magazine (& Presto)
Classy English pop with a good dose of French romantisism. The arrangements are superb: oboe, xylophone, pianos, guitars & string quartets.... all beautifully done.
Let yourself be taken in by this little gem.
Nouvelle vague
From symphonic to minimalist, Dictafone offer up these 14 songs, all perfect from start to finish. The band have obviously spent a lot of time on this one making The chocolate king a CD that wil not go unnoticed . This is an album to cherish.
Labopark
The 2nd album from Dictafone is a masterstroke of intelligent pop-rock. 14 pearls polished with a fine production & chorus’s that stick in your head all day long.
It’s ceratinly Very atmostpheric & moving at times (with great lyrics !)
Dictafone are a classy outfit.
Abus dangereux
A magnificent album. Highly recommended for fans of Divine Comedy or Japan.
- Various
Magic
Beautiful & moving songs
Transistor
This is pop worthy of XTC with a hint of modern day Lennon. International class on a grand scale.
Longueur d’ondes
Classic pop melodies, winning songwriting & stylish production as the trump card.
Rock Sound
The Dictafone CD resounds with bewitching choruses.
Compact
Great songs & super slick production, Pop/Rock as only the English know how
- various
Discography
1) 2003: EP1
2) 2004: Wrapped up in a Five pound note
3) 2006: The Chocolate King
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Duncan Roberts A.K.A Dictafone, emerged from his Paris Studio in 2003 with EP1. This was so enthusiastically received by French press and radio that work started immediately on an album. Being a multi instrumentalist he did most of the recording himself, flitting between guitars, drums and keyboards with ease. Sensing the need for collaboration he called drummer Karim Benaziza and the rest fell into place with a pleasing logic; Karim brought in Vincent Guibert (Bass), who in turn brought along Didier (Keys). Dictafone the band was born.
Wrapped up in a Five pound note was released in May 2004 and garnered much critical and public acclaim for the CD and for the live performances where the band are particularly
impressive, drawing favourable comparisons to XTC, Crowded House & Divine Comedy.
Not content to rest on their laurels, work started on a 2nd album, based on the songs that had continued to flow from Duncans brain; & heres the twist: Dictafones songs come into being at night while Duncan is asleep. He dreams musical dreams, of concerts and studio sessions and meetings with famous musicians (Paul McCartney, Neil Hannon, Ray Davis) and wakes with the songs clearly in mind and ready to sing into his Dictafone in the early hours of the morning. These fuzzy melodies are then worked on the next day, whilst sat with a guitar or at the piano.
With the aim of always pushing the artistic boundaries, new challenges were confronted with the recording of the 2nd CD. Parts for strings, brass and orchestra were scored and recorded in the north of England at the University of Sheffield. The recordings were then added to in Paris and worked on with the rest of the band. Multi coloured & ambitious The Chocolate king will be released in 2006.
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