Few performers wreak as much havoc on a stage as Black Joe Lewis.
Up until now, that live ferocity hasn’t shone through as convincingly on his records. Electric Slave – his third LP – changes this with a wall of sound so menacing it could separate Berlin all over again.
Having shed the cutesy ‘Honeybears’ moniker, Lewis is now utterly uncompromising. There’s hardly a moment when he isn’t wrecking his throat to the point of snapping any remaining vocal cords.
Unlike fellow Austin shredder Gary Clark Jnr., Lewis isn’t one to solo for the sake of soloing. His songs aren’t endless jams, and there’s a far greater appreciation for cohesion, structure and succinctness.
Although it’s difficult to decipher from Lewis’s dirty growl, you don’t need to study the lyric sheet to realise he’s unimpressed with the status quo. The album title, for example, refers to his disdain of people watching concerts through three-inch iPhone screens.
He gets his message across with opening salvo ‘Skulldiggin’ – a romp as heavy as Lewis has ever peddled – ‘Guilty’ and the roaring ‘Dar es Salaam’. They set the scene for 40 minutes of sweaty, muscular, ear-to-the-ground, dirty southern boogie and blues thump.
It takes the slow-down of ‘Vampire’ to wind things back a little, but by song’s end Lewis is throwing it out as hard as before.
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‘Come To My Party’ – a song that ought to spread him to the masses – is Lewis at his house-party wrecking best, typified by the ‘70s cop chase horns that follow the first chorus. Glorious.
The next best thing after hearing this record would be to see Lewis tear up a festival stage. Let’s hope it happens soon.
