BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES - WA Today

Along with Jack White, Black Keys main man, Dan Auerbach, helped legitimise the rock duo.

Along with Jack White, Black Keys main man, Dan Auerbach, helped legitimise the rock duo. The Keys have been as much about Auerbach's production nous as his dynamic guitar playing, and now he is applying those knob-twiddling skills to other artists' CDs. Last year he worked wonders, producing and playing guitar on ageing r'n'b singer Nathaniel Mayer's Why Don't You Give It to Me?, and now comes the new album from southern American duo Black Diamond Heavies. There are some obvious similarities to the Black Keys - both are duos who are far greater than the sum of their parts - but Black Diamond Heavies drive their high-energy punk soul with overdriven keyboards instead of guitar, with a pounding, primal drum beat. That basic sound is augmented by occasional bass keys and maracas, and Auerbach guests on guitar on Happy Hour, but from the remarkable opening cover version of Ike and Tina's Nutbush City Limits, which sounds like Tom Waits doing shots with Lemmy from Motorhead, this is pure unadulterated 21st-century rhythm and blues. And party record of the year. - WA Today