Black Moses
Emperor Deb (Lunasound)
by Brian Varney
First thoughts upon starting track one were “Jesus, these guys must’ve spent a year or two ingesting the last minute or so of ‘1969’.” Then I glanced at the press sheet and saw that one of these guys was in Thee Hypnotics and everything started to make sense.
In case you’ve never heard of them, Thee Hypnotics were an early ’90s UK band that transparently worshipped the Stooges (to be fair, this was before every idiot who started a garage band claimed the Stooges as an influence). I remember the cool kid on my bus in junior high (the same guy who introduced me to the Stooges, by the way) telling me to check these guys out, especially the one where they’re standing in a circle and looking up on the front cover (Come Down Heavy). I followed the kid’s advice and picked up the album, and though it never did much for me, it certainly brought things into focus re: Black Moses.
And while this style is interesting, I’m not sure if it’s such a good idea. These guys can put a groove down pretty well, but I don’t think James Brown’s worrying yet, y’know? Still, if you really like the Stooges and the Beastie Boys, you might wanna give this a shot.
(www.lunasoundrecording.com)