Black Moses
Royal Stink

Jim Jones is a badass poser. A poser because he has an ego that wouldn't fit inside the Tate Modern's Hall, Jimi is full of himself, and rightly so because it was his ego and tenacity that allowed him to keep playing. Even just hoping to replicate the success and cult status he achieved with Thee Hypnotics would have been sheer madness, but Jones kept going strong and, after several lineup changes, presents us with the second effort of Black Moses, "Royal Stink," which is just over thirty minutes of pure and simple rock'n'roll, touched by the usual historical inspirations, Stooges, Stones, MC5. Badass, indeed.

Thirty minutes of blues, rock, stoner, garage, all the aforementioned references, well reworked, not exactly adrenaline-pumping and thrilling, but that nonetheless deserve a slice of the attention so lavishly given to much mediocre, yet much more media-friendly British acts. The debut with Emperor Deb, slightly closer to the psychedelic sounds of the Hypnotics, had hinted at the potential of this pseudo-supergroup (at the time, the bassist of Black Moses was Graeme Flynn of Penthouse, now replaced by Zack Kusmanov).
Royal Stink, instead, has a much more "current" twist, I hate to say it, but certainly more commercial (and not necessarily a negative comment) with an undertone of wanting to break out of the cult status and "join" the party, finally eating a piece of that cake that he himself, somehow and in other times, helped to bake.

I heard the tracks of this album before they were released when I saw BM in concert a couple of years ago, and the energy they managed to unleash that evening with "Better Believe" or "Stevie" struggles to come out on the third listen on CD. It's still a good album, enjoyable to listen to, and thanks to its short duration, it doesn't have the time to bore, and I hope it will enjoy greater commercial success compared to the debut, where Emperor Deb, at times, took an almost introspective and profound path, Royal Stink follows the road that leads to the party... GBBM