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After their first raw blues album One Batch Of Blues (STAGO 090CD/LP, 2016), Automatic City are making a bold step towards some bongo percussion, voodoo, and Caribbean rhythms, space-echoed jumpin' blues, tremolo, and slide guitar vibrations, while still keeping the sound rough and gritty. That is one of the ingredients of their trademark, as is the use of instruments more unusual to the blues music genre, like sanza, miscellaneous percussions, and some primitive electronic instruments like stylophone, theremin, or the rhythm ace drum machine. Captured live in a session that lasted only a couple of days, the same quartet led by Eric Duperray on vocals, Emmanuel Mercier on guitars and production, with Raphael Vallade on double bass and Zaza Desiderio on percussions, is creating it's very own versions of gems from the songbooks of Willie Dixon, Billy Boy Arnold, Billy Emerson, plus "Havana Moon" by Chuck Berry and a hypnotic version of R.L. Burnside's "Goin' Down South". Last but not least, a cover of "Crawfish", which was Joe Strummer's favorite Elvis song from the Kid Creole movie (1958). For the first time, Bongoes & Tremoloes also features some original material like "Resolution Blues", a one-man foot-stomping soulful blues recalling the style of some John Lee Hooker recordings. Or "Evil Eyes On Me", partly inspired by Fred McDowell's slide guitar works, as well as original instrumentals that create a unique sound and feel. As initially said, this is a bold step forward in the career of this unique blues outfit.
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