The members of the American-French-Swedish group Blues Pills are not retro profiles, but time travelers. The debut has everything to take you back to the late sixties / early seventies; from the clothes and hairdress to the psychedelic cover design by Marijke Koger, who was once part of hippie design club The Fool. Based on name and appearance, the music does not disappoint either. Blues Pills
… reanimates the blues rock and hard rock of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and the early Led Zeppelin with verve. The rhythms sound muddy and groovy. Seventeen-year-old guitarist Dirian Sorriaux knows how to handle the many spaces that are offered to him for tough and screaming solos. But above all it is singer Elin Larsson who steals the show with her rough throat, in the traditions of Janis Joplin and Inga Rumpf (Frumpy, Atlantis). There is nothing original to be found on this warm and analog sounding album. It is up to the listener to end it with that, or just open the volume knob and, just like in 1971, to shake their hair on the swinging feel-good rock of Blues Pills. (MR)more
