review from the UK

this is what Blues In The South wrote about our new record with Boo Boo Davis:

B&T 987 – Boo Boo Davis + Electro Blues Society – Transatlantic Quarantaine Sessions  
Regular BiTS readers might recognise some of the numbers on this set, as a few have seen release as digital singles and have been reviewed as such. East Saint Louis bluesman Boo Boo, a real old school blues singer, harpman and drummer, has been working with Dutch label Black & Tan since 1998. They weren’t going to let a little thing like a nearly global lockdown get in the way, and these quarantine tracks are the result. Boo Boo tends to just do his thing—tough, no-nonsense vocals and wailing blues harp—whilst the ElectroBluesSociety (label boss Jan Mittendorp on guitar and “buttons” and Jasper Mortier on drums and bass) complements him with some raw electric guitar work, and often computer generated rhythms and effects. Having listened to and enjoyed the singles, it was something of a surprise that the album itself comes across as a balance of blues and electronica. On the individual releases, it often seemed as though Boo Boo was the main focus, but on this set, there is a definite, very recognisable hybrid style.

Purists might quibble about it, but Boo Boo himself seems quite happy about it. See it as a salient reminder that the blues isn’t just for old folks, you know.

 

review from Germany for our new record with Boo Boo Davis

B&T 987 – Boo Boo Davis + ElectroBluesSociety – Transatlantic Quarantaine Sessions

Covid-19 bremst, aber verhindert nicht die Kooperation: Zwischen den Kontinenten wanderten die Sounddateien hin und her. Zwischen den Niederlanden und St. Louis. Zwischen der ElectroBluesSociety, zu der Jasper Mortier und Jan Mittendorp gehören, und Boo Boo Davis, der im Mississippi-Delta aufwuchs und sich über zwei Dekaden immer wieder in Europa auf Touren vorgestellt hatte. „Transatlantic Quarantaine Sessions“ (Black & Tan) bezeugt ein gänzlich unvoreingenommene Zusammenarbeit: Es gibt rohen Blues und ruppigen Funk, gesungen von dem Amerikaner und eine ausgeflippte Harmonika. Aus dem schäbigen Schuppen, zu dem die Leute raus aufs Land kommen, um zu tanzen. Doch da ist noch mehr zu haben. Zum Beispiel sphärische Übergänge zu Ambient-Dub-Blues. Genial. Eines der Stück heißt „It’s A Sad Thing“. Schade, dass wir aufs Konzert warten müssen.

Something Else reviews our new single with Boo Boo Davis

East St. Louis blues boss Boo Boo Davis continues to spend his quarantine time building a new album with Netherlands-based ElectroBluesSociety (Jan Mittendorp + Jasper Mortier) one track at time. Just the other day, the potent transatlantic collaborators dropped their fourth such Covid track. (We discussed some of the prior singles here and here).

“It’s A Sad Thing” starts with a crunchy-as-fried-chicken guitar riff, and Davis’ swaggering howlin’ and blues harp wailing does the rest. As the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion did with RL Burnside, Boo Boo and the ElectroBluesSociety makes obvious the strong relation between the blues and rawer forms of rock, making the two forms of music sound as one.

As usual, Black and Tan Records is distributing ElectroBluesSociety this hot new track from Boo Boo Davis and the ElectroBluesSociety.

 

review from the UK

ElectroBluesSociety are an ‘experimental electro blues’ duo from The Netherlands, comprising Black & Tan label boss Jan Mittendorp on guitar and various electronics, and bass player/drummer Jasper Mortier. The label has worked frequently with Drew, Mississippi-born bluesman James ‘Boo Boo’ Davis since releasing his debut album in 1999, and during a European tour in 2018, Boo Boo, now in his seventies, Jan and Jasper laid down seven songs during three hours in the studio. They went back to basics for these performances and added the electronics afterwards. The tracks were originally released as singles (ie.digital releases of single tracks) during 2018 and 2019, and were generally well-received; this new release, styled as an ‘EP’, gathers them together. As the label name reveals, these tracks are cover versions, of course, from Howlin’ Wolf – Boo Boo would frequently perform his songs with his brothers in Saint Louis in the ’60s – and Elmore James, who was a friend of his father’s. Oh, and don’t worry about those ‘electronic additions’ – they may sound a little peculiar on the intro to ‘Back Door Man’, and that track is perhaps the most experimental here, but they are not really that obtrusive overall, and might help with attracting younger audiences. Boo Boo’s rural-sounding, Wolf-ish vocals and raw, wailing harmonica work are good enough to make up for it throughout anyhow. A little surprisingly, ‘Tell Me’ is an unexpected personal favourite, a very, very fine performance with a wonderful vocal.This is a digital only release from Black & Tan subsidiary KuvVer and it is available on all the usual download and streaming platforms. Boo Boo’s scheduled European tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a serious loss of income for him – buythis and support a genuine bluesman.

review by SomethingElse

This is what SomethingElse wrote on our latest single with Boo Boo:

A couple of months ago I told y’all about this EP that vintage bluesman Boo Boo Davis put out with ElectroBluesSociety sensibly titled Chicago Blues Covers. This makeshift trio (Davis, guitarist Jan Mittendorp and drummer Jasper Mortier) made a mess of covers of electric blues standards charged by the retro-modern studio finagling of the ElectroBluesSociety and the sheer aura of one Boo Boo Davis. And they laid down the tracks for these songs all in one afternoon in 2018. Now we learn that their label KuvVer Records has dropped another track from apparently that same session, Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor.” Boo Boo’s rendition carries the same machismo as Wolf’s but aside from that, it sounds almost like a wholly different song. If anything, the analog-y, reverb-drenched sonics of this two year-old recording sounds even more ancient than the fifty-six year-old original and Mortier keeps the song lively with a booming backbeat. Davis voice echoes from the bottom his soul but his blues harp shouts louder and authoritatively. Even if you’ve heard this song a thousand times before, your experience with it isn’t complete without hearing ElectroBluesSociety and Boo Boo Davis tackle it. They give old blues back its youthful vitality because they know how to make it brash and raw.

review from the UK

ElectroBluesSociety Featuring Michel Peters—Hoochie Coochie Man

Here is another single track from this Dutch outfit, with a local singer turning in a version of the Muddy Waters classic. Some of these issues on Black & Tan subsidiary label KuvVer have kept reasonably close to the originals – this one doesn’t. The throbbing, up tempo backing is largely electronic, though with pounding drums and some excellent blues guitar, whilst Michel’s singing is fine. The whole thing does actually work well, so, if you have a youngster who feels that the blues is old hat, try to get them to give this a listen – you never know…

review from France

Duo blues expérimental néerlandais composé de Jasper Mortier à la basse et à la batterie et de Jan Mittendorp aux guitares et aux effets, ElectroBluesSociety bouscule les conventions du blues depuis déjà quelques belles années et inonde régulièrement le marché de ses diverses productions dans lesquelles le blues des aînés est souvent revu et corrigé à la sauce actuelle, avec une pointe d’electro mais sans jamais s’éloigner d’un pouce des valeurs d’origines des morceaux. Alors que les deux musiciens accompagnaient le chanteur et harmoniciste Boo Boo Davis sur une tournée européenne en 2018, l’idée leur vint subitement de se rendre en studio avec l’artiste originaire de Drew, dans le Mississippi, et de mettre en boite à ses côtés et en l’espace de trois heures quelques classiques du blues, et non des moindres. Le résultat est sans appel, avec pas moins de sept titres qui ont déjà été proposés en single en 2018 et 2019 mais qui prennent aujourd’hui la forme d’un EP que l’on peut télécharger sur toutes les bonnes plateformes. De Howlin’ Wolf à Willie Dixon en passant par Elmore James et Robert Johnson, ElectroBluesSociety et Boo Boo Davis vont nous proposer de véritables pépites de blues baignées de guitares bien juteuses, d’harmonicas gouleyants à souhait et de voix rugueuses, des trésors en douze mesures qui nous entrainent du Delta jusqu’à Chicago avec des classiques parmi les classiques revisités et subtilement agrémentés d’un pointe de modernisme qui ne nuit en rien, loin de là, à la très haute valeur intrinsèque des « Smokestack Lightnin », « Tell Me », « Evil », « How Many More Years », « Dust My Broom », « Little Red Rooster » et autres « Back Door Man » qui glissent dans la platine avec une finesse impressionnante. Si la démarche peut paraître osée sur le papier, force est de constater que le résultat est d’un excellent niveau et que le jeu en vaut vraiment la chandelle. A écouter de toute urgence !

 

 

recensie EP op Musiczine (Belgie)

Het lijkt een verloren zaak als je het uitgangspunt bekijkt: oude bluesrat neemt een reeks bluesklassiekers op met zijn Europese begeleidingsband. Je kan nauwelijks een geeuw onderdrukken. Toch zit er vuurwerk in één van de zeven tracks. Hoeveel keer kan je “Little Red Rooster” nog interpreteren en het interessant houden? Het nummer moet zowat het ingangsexamen zijn om jezelf een bluesband te mogen noemen. Maar als een 76-jarige ex-katoenplukker het nog eens overdoet, willen we wel een oogje dichtknijpen. Het begeleidende duo maakt er nog iets moois van. Ook met deze versies van “Evil” en “Tell Me” scoren ze geen homerun. Betere keuzes zijn dan “Dust My Broom”, “Smokestack Lightnin” en “How Many More Years”. In aanpak en uitvoering heel klassiek, maar degelijk en met veel overtuiging gebracht. En dan nog die ene waar vuurwerk in zit? Op “Back Door Man”, ook al zo’n classic die je al een paar keer teveel hebt gehoord, experimenteren de Nederlanders een eind weg met een soort van analoog-klinkende swampy loops die het nummer een vibe geven alsof er een geest meespeelt in de band. Er zijn nog tracks waarop ElectroBluesSociety speelt met loops, maar dan blijft het beperkt tot at je productionele ingrepen kan noemen. Op “Back Door Man” is het net heel uitgesproken, en het werkt absoluut heel goed. Deze aanpak had voor het volledige album mogen gebruikt worden.

review for our EP with Boo boo Davis

Just yesterday KuvVer Records dropped a nifty little EP on us, one with the living blues icon Boo Davis performing some trusty blues covers. Chicago Blues Covers puts in a single release a collection of tunes all recorded one afternoon in 2018, and released as singles over the next year. This plainly titled EP delivers songs that in most bluesman’s hands might be a little tired and pedestrian, but this is Boo Boo Davis we’re talking about here, a character as colorful as Howlin’ Wolf which all comes out in his authentic delivery. Hell, almost as if to underscore his kinship with that original blues giant, most of these seven songs like “Little Red Rooster” were made famous by the former Chester Arthur Burnett. Davis is backed by the ElectroBluesSociety (or should I say, the ElectroBluesSociety is backed by Davis?), a tidy little unit made up of Jan Mittendorp on guitar and Jasper Mortier and drums and bass. With Boo Boo handling the singing and the blues harp, this music needs nothing else. You can hear Davis’ echoed and looped in the background but otherwise, this is pretty much like it would be heard in a nightclub. And maybe you heard these songs many times before, but not in the way Davis & Company plays/slays ‘em. “Evil” is set apart by stomp on the two and four and Davis’ singing the song like a man possessed. On “Smokestack Lightnin’,” Boo Boo howls and moans with the fervor of a man fifty years younger. Davis takes his time getting started on “Back Door Man” to allow Mittendorp to noodle around with some biting lines, as the track is drenched in electronically-induced some psychedelic haze. “How Many More Years” sounds deadlier with Davis’ harmonica altered to resemble an organ, and Mittendorp’s slide sets the vintage feeling for Elmore James’ “Dust My Broom.” The band shuffles through “Tell Me” as Davis squeals on that harmonica with mid-century authenticity. Then again, everything Boo Boo Davis plays is authentic. And with the sympathetic backing of ElectroBluesSociety, Chicago Blues Covers is faithful in fanning the blues flame in the way that only Davis can do it.

review from the UK

This is what BITS (Blues In The South / UK) wrote about us in their January 2020 issue:
This Dutch duo comprising multi-instrumentalist and label boss Jan Mittendorp and bass player/ drummer Jasper Mortier teamed up with singer Jan Hidding, of group The Cuban Heels, and the results, previously available as single tracks, are now gathered together on this three-track digital EP. The three men achieve a fine blend of classic blues and soul sounds with modern day electronics and a bit of blues-rock. ‘Rosie’ is known from the collection of folklorist Alan Lomax, and its work-song roots are intact here, though with a definite contemporary edge; ‘I Don’t Want’ is slow, expansive, moody and bluesy, whilst ‘All The Way Down’ has a slight tinge of the subtle soul-tinged British blues-rock sound of late 60s/ early 70s group Free, though the electronics definitely add something new and different whilst keeping the mood – there’s even a harmonica break!. This release is not for the diehard purists of course, but do investigate if you are interested.
Norman Darwen