Reviews By Mike Bond
MISSISSIPPI WITCH - BLACK GAMBLE
Just For Roosevelt / Albuquerque New Mexico / Alligator Mechanics / Black Gamble / Lampio / Starving Of The Bee / Rot Foot / Van Nuys / White Eye / Lung Full Of River Mud / Calipah / Buckshot Cornflower
COLONY2 / REDCOB RECORDINGS

Its The White Stripes comparisons that hit you the first, Mississippi Witch, as they are a two piece guitar and drum duo playing ragged and raw lo-fi blues.  Its however the Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa influence that permeates this band the strongest here on debut album BLACK GAMBLE.

Opener and previous single JUST FOR ROOSEVELT finds its power in frontman Oli Walker's primal howl and riotous guitar work, riffing and yelling his way through the song like Captain Beefheart re-evigorated and ready for rock action.

MISSISSIPPI WITCH - BLACK GAMBLE

  A dirty delta blues jam by way of Black Flag and AC/DC, this is the kind of thing to make you fall in love with noisy guitars and big riffs all over again.

The snake hipped charm of ALLIGATOR MECHANICS drips with deep south atmosphere and drawling blues character, Oli Walker again delivering the goods superbly.
Title track BLACK GAMBLE hardly messes with the formula, Mississippi Witch unleashing dirty distorted riffs, careering drum beats and drawling vocals by the bucketload, seamlessly merging Kings Of Leon, Mountain and The Melvins.  The more languid stoner rock of LAMPIO proves that the duo can also do more expansive, further reaching material with equal skill, hypnotic drum patterns, discordantly eerie sound effects and lurching piano chords adding to Mississippi Witch's sound repertoire.  STARVING OF THE BEE stretches affairs even further, a bluesy acoustic jam that recalls both Black Label Society and Kyuss.
ROT FOOT and VAN NUYS get things back to harder rocking territory, all distorted riffing and violent drums, whilst on LUNG FULL OF RIVER MUD, the band unleash the kind of noisy guitar bluster that envisions Sonic Youth in their prime.
The kind of debut to have you proclaiming the likes of "new favourite band" and "next big thing" wildly; Mississippi Witch are a band who leave you hungry and desperate for more with BLACK GAMBLE, an album well worth get extremely passionate about.

BIOGRAPHY
Two piece from London, biblebelt escapees, purveyors of demented mutterings, Founders of the infamous drug wave gypsy guitar solo, Formed in 2004, Oli Walker (guitar and vocals), Dan Danby (drums). Oli was born in 1978 in Rollingfolk Mississippi, Dan Danby was born in New Mexico in the same year. A chance meeting at a snake church in Baton Rouge and a mutual love of chewing tabbaci laid the foundations for mississippi witch.. 

LINKS
Mississippi Witch>www.mississippiwitch.com

Review date: January 2008