If Black Pearl is a recent project initiated during the confinement, its members are for their part truck drivers in the long course of the international blues and rock scene.
We find the American singer Marcus Malone, well known for having spent some time at Motown, but also the Finnish guitarist Muddy Manninen and finally the British songwriter Pete Feenstra.
All three settled on the same side of London, and decided to lead together a formation highlighting a very current blues rock style and finally recorded this first eponymous album, with artists like Tom Gilkes and Dom Metz on drums, but also with guests like Roger Innes on bass, Moz Gamble and Mark Perry on keyboards or Paul Elliot and Leevi Leppanen on percussion.
In just under an hour their music takes us very far on the roads of a blues that is at the same time seductive, current and colourful.
Black Pearl builds a great whole round the vocal qualities of Marcus Malone, a singer with a rich voice who is able to shine in soul of course, blues and also in very strong rock.
Add the solid and precise guitar playing of Muddy Manninen, as well as his bass parts and keyboard playing,which perfectly fits the project, and sprinkle everything with well thought lyrics, and you get a superbly worked cake, not only upstream but also downstream since the production and recording are largely up to the task.
We will not resist for long the call of titles like “Cheap Perfume”, “Price On Love”, “Mexican Romance”, “Handmade Pearl” or “She Knows Every Move” which gives us a glimpse of a very bright future for an outfit that proves to be at the top of its form, whether on the turntable or live on stage, since we have already been able to taste the sensations provided in tandem by Marcus Malone and Muddy Manninen
The next big sensation will come from England, that’s for sure!
Review by Fred Delforge
