The Black Keys

Last year producer Brian Burton a.k.a. Danger Mouse called The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney to see if the band was interested in making a record with Ike Turner. Turner was keen and so were The Black Keys but before it even began, Turner died, aged 76 in December 2007. But Burton didn't stop there. As a big fan of the Black Keys medium fidelity sound, made using vintage tape and analogue equipment, he still wanted to work with the Akron, Ohio duo.

'Attack & Release', the band's fifth studio album is the result. It's a spacious disc loaded with slow-burning country, blues and garage rock. Burton squeezes a bit of soul and funk out of Auerbach's guitar and vocals and Carney's drums, even hinting at hip-hop. The band adds a bunch of instruments to the brew - from banjo to synthesisers, glockenspiel and a bunch of wind and reed instruments - and for the first time there are guests, from acclaimed guitarist Marc Ribot (Tom Waits Band) and multi-instrumentalist and one-time Tom Waits sideman Ralph Carney (uncle of drummer Patrick), to young country/bluegrass singer Jessica Lea Mayfield. Auerbach is in Austin, Texas at the annual South By Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival - the week-long music industry mega-event.

The band was booked to play just two shows, with Auerbach happy to get away from the business side of things to catch some bands. "We're so busy that we don't get to see many bands but I'm gonna go see a couple tonight. I'm gonna go see Jay Reatard and I'm gonna see Dr. Dog and I'm gonna see My Morning Jacket." One guy he never got to see play live was Ike Turner. "We never got to meet him," he says. "I never saw him play. I know that he was doing R'n'B revues in Europe and stuff. He was making a living doing those kinds of shows."

Auerbach also explains the Danger Mouse connection. "Well, he called us at the end of last year just out of the blue, and asked us if wanted to do this Ike record. We'd never known him before that. So he flew out and we spent two weeks recording, holed up in the studio in Ohio and then went to Los Angeles and mixed it together." With Ralph Carney's flute and reeds, piano, organ, glockenspiel and Moog and Korg synths swirling in the details, this is the by far the fullest-sounding Black Keys record to datem but at the same time, it's the most subtle. "I think there's definitely lots of cool sounds going on and it's one to listen to with the headphones on...Yeah we definitely experimented a lot with instrumentation and different musical forms but I think at the heart of all the songs it's still our sound, y'know, drums, guitars, vocals."

The band has since begun a comprehensive tour that will take in Europe and North America, including a bunch of sold-out shows in the USA. Later this year the band will return to Australia. There won't be a Brian Burton or Ralph Carney in tow but Auerbach and Patrick Carney plan to experiment with different instrumentation on this tour. As it happens, Burton is much more of a studio guy; Auerbach reveals the acclaimed producer of Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz, DANGERDOOM and the Beatles/ Jay-Z mash-up 'The Grey Album' is less comfortable than most on stage. Another fact about Burton is that he's mad for the movies, a real cinephile. He has described himself as an auteur, making an allusion to the works of Woody Allen. I suggest that perhaps The Black Keys think of themselves as auteurs, too.

"What's an auteur?" asks Auerbach, and I'm not sure if he's bluffing. When I mention the Woody Allen story he bursts into laughter. "He talks about Woody a lot. He and I were raised on a lot of Woody Allen movies. But Brian is really into cinema. We went to Wal-Mart one night early on and he bought a big screen TV that had a DVD player built in just so we could watch movies after hours in his hotel. And he got a bunch of DVDs."

"He was playing us some Italian 60s film scores. He was really into them. I can definitely say that his ear for music is suited towards cinema. He's into making things spacious. He's into creating moods on records." He's done a pretty darn good job on 'Attack & Release'. And The Black Keys ain't too shabby, neither.

Lenin Simos

'Attack & Release' is out now through Shock.