Until recently, it was impossible to write about The Black Keys without mentioning their chromatic opposites, The White Stripes (there, it happened again).

If Jack White and his drumming foil Meg didn’t exist, would Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney be the household names, the world’s biggest bass-free blues-rock duo, or would they still be strumming and dreaming in their hometown of Akron, Ohio?

The latter might well have been the case, but with the release of their latest album, The Black Keys finally have their own story.

Hot producer Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton saw beyond the limitations of the pair’s two-instrument sound and appointed them the backing band on a career-reviving album for Ike Turner.

Burton’s work with Gnarls Barkley and Gorillaz has been noted for its sonic adventurousness, so while the songs The Black Keys came up with were still firmly rooted in the blues, colourful touches of flute, piano and glockenspiel joined their palette for the first time.

Then, of course, Turner died before he could add any vocals, so Attack & Release became the fifth Black Keys album instead. It has boosted the band’s popularity — this was their second sold-out Astoria show in just over a week.

They’re still far from stars, however. Watching big lunk Carney battering the drums, and Auerbach, face hidden by a swirl of lank hair and a hefty beard, it remains hard not to wish to swop these drab woodcutters for the bright red razzmatazz of The White Stripes.

What they lacked in glamour they made up for in technical ability. Not for Auerbach the constant swopping of ready-tuned guitars. He kept his single instrument close all night, wrenching from it a huge, fuzzy, feedback-drenched sound worthy of three men. The riffs were slightly crisper on new songs such as Strange Times and I Got Mine, but this was still the blues at their roughest and rowdiest.

Some of Danger Mouse’s more inventive touches would have been welcomed in a set that blurred into a relentless guitar assault, and the band still lack the one killer tune to take them beyond decent-sized cult status.

On the other hand, without hits and polish, they keep their unimpeachable authenticity, and that seems to be the key to success on their own terms.