| Legend has it that the distinctive, slow
bouncing beat of reggae was born one Jamican summer when it was too hot to dance to the
faster rhythms of ska. Pousto, a local party band with a new album out called Straight
from a Dream, know how to speed reggae back up with energizing innoculations of rock
guitar and funk.
A similar combination of reggae, funk and ska is attempted more effectively by another
local band, Entrinzik, with tighter focus and sharper polish. But Pousto (pronounced
Poo-sto) combine various forms of party music with enough verve to make the album
listenable apart from the competition.
On their song "Be Bop and Rock," the band declares its intent to mix up the
genres, beginning with a reference to the original form of reggae (the subgenre
rocksteady, which is a Jamaican appropriation of certain New Orleans jazz and ska sounds).
"Here we go again rocksteady and we're keeping the time," lead singer Brent
Segally sings, in a typical example of the band's relatively uninspired wordsmithing.
"Be Bop and Rock: It's a combination that I cannot stop." It's hard to hear much
Be Bop in the song, but ska and rock are married with appealing intensity. The spaztic
"Siempre" performs the same marriage with even more ferocity.
Segally, who plays guitar, trumpet, keyboards and percussion, goes back and forth between
a faux Jamaican accent (on, for example, the Marley homage "Deputy Song") and a
raspy, echo-enlarged rock stylization ("Been Around"). The affectation grates,
but it's clear he has talent. On the minor-key "Chachi's Theme," Segally flips
from lounge lizard excesses to rapping and back to the faux accent again.
In the end, it's the group's ambition that wins the day. The appropriately Cuban-flavored
"Havana Affair" supplies the album's most alluring melody. "Deputy
Song" opens and closes with a rap-style "skit" featuring a few words of
wacked out wisdom from a metaphysically-minded pothead of some sort. The steady rush of
different ideas keeps the album fresh.
Straight from a Dream gives the impression that the band is probably at its best
live, with an audience of young intoxicates, under an open sky on a night not too hot to
dance.
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