Boogie Low’s self-titled debut album is a very engaging affair. It is a hard album to define. My initial impulse was to label this as a straight up reggae album, but upon further listen it is so much more. The Syracuse area band manage to use its reggae roots as a platform to dive off into a pool of melodic diversions.
“Better Way” uses sing along melody to create a sense of inspirational utopia. The band does this well. The vocals come across soulful and earnest which provides the lyrical theme much credibility. The aptly titled “Tommy’s Song”, has bassist Tommy Dennis hammering a groove that wouldn’t sound out of place on either a Dave Matthews or Toots and the Maytalls album. Brandon Au’s thunderous percussion slams “McKenna” into the dark mystic underside of reggae to mood altering effect.It is the guitar interplay between Matthew West and Loudon Smith that will demand repeated listens. Their playing can only be described as gorgeous. On “Eldin”, they weave in and out like melodic shaman using tension and release to stir ambiance. On best track, “Back to Nothing”, the duo sound like everyone from Carlos Santana to jazz-reggae great Ernest Ranglin. Their playing offers beauty through restraint. There are no gratuitous riffs or overplaying. Each guitar part serves a purpose and adds color and texture.
This is a very impressive release indeed. Boogie Low do not let themselves get pigeonholed just as reggae. Instead they use the classification as something to build on. Soil to plant upon. The soulful vocals and melodic purism will have listeners yearning for more for quite some time.
