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CD Review
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Penguin Eggs, CD Review >>
French band Lo’Jo is an acquired taste perhaps. Here, performing live, they demonstrate their cross-cultural musical ability, opening with a distinct East African sound, before surging into a reggae-influenced number on Burned the Fuse. Elsewhere, you’ll hear smatterings of rap, West African funk, and Euro-trance with a jazz edge. The octet always sounds a bit rough around the edges, no doubt in part because of the gravel voice of singer Dennis Pean. Backing vocalists Nadia and Yamina Nid El Mourid are unpleasantly shrill. Generally, the band meshes well, but rarely seems to gel into a thrilling unit of the kind that moves the listener beyond his or her surroundings. Of course, every rule has an exception and Five Ochre Cowrie Shells offers a pleasingly transcendent electric sound. Even with an ample horn section, and a busy rhythm section, Lo'Jo still sounds a bit hollow. To get the full flavour, it’s probably one of those things where you have to be there.
– Charles Mandel 04/22/05
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