By Jonathan Gang
’s music is getting harder to categorize with each passing year. The Asheville quintetap mostly instrumental brew of traditional West African music, fuzzed-out blues, and jam-band improvisation has put them in a league of their own since they hit the scene in 2005. Toubab Krewe is cannibalizing genres of global folk music at an ever-increasing rate. The result is a dizzying mix of styles that leaps from country to country and continent to continent — oftentimes in the space of one song.
The band’s continuing evolution was on full display last night at Boulder’s , as they tore into a set that was more texturally varied than many of their past appearances. During the evening they touched on genres as diverse as country, reggae, Afro-Cuban and surf-rock. In a big change of pace for the group, they also featured several vocal numbers, including two tunes sung in Spanish by bassist David Pransky.
When Toubab takes the stage one is struck by Justin Perkins’ unfamiliar instruments. He mainly plays the Kora, a common West African harp with a body of a large gourd. Its plucky, bright tone creates an interesting contrast with the fuzzed out, bluesy sound of guitarist Drew Heller as they trade licks over the thunderous din of the rhythm section.
And what a rhythm section it is. Drummer Terrence Houston and percussionist Luke Quaranta tore into their instruments with reckless abandon, making even the evening’s slower and more reserved numbers pulse with a syncopated energy. This gave the band’s furthest flung genre excursions a grounding in their West African roots. Houston, a relative newcomer to the group, was a revelation, deftly injecting head-spinningly complex polyrhythms into whatever style the band could throw at him.
When a band reaches as far as Toubab Krewe, itap bound to miss the mark once or twice, and last nightap show had its dull moments. At times their incessant groove seemed to lock into a directionless holding pattern, especially during some of their slower tunes. However, on the whole the set maintained a powerful groove, and it was always at least interesting to see how they incorporated each new stylistic detour into their sound. Toubab Krewe’s approach is to make each style their own, unlike other genre hoppers who seem like lost tourists.
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Jonathan Gang is a new contributor to Reverb.
