Short Reviews [Oust Louba - 2007 - "Decoction"]

The young French outfit OUST LOUBA comprises Felix Nolent on keyboards, trumpet, contrabass and vocals, Francois Beaury on saxophone and keyboards, Benoit Beaury on bass and Sebastien Daude on drums. The 39-minute "Decoction", which is their debut CD, is made up of nine tracks, all of which show their makers' (sometimes really unwarrantable) audacity in combining various styles, some of those seeming to be as 'compatible' with each other as fire and water. While the music is largely instrumental and is undoubtedly original in its own way, it has little to do with Progressive - above all just because most of its components belong to modern-day mainstream, though the shortness of the tunes should be taken into consideration as well. I understand it is hard to imagine a cross of Post Rock, Trip Hop, DJ's tricks (yeah: programmed rhythms, loops, scratches etc) and Jazz-Fusion (!), but as the proverb says, there is no harm in trying, especially since otherwise you would need to try the CD itself.

VM: June 27, 2007