I debated whether it was fair to mention the following observance about Boozoo Bajou's Dust My Broom, but in the end it was the truth, so here it is: when I've had said album playing in the shop I work at, if any one type of people reacted enthusiastically to it, it was the customers who appeared to be stoned out of their minds. And though this occurrence is not presented as any kind of quality judgment on what kind of record Boozoo Bajou has made, it certainly is presented as an aid as to help the reader decide whether this record is for them or not.
Boozoo Bajou's prevailing sound is swampy blues pulled by sleepy hip-hop beats. The German duo, known for their earlier work featuring dug up American backwater vocalists, do the same on a majority of the tracks of Dust My Broom. This time around some of the guest appearances feature the talking blues of Tony Joe White ("Keep Going"), the Pops Staples tenor of Willie Hutch and the Shawn Mullins-sermonizing of Ben Weaver ("Way Down"). When there's not blues there's a few genre mash-ups explored on such tracks as "Killer," featuring jazz piano, the dancehall MCing of Top Cat and a beat set somewhere between bossa nova and broken beat.
Though props can be given to anyone who attempts to break musical ground by mixing genres, in the end has Boozoo Bajou made a good record? The answer in this reviewer's opinion is that a decent one has been made at least. With maybe the exception of "Moanin'" featuring Wayne Martin, none of the tracks challenge the ears or moves the soul to much emotion in the way that duo's earlier collaboration with Martin on 2002's "Camioux" did. Of course not all records need to challenge or move and are valuable for their non-intrusion into the cerebral part the mind.
So, if anything, Dust My Broom's place is in the laid back hours in the presence of drinks or other such mind soothing chemicals, or simply against the intoxication of solitude.
