Sydney band Rastawookie have already built a solid reputation as a spellbinding live force, recently playing a string of high profile spots on festivals such as The Great Escape, the Feel Good Festival and Peats Ridge. On ‘Perfectly Ordinary’ they manage to relay the essence of their dynamic live performance onto record. The title, ‘Perfectly Ordinary’, encapsulates the album’s central theme – that the most ordinary things in life, such as friends and music, are the most perfect, due to the simple joys they provide.

Rastawookie could be broadly defined as a roots/reggae group, but they incorporate an expansive range of other styles and textures. On this album they effortlessly explore elements of funk, dub, ska, swing, bossa nova, hip hop and drum and bass. This diversity of sounds never comes across as a forced attempt at eclecticism, but rather shows the amazing ability that these six musicians have to incorporate all their influences in a seamless fashion. On ‘Hutchy Dub’, for example, the shift in tempo from the stoned sway of dub to the breakneck, hyperactive beats of drum and bass is amazing.

‘Open Sesame’ kick starts the album with a blast of electric guitar that immediately brings to mind the sound of Bob Marley and The Wailers circa Catch a Fire. It quickly simmers down into a mellow reggae skank, the bass bubbles underneath and lead singer Janny provides the soothing, summertime vocals. Janny proves as adept at switching styles as her band mates-singing and rapping effortlessly over this diverse musical terrain often with a mix of English and Spanish lyrics.

The production by Tony Buchen perfectly captures the earthy, richly textured feel of quality roots music. Antiquated production techniques have been used to create an authentic old school texture, reminiscent of classic reggae albums from the 60s and 70s. The use of reverb and echo on the dub influenced tracks especially brings to mind the spacious, stoner friendly production style of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.

Whilst their fusion of genres isn’t exactly revolutionary, Rastawookie provide an alluring mix of world and western music, traditional and modern. A feel-good debut from a very promising group.