Rating: NNN
Well-produced and -recorded and tastefully played, Cato features Melissa Meretsky, her cool voice restrained enough to keep the album from sounding too much like Dee-Lite, as can happen with vocalized funk and/or jam bands. The BC arts collective named after a Japanese condiment incorporate folk, psych and dub styles, and often sink into some really cool riffs and grooves, but sometimes they come in with that cock-rock or weird Depeche Mode sound. Still, there’s substantial talent here. The Cato EP is a mostly successful effort to negotiate a style of music that could go horribly, cheesily wrong.
The Wassabi Collective launch their disc tonight (Thursday, June 23) at the El Mo.
