Tel Aviv's Boom Pam bring their love of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern styles to a variety of multicultural covers. A further twist to their approach is that a tuba forms an integral part of their sound. Toss in their enthusiasm for surf guitar and spaghetti westerns, and the result is a unique, festive meeting between East and West.
The covers, a mix of instrumental and vocal songs, come from a number of sources, including Israeli film soundtracks, Balkan dances, a traditional Turkish song, and others. While I'm not personally familiar with most of the originals, the group adds so much of their infectious personality to them that it's hard to determine the cultures from which they come. In Boom Pam's hands, Dick Dale's pleasant head rush "The Wedge" and "Ay Carmela," from the Israeli film Comrade, could have been written by the same person.
I already mentioned the tuba, which memorably fills the role of a bass, but the other players are equally talented. The success of "Ani Rotse Lazuz" relies on its heavy beat while banjo and guitar have some great interplay in "Shayeret Harohvim." The guitar even gets surprisingly abrasive for a large portion of "Krai Dunvasko." The album finishes somewhat anticlimactically with a long stretch of instrumentals before the vocal version of "Aye, Carmela" finishes it on a high note. Apart from the slow section, the band plays with tremendous energy, lending credence to their reputation as a fantastic live band.
Puerto Rican Nights is hardly a typical covers album. Not only are the songs themselves far from usual fare, but the band's exuberant interpretations makes for an original and unexpectedly enjoyable experience.
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