When Paul Adamah stopped smoke, he dreamed all the more intensely. And at some point you got a visit from Dr. Gusto. This dreamed therapist now not only gives the debut album of his project Boko Yout the name, but also the structure: Every song from Gusto is a therapy session in which Adamah, grew up in Sweden as the son of a Togolese father and a Mosambican mother, trained at an art college, analyzes his dreams in order to finally the psychogram between feelings and sexual identities, To outline cultures and expectations torn personality.
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But one thing is guaranteed not to go: stoner music
At some point, however, as autobiographical this is, because Gusto dipped so deeply into the human psyche that the many questions that Adamah asks, and the few he can answer are universal. How it sounds: as chaotic as a wounded soul is. Adamah himself described the Boko-Yout sound as the Afro grunge.
This is not wrong, but also not really apt, because when the beats and guitars run amok, the African roots disappear, which then appear completely unexpectedly, while short contemplative tripphop moments of galloping postpunk madness are rolled down, hip-hop sequences alternate with Gothic-Dream pop or experimental sound installations. But one thing is guaranteed not to do one thing: stoner music.
This review first appeared in the MusikExpress 09/2025.