Esthero Slows Pace in Laid-Back Show

Trip-jazz? Amalgamation-hop? Electro-groove? Esthero synthesizes a category-ducking mix of many genres, including jazz, soul, trip-hop and reggae. When the band played songs from its recently released debut album, “Breath From Another,” at a sold-out show at the Roxy on Tuesday, it simply screamed of urban sophistication.

With such a seductive blend, why did the Toronto group produce the desire to doze? After all, the band’s singer and namesake, Esthero, issued forth narcotic, sweet vocals, and the band’s leader and guitarist, Doc, presented a groove-laden sound that felt musically flawless. Also, the group didn’t rely on studio-concocted loops, choosing wisely to haul up six other living, breathing musicians onstage.

Nevertheless, Esthero didn’t hint at the power of its musical touchstones Bjork and Morcheeba, although DJ/percussionist Shug did provide relief the two times that he bounded to the front of the stage for much-needed breaks of energetic rapping.

One of Esthero’s standout lyrics is, “Music was the lamb that made a lion out of me,” but you really couldn’t tell. Though she is a pixieish woman with flaming red hair, her performance of songs like the sultry, Latin-flavored “That Girl” was so sedate that the lines from “Country Livin’ (The World I Know)” seemed to better describe her act: “The world I know is a world much too slow.” In the end, the set was slow and safe--too safe to provide the extra push that Esthero’s luxurious music and ethereal lyrics clearly demand.