Planet S Magazine
Oral Fixation
“People have a hard time staying in their seats at an Oral Fuentes
Band concert. When I first saw the band, their set started out slow
and mellow. Then, slowly the band started to pick up the tempo:
The bass got a little quicker and the horns a little brassier. The audience was no longer content to just sit and sway in their chairs.
Suddenly, the soft, warm lights at McNally Robinson’s Prairie Ink café blurred into a sunset and the large plastic shrub in the middle of the room slowly grew into a palm tree. The sounds of the Caribbean surrounded the audience. It was about this point that people started to get up from their tables to go dance in a small area in front of the band…[Oral’s] enthusiasm for music and life in general is contagious.”
By Jeremy Warren
The Oral Fuentes Reggae Band provided some entertaining Belizean
Reggae calypso music on Saturday night, getting the audiences out of
their seats and onto the dance floor.
"It was amazing, beyond our wildest dreams," said Jimmy Schmidt, with
the Oral Fuentes Reggae Band. "It always makes you feel good when you
get the crowd into it. We would definitely come back."
"I've been to a lot of their shows, and they played one of the best
shows that I've ever seen," added Jay Adolf, who was at the festival
selling hair wraps and handmade jewelry. "They filled the dance floor,
and cleared tables."
"There was an overwhelming response to the music on Saturday night.
The dance floor was just packed," Gowan said.
"We had a record crowd. It was a very successful evening," noted
Gowan. "Swift Current really loves the reggae bands." Jessi Gowan
Swift Current Press
Oral Fuentes and his reggae band occupy a lonely vista in Saskatoon's cold northern rock scene.
After several years together, Fuentes and his band have created their first full-length album to capture this unique reggae sound -- an anomaly in a city thriving with blues and rock groups.
The album showcases Fuentes' "funky reggae," a term coined when a magazine writer from the U.S. tried to categorize his music but couldn't. The name stuck, and Fuentes now uses it to describe his sound, a blend of reggae, Caribbean and Latin beats and Brukdown, a style brought from Fuentes' native Belize.
Those cultural roots spread through his music. It's impossible to deny the catchy, sunny feeling of a sound that dares you to try not to dance. This energy and excitement is part of what Fuentes has tried to capture with the album.
Jeanette Stewart
The StarPhoenix
Hailing
from Belize, Oral’s all-originals flavor of reggae is a bit different,
here presented in a slower, “One Love” speed (though live he also plays
ska speed). Right from the opening “Sum Lovin’” the listener can feel
the ease and peace...
"The Jersey Beat" 2011
The Jersey Beat