The Budos Band: The Budos Band II [DAPTONE]

Why you'll love it

Recorded and mixed at Daptone's own House of Soul studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It's horn-heavy instrumental Afro-soul with a cinematic, spy-film edge, from a band that has called Daptone home for its whole career.

About the album

The Budos Band grew out of a jam session at The Five Spot in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, hosted by Martín Perna of Antibalas, and the players who stuck around turned out to have a sound nobody else did. AllMusic called them a doom rock Afro-soul big band with a '70s touch, and one press sheet said they sounded as if Quentin Tarantino was the music supervisor for a Bond film. Both are pretty fair.

Their second album leans into all of it. Bosco Mann and TNT produced, and the band recorded at Daptone's House of Soul, with baritone sax player Jared Tankel, bassist Daniel Foder and guitarist Thomas Brenneck writing most of the tunes. "Chicago Falcon" kicks off with blaring trumpets and rolling congas, "Budos Rising" broods over a heavy, swaying groove, "Mas O Menos" and "Adeniji" bring the Ethiopian and West African flavours forward, and "King Cobra" and "Scorpion" prowl like the soundtrack to a heist. "Deep in the Sand" closes on a slow, smoky burn.

Members went on to back other Daptone artists, including Charles Bradley on "Changes," and the band kept stretching toward psychedelia and hard rock on later records. Put it on at a dinner party and at least one guest will start checking under the table for a briefcase of diamonds.

Also at Kops: more The Budos Band on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Daptone (cat# DAP-011), the 2007 album.