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Two years after releasing the Frontiers Edge EP, The Budos Band are returning with their first full-length since 2020s Long in the Tooth. Titled simply VII, the new album sees them doing what they do best: laying down hypnotic, horn-spiked grooves that menace and mesmerize in equal measure.Produced by Budos guitarist Tom Brenneck with Simon Guzmn engineering, VII features 11 tightly constructed new tracks that draw on the groups wide range of influences, sounding like only The Budos can. Its music for getting down, for nighttime drives, and for alternate headspaces a beguiling mix of mystery and rhythm that stands with the formidable work theyve released in their two decades of recording.We didnt really go in there with a concept on VII, drummer Brian Profilio says. It was the first time in two years that we were together in a studio so we were like, Lets see what happens. We ended up writing 11 songs in three days.These 11 songs run the gamut, featuring sweaty, hard-hitting funk workouts like Escape from Ptenoda City alongside explorations of Turkish psych in Night Raid and Zambian rock in the riff-heavy Overlander. It continues the stylistic evolution the group began with 2014s striking, shake-things-up album Burnt Offering.Its almost like weve refined the sound we were going for on Burnt Offering, Brenneck says of VII. Its not quite as raw.Thats the genreless aspect of the band, saxophonist Jared Tankel agrees. Were not Afrobeat, were not Ethiopian jazz. Were not world music. Were not really funk, were not soul. Were not rock. Were just an amalgam of all these different sounds, so things pop out in all directions when you listen.As usual, these songs are chopped up and splashed with the heavy horns so integral to The Budos sound, weaving melodies through the muscular rhythms and even deepening the groove when it calls for it. Horns can occupy a melodic space, even though its not a voice, Tankel says. They can also occupy an articulated and rhythmic space. Playing with that duality is cool.VII was recorded in California and serves as The Budos Bands first full-length album on Diamond West, the independent label founded in 2023 by Tankel and Brenneck. Its also the groups first album to include instrumental contributions from percussionist Rich Tarrana, who previously played in the Frightnrs. All told, it succeeds in opening up some new sonic spaces while staying tethered to the intuitive, unique musicality that made them such a sensation from the jump.Sometimes its like were speaking some esoteric language that no one else understands except us, and were doing it wrong, Brenneck says. Its like how the Stones tried to play the blues and they missed the mark and they made something new everything The Budos tries to do, we do wrong, and it sounds like The Budos.
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