Magnanimous Collector: Kudos for the Budos Band

“Is this the new Amy Winehouse album?” a houseguest recently sneered, noting the Budos Band LP spinning on my turntable.

Never mind the fact that the Budos Band sounds absolutely nothing like Amy Winehouse. The Afro-funk and soul-jazz-powered instrumental outfit features nary a vocal, female or otherwise. Just a supersized 12-piece band using a focused onslaught of guitars, bass, brass, congas, bongos, a flute, even a cowbell. Still, the mere fact that several members of the band -- including trumpeter Dave Guy and guitarist Thomas Brenneck, not to mention the album’s redoubtable producer, Bosco Mann -- had the nerve to act as the troubled pop star’s backup band on “Back to Black” is enough to earn irrational scorn from the world’s legion of Winehouse-haters.

I understand. I don’t want to hear “Rehab” ever again -- or at least not for a solid decade or so. But that won’t stop me from singing the praises of the Budos Band, one of the most exciting and downright groovy acts to hit wax in quite a while. Released by Brooklyn-based Daptone Records, which is almost single-handedly reviving old-school soul with such stellar acts as Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and the Sugarman 3, this is the Budos Band’s second album since 2005. The sophomore outing is smooth, driving and robust, taking the funky instrumental aesthetic of the first album and pumping it up to near-mythic proportions. The band’s sound conjures up a world of spectral spaces and dangerous natural wonders, reflected by the evocative album cover art that hearkens back to the grand old gravy-smothered days of '70s soul and funk. Switch on your swag lamp, sit back with a Hennessy on ice and let yourself be enveloped in a warm, rich world of soulful sound that may make you just a little bit wistful for the 20^th century.

-- Jason Gelt

Photo: Daptone Records

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