LA / LBC / OC
Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]
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I get excited about an album like Budos Band II for a couple of reasons that I’ll address in order of importance. First reason is it’s a great record, hands down the funkiest thing you will hear this year. This is the second album from Budos Band on the wonderful Daptone Records label, and it’s by far their strongest release. The songs burn from start to finish with searing horn lines, nimble bass picking, torrential organ and an extremely tight percussion section. With around a dozen players, there is a never a feeling of excess (at least in the negative connotation of the word), all parts fit together like so many puzzle pieces and the result is a sound combining everything good about Jazz, Funk and Soul music over the last four decades.
The influences are a wide range, but extremely prevalent is the sound of Afro-Soul-Jazz, most notably like that of Mulatu Astatke (featured on the Ethiopiques Vol. 4 – if you saw the film Broken Flowers, his music was used throughout). Heavily relying on the use of the minor keys and a liberal inclusion of the organ, this style of playing tends to evoke feelings of middle eastern influence and rightly so as its roots are in Ethiopia (eastern edge of Africa). “Chicago Falcon,” the opening track draws heavily on this particular sound, boasting especially great organ and sax parts.
There are also some distinct American Jazz and Funk elements to be found here, including a version of Tom Scott’s 1973 “King Cobra”, in which the heavy guitar element in the original is played down, but the horn lines are bolstered in brass blasts and this Budos version actually succeeds in creating a more memorable melody in my opinion. Track four is an arrangement of “My Girl” with the unmistakable bass line and a funky horn melody that I think I may enjoy more than the vocals of the original (the track listing has it called “Mas O Menos” though track seven is titled “His Girl,” not sure but seems like maybe a little production error there). Then there are songs like “Adeniji” and “Origin of Man” that sound as if David Axelrod himself could have produced/arranged them.
It’s pretty obvious after a couple listens that there are numerous other influences embraced by Budos Band here, a couple others that stuck out to me are John Coltrane (earlier recordings, specifically Dakar) as well as Buddy Miles (Express), and this brings me to my second reason for excitement about Budos Band II…
It may be idealism or possibly a part of my self-admitted music snobbery, but I want everyone who loves music to be familiar with and enjoy the decades of great music that doesn’t get played on Oldies, Top 40 or Jack FM radio stations (or other major music formats). That is why whenever a modern artist embraces and channels more obscure music of days-gone-by (and does it well!), I get just as hopeful (if not more) that they succeed, as I do that their influences will be dug up by new listeners to discover for the first time. Another recent example in Amy Winehouse comes to mind. While media obsession and her image are clearly a major element in her popularity, more importantly the music is good, and people should go to the lengths to find out why, and who the past artists are who paved the road for her to make an album like Back to Black. ** As an aside, if you are a fan of Mrs. Winehouse, you should check out Sharon Jones, who also has a couple albums out on Daptone Records, good stuff, and who’s backing band the Dap-Kings back Winehouse as well.
So I’ll get off my soapbox now, but just as I highly recommend picking up Budos Band II, I strongly urge you to seek out the music of its influences.
MP3: The Budos Band – Chicago Falcon