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Tracklist
1. Thrice Crowned
2. Overlander
3. Night Raid
4. Lair of 1000 Serpents
5. Kudzu Vine
6. Sharky's Delight
7. Curse of the Ivory Fang
8. Behind the Black Curtain
9. Escape From Ptenoda City
10. The Strigoi
11. Mean Streets
More information: https://budosband.bandcamp.com/album/budos-vii
More info: AllMusic | Apple | Deezer | Juno | MusicBrainz | Qobuz | Tidal
AllMusic wrote: The Budos Band's VII marks the nonet's return to full-length recording after 2020's Burnt Offering and 2023's fine Frontier’s Edge EP. It's their debut long-player on Diamond West, the label created by Budos guitarist/producer Thomas Brenneck and baritone saxophonist Jared Tankel. VII extends the dark psychedelia approach of 2020's Burnt Offering, but it's more a vibe than an aesthetic. Instead, BB focuses on extending their stylistic reach with sophisticated horn charts -- played by Tankel, trumpeters Dave Guy and Andrew Greene, and trombonist Ray Mason -- framed by incendiary percussion from ace drummer Brian Profilio and newcomer percussionist Rich Terrana (ex- Frightnrs). It's texturally and ambitiously buoyed by the rhythm section that includes Brenneck, bassist Dan Foder, and organist Mike Deller. BB hadn't been in the studio together for two years when they convened in California to write and record. They composed and arranged these 11 songs in three days.
While the band regularly visits Afrobeat, dub, funk, soul, surf, Middle Eastern, Latin and Caribbean grooves, and rave-up rock, they've not combined them as intricately and dynamically as they do here. As a whole, it sounds like a carefully sequenced, utterly modern score to a gangster flick. The engine revs with klezmer horns, haunting organ, and driving, funky percussion on opener "Thrice Crowned." Single "Overlander" combines Black Sabbath-esque fat guitar, fuzz bass, and a spooky organ vamp framed by bright snare breaks and hand percussion under a klezmer-and-Stax-styled horn chart. During the turnaround, guitars, drums, and horns go at one another full force, creating an intense groove interspersed with trumpet and baritone sax solos. "Night Raid" showcases Brenneck's fuzzed-out psych guitar atop a roiling bassline, spooky organ solo, and of course the soaring staccato horns. "Lair of 1000 Serpents" brings clattering snare and hi-hat breaks to loosely frame the horns, which wed Eastern modal sounds from across North Africa. "Kudzu Vine" is more propulsive as a Latin-ized horn vamp joins modal jazz with folk strains from Spain and the Middle East. The incessant, interlocking percussion groove creates a deep, dark, funky backdrop with short solos by Tankel and Deller. "Curse of the Ivory Fang" is hard, unadulterated, Latin-ized funk with psychedelic synths, wah-wah guitars, squiggly synths, and squalling horns atop breakdowns, vamps, and turnarounds that will haunt summer dancefloors. The Latin psych groove also fuels "Behind the Black Curtain" in crossing salsa and cumbia horns with fingerpopping hard bop, burning congas, screaming guitars, and saxes. The breakbeat orgy in "Escape from Ptenoda City" sounds like a futurist incarnation of the J.B.s. "The Strigoi" is a moodier jam that employs psychedelic organ, dubwise horns, a double-timed snare, and a kickdrum beat that ushers in a host of great breakdowns. "Mean Streets" closes it down on the cinematic "car chase" tip, with bubbling congas and clapping snares dueling in the foreground atop fuzzed-out guitars, a throbbing yet crisp bassline, swirling organ, and devastating sax and brass. BB don't reinvent their sound on VII, they've refined, focused, and extended it into one that could only bear their own musical signature.
- Thom Jurek
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