LIVE: Budos Band at DTB tonight! (Sat. Aug 14th 7:30pm)
BUDOS BAND
[HORN-DRIVEN AFRO FUNK] After two well-received full-lengths and an EP, Staten Island’s Budos Band return with III in 2010. The group’s first two recordings walked a loose tightrope line between the modern jazzed-up Afro-beat sound of Antibalas and the soulful good-time funk groove of Sugarman 3. It’s also true that while they fit the Daptone label’s groove-centric aesthetic, III reveals a new direction, offering the view that they are also something other. This 11-song set, recorded in 48 hours, offers a darker, more spacious tinge. Elements of psychedelic, Far Eastern, and even Latin sounds have entered their mix, without giving up their dance party cachet. The opening “Rite of the Ancients,” “Black Venom,” “Unbroken, Unshaven,” and “Mark of the Unnamed” all feel like they could have been instrumental interludes in a ’70s blaxploitation flick, but are fully developed harmonic ideas instead of simple vamps. The horn chart on the latter track is a monster, with popping three-way dialogue between baritone saxophonist Jared Tankel, Farfisa organist Mike Deller, and all four percussionists. [Read more…] about LIVE: Budos Band at DTB tonight! (Sat. Aug 14th 7:30pm)
LIVE: Mimicking Birds @ Stynberg Gallery tonight! (Sat. Aug 14th 7pm)
Mimicking Birds
[SOFT PSYCH POP] I don’t envy the task of transforming Nate Lacy’s spiraling, naturalist and homemade acoustic pop songs into fully produced album form. So strange and singular are those songs (which he’s been recording on his own for the past four years as Mimicking Birds) that it’s almost a shame to take them out of their natural environment at all. Mimicking Birds’ self-titled debut retains Lacy’s distinct vision, from his squeaky finger-picking to his biologist’s take on humanity. In melding Lacy’s vision with their own, Brock and Jones focused largely on giving the recordings weight: “New Doomsdays” is powerfully oceanic, echoing and rolling as if a great tide is pushing and pulling on Lacy’s lungs. They also broke up Lacy’s tendency to play his listeners into a trance: “Cabin Fever” peppers in synthesized strings and abstract percussion.
Listen:[audio:http://booboorecords.com/images/music/Mimicking_Bird_New_Doomsdays.mp3|titles=New Doomsdays|artists=Mimicking Birds]
