The Budos Band

I'm not sure I even know what a Budos is or where it comes from, but I do know that The Budos Band are clearly a band stuck in a time warp and in no particular hurry to get back to wherever they came from. Their oddly enough titled third album, The Budos Band IIIis a trip back to the days of swinging bachelor pads, Northern Soul all-nighters and Alfie roaming the streets. If you remember any or all of those than this is an album that you'll need in your life like food and shelter.

The Budos Band III is the sound of the swinging sixties set to seductively dark music that sounds as if Booker T. and the MG's never aged a day and miraculously found their way back to Stax. This is awesome instrumental soul that conveys so much through the use of jazz, soul, rock, and enough horns to make owners of brass futures very, very happy. This is amazing stuff that's emotional, visual, textural and really just about as imaginative as you could ever hope. Through the use of your imagination, the songs on The Budos Band III are scenes to a movie that's gone global with a Latin, bluesy, jazzy, soulful feel. This is a James Bond movie with out James Bond, this is a thriller without the actors and it's the kind of record that your mind will find inspiring, creative, and truly original.

The Budos Band do one heck of a job here in letting it all hang out and with so much sax blazing and the soulful funk running wild throughoutThe Budos Band III you get the sense that the recording of this record either included a lot of hot, sweaty nights involving lots of cigars and booze or lots of rooftop police chases through the band's native Staten Island. If I were writing or producing any sort of cop show that was gritty, grimy, but still had a underbelly of goodness, The Budos Band would be my musical directors. These guys can paint a picture that doesn't require one word or one image, but instead create images that are all to clear using aural textures and a pallette of many instruments. The Budos Band III is awesome stuff and reminds me of William Holden and Columbo; gritty cops in trench coats that didn't take no for an answer. It's awesome stuff that's tough as nails but still has a beauty to it that shows it has loads of heart. Imaginative brilliance to say the least.