The Budos Band's Soul Music Is Instrumental To Your Collection

The twelve-member, Staten Island-based Budos Band churns out soul music for Daptone Records using eleven instruments, chops worthy of James Brown's backing band, and lots of Staten Island soul.

Their second album, Budos Band II, an intensely listenable collection of tightly orchestrated songs in the "funk, afro-beatand soul music" traditions, warrants at least a listen. If your ears are anything like mine, you'll soon find yourself playing the entire album on a regular basis.

Recorded live at Daptone's House of Soul in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the album was apparently meant to encapsulate the spirit of a relentless and deadly desert insect:

"Like the deadly scorpion of the album's cover, The Budos Band's secondrelease, The Budos Band II, creeps stealthily over the hot desert sand. It is with unmistakable purpose that each beat of the music drives forth, onefootstep of many to carry the Scorpion toward it's meaning. With his tailarched high in readiness, he maneuvers patiently under the scorching desertsun, and chooses his prey. He strikes without warning and without remorse.
The venom of his sting, true to its reason; his victim, ever-intoxicated.

I don't have any other records like this one, but I love it. If you slept on the Budos Band II when it came out last year, as I did, get thee to the Daptone Store (or at least MySpace).