Even though The Budos Band has been around for nearly a decade they have yet to take off and realized the fullness of their potential. The Staten Island nonet, along with many other staples of the Daptone label, have always been a competent instrumental funk outfit. The problem is that they’ve also been very easy to pigeonhole as nothing more and nothing less than being just that. Do they have an ensemble cast? Check. How about esoteric album art? Check. Afro-beat and world music influences? Check and double check. Burnt Offering is the band's fourth album and it is destined to be a game changer.
All it takes is one look at the album
cover, a painting of cloaked and bearded wizard overseeing a smoking
cauldron, and you should know that Burnt Offering is not your
standard funk album. If anything that old school heavy metal imagery
is the perfect indication of what this album has to offer. Through an
impossible quirk of musical alchemy, Budos Band have turned their
attention to the impenetrable realm of stoner rock. By incorporating
some harder to tame elements The Budos Band has effectively
reinvented itself. These include but are not limited to the occult
heaviness of 70s heavy metal, the unchained wildness of free jazz,
and the visceral crush of space rock.
Their last album Budos Band III had subtly hinted at this direction (including a cover of ‘Day Tripper’ that was so off-the-wall it was nearly unrecognisable) but nothing could have prepared us for what we have in Burnt Offering. Languid, narcotic grooves have usurped all sense of glamour and wackiness that has become synonymous with 21st century funk music. Day has turned into night. Opening track ‘Into the Fog’ sounds like the theme song to the best Blaxploitation sword-and-sandals epic that was never put to celluloid. This is the sound of a funk band jettisoning all the rules and finding a new set that better suits their temperament.
Part of this sonic reinvention has to do with an increased emphasis that band has put on guitars - an essential compnent if you want to dip your toe into the metal pond. At the core of songs like 'Aphasia' and the blistering title track lies a strong electric guitar presence which gives them much of their character. It would be like Tony Iommi jamming with Sly and the Family Stone circa 1975 – a strange fit on paper, but something that would be awesome beyond words in practice. The all-important horn section is still present and accounted for but I doubt the humble six-string hasn’t played this pivotal a role in a funk record since Funkadelic unleashed Maggot Brain upon an unsuspecting world over 40 years ago. Burnt Offering is – to trot out an old cliché – not your parents' funk record. This is daring music from an outfit who are more than capable to blowing the genre wide open. The real question is, where do they go from here?
Rating: B
For fans of: Maggot Brain, stoner grooves, guitars in your funk
Recommended tracks: Burnt Offering, Into the Fog
