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The Budos Band
Two years after releasing the Frontier’s Edge EP, The Budos Band are returning with their first full-length since 2020’s Long in the Tooth. Titled simply VII, the new album sees them doing what they do best: laying down hypnotic, horn-spiked grooves that menace and mesmerize in equal measure.
Produced by Budos guitarist Tom Brenneck with Simon Guzmán engineering, VII features 11 tightly constructed new tracks that draw on the group’s wide range of influences, sounding like only The Budos can. It’s music for getting down, for nighttime drives, and for alternate headspaces — a beguiling mix of mystery and rhythm that stands with the formidable work they’ve released in their two decades of recording.
“We didn’t really go in there with a concept on VII,” drummer Brian Profilio says. “It was the first time in two years that we were together in a studio so we were like, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ We ended up writing 11 songs in three days.”
These 11 songs run the gamut, featuring sweaty, hard-hitting funk workouts like “Escape from Ptenoda City” alongside explorations of Turkish psych in “Night Raid” and Zambian rock in the riff-heavy “Overlander.” It continues the stylistic evolution the group began with 2014’s striking, shake-things-up album Burnt Offering.