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.
“It’s almost like we’ve refined the sound we were going for on Burnt Offering,” Brenneck says of VII. “It’s not quite as raw.”
“That’s the genreless aspect of the band,” saxophonist Jared Tankel agrees. “We’re not Afrobeat, we’re not Ethiopian jazz. We’re not world music. We’re not really funk, we’re not soul. We’re not rock. We’re just an amalgam of all these different sounds, so things pop out in all directions when you listen.”
As usual, these songs are chopped up and splashed with the heavy horns so integral to The Budos sound, weaving melodies through the muscular rhythms and even deepening the groove when it calls for it.
“Horns can occupy a melodic space, even though it’s not a voice,” Tankel says. “They can also occupy an articulated and rhythmic space. Playing with that duality is cool.”
VII was recorded in California and serves as The Budos Band’s first full-length album on Diamond West, the independent label founded in 2023 by Tankel and Brenneck. It’s also the group’s first album to include instrumental contributions from percussionist Rich Tarrana, who previously played in the Frightnrs. All told, it succeeds in opening up some new sonic spaces while staying tethered to the intuitive, unique musicality that made them such a sensation from the jump.
“Sometimes it’s like we’re speaking some esoteric language that no one else understands except us, and we’re doing it wrong,” Brenneck says. “It’s like how the Stones tried to play the blues and they missed the mark and they made something new — everything The Budos tries to do, we do wrong, and it sounds like The Budos.”
Say She She
Say She She, the soulful female-led trio, stand rock solid on their disco-delic duty with their boundary-breaking sophomore album Silver (released September 29 on Colemine/Karma Chief Records). The strong voices of Piya Malik (El Michels Affair, Chicano Batman), Sabrina Mileo Cunningham and Nya Gazelle Brown front the band. Following the NYC siren song, the trio was pulled from their respective cities — Piya from London, Nya from DC, and Sabrina from NYC — to Manhattan’s downtown dance floors, through the Lower East Side floorboards, and up to the rooftops of Harlem, where their friendship was formed on one momentous, kismet evening.
Silver was written and recorded live to tape at Killion Sound studio in North Hollywood in early 2023, and produced by Sergio Rios (Orgone, Neal Francis, Alicia Keys). While these analog recording techniques help root Say She She’s sound in a bedrock of tonal warmth that only tape can achieve, it is also their process of cutting the track in the moment and capturing the magic of communal creativity that have critics reeling.
Musical inspirations include Rotary Connection, Asha Puthli, Liquid Liquid, Grace Jones, and Tom Tom Club.
Described as “a glorious overload of joyful elation and spiritual elevation” (MOJO) and “infused with the wonky post-disco spirit of early 80s NYC” (The Guardian), the band consistently tops the radio charts of tastemaker stations KCRW and KEXP, as well as BBC’s Radio 6 Music. Sold out shows from London to Los Angeles and televised appearances on CBS Saturday and Later…with Jools Holland are a testament to a rapidly growing fan base. Say She She has toured with the likes of Thee Sacred Souls, and have already played iconic festivals like Glastonbury, Central Park Summerstage, and more.
Ultimately, Silver oozes with quirk and adventure and embraces the multifaceted nature of what it means to be a modern femme. Say She She fully embrace their role as beauticians, actively reminding people of the inherent beauty in the world. They skillfully employ double entendres and humor to encourage open dialogue and fearlessly address important matters that demand attention.
