Abstract Index Playlist - July 18/07

Staten Island's finest, the Budos Band, continue looking east, beyond Queens, beyond the Hamptons, all the way to I-thiopia. The Eastern Sound, to borrow a term from Augustus Pablo, is so entrenched throughout their second album that encapsulating their sound as Afrobeat styled funk no longer does them justice. It's never been entirely about Afrobeat for these guys anyways - the sound of the Ethiopiques series looms even larger on this album - but the main pleasure of this album is hearing them take on a range of unlikely styles and put them to the supertight, analog- uber-alles Daptone approach.

The record starts with a sassy cover of Bollywood gem "Na Na Na Yeh Kya Karne Lage Ho" (recently reissued on the Bombay Connection compilation) here entitled "Chicago Falcon". Track two, "Budos Rising", was featured on this week's show. If the Zombies retired to East Africa, they'd have made music like this. The breakdowns and rhythm arrangements are still Africa-meets-America, but the frigid organ sound makes this tune. My current favourite from this disc is "His Girl", which transforms one of the sunniest Motown confections of all time into an tense groove which conjures up an imaginary backstory with its subtle change of title. Almost all the original hooks to "My Girl" remain, but are barely recognizable on first listen.

This is an exciting disc - don't let the retro sound fool you into thinking that this is retro music.

black man's cry - the gay flamingoes (crippled dick hot wax)
grinfa louca - paulo bagunca e a tropa maldita (discos mariposa)
budos rising - budos band (daptone)
descarga en minor - el combo de pepe (vampisoul)
fight to hang on - rise ashen rmx by kasm (balanced)
yieterra - raquy and the cavemen (raquy)
dust - raquy and the cavemen (raquy)
amilly - kenge kenge (riverboat)
voch me dzaleeg - alan shavarsh bardezbanian (arc)
august 5 2006 - claudia quintet (cuneiform)
the heart of the matter pt. 2 - jeremy strachan (standard form)
love - junior delahaye (wackies)
dub to jah - dub unlimited (senrab)
hibakusha song - zion train (universal egg)
mr. freeze - king fatty (mr. bongo)
judgement time - chester miller (CRW)
struggle - bunny wailer (shanachie)