Raw as funk! Seeing The Budos Band live at work means capitulation. Think: instrumental afro soul or the perfect explosive cocktail of jazz, deep funk, afrobeat and soul. Think: Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, but then instrumental. Raw as funk .

This 10-member instrumental band from New York (for the geographic nit-pickers amongst you: Staten Island) likes to keep it simple for the rest. Their albums are invariably released on the famous Daptone Records (see: Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Lee Fields,…) and recorded in the famous Daptone’s House of Soul Studios. Their oeuvre covers 3 albums so far: ‘The Budos Band’, The Budos Band II’ and – you guessed it – ‘The Budos Band III’.

They cite influences like Cairo Jazz Band, J.C. Davis, Mulatu Astatke as well as Black Sabbath. So its no surprise then that they once recorded a track entitled ‘Black Venom’, a reference to Black Sabbath and Venom. But shall we just stick to raw as funk from now on?