The Lacking Details

The Budos Band have a distinctive sound that blends afrobeat, funk, and a herd of thundering elephants that could also be one of the most aggressive brass sections around.

I can’t tell if having a name that sounds like something SNL cooked up for a sketch about a pair of Austrian DJs is good or bad for this pair of Austrian DJs. These soulful electronic compositions unearthed from the last century are no joke, though.

Visiting exotic destinations has become an armchair pastime lately, and if you need a soundtrack for your virtual excursions to places far and strange, this futuristic mix of global beats and funk grooves is surely your ticket.

Some people will slice and dice their way to a hostile disjointed soundscape filled with vague unease, but Wagon Christ’s approach yields something sunnier and wholesome, like fruit salad.

This is the third release in a series of benefit cassette (and digital) releases, all featuring covers of music that is sometimes brazenly obscure, and this one is my favorite of the lot.

The word “party” is right there in the name, as is the word “nude”, and it might be a coincidence, but this is rowdy, horny, let-it-all-hang-out rock and roll music.

Among the lockdown detritus of 2020 is this gem showing the introspective jazzy musings of one of the most important dub and post-punk bassists of the last 40 years.

Tricky’s approach to music, with subdued tempos and striking contrasts (like pitting his industrial grit voice against Marta’s honeyed vocals) has not dulled over the years, glinting in the streetlight like an out of place scalpel.

The name would lead you to expect old-school riff-heavy fuzzed-out psychedelia with a strong southeast Asian accent, and it would lead you true.

Callahan’s deep gruff voice meanders through acoustic non-linear arrangements like a limo driver telling a story, completely oblivious to their own cowboy poetry.