Budos Band

Nothing wrong with a dance band: A flagship act in the modern soul stable of Daptone Records, Staten Island's Budos Band maintain the crisp professionalism of their trade. That doesn't mean they're uptight. Rather, they're a totally functional Afro-soul outfit that fits cleanly into Daptone's OCD about legit-ness without suffering any residual nostalgia damage. No qualifiers needed: These suckers can play so you can dance.

Though its roots are in studios and dance halls from Addis Ababa to Birmingham, the Budos Band's music arrived in its members ears by natural causes: college radio, specifically drummer Brian Profilio's stint at the University of Staten Island station. While the Budos Band were within a free ferry ride of Manhattan, they preferred to stick mostly to their side of the river, the result being the closest thing one might find to an indigenous sound within New York's five boroughs.

In the late 1990s, they crew came together to practice in a former Pentecostal church on Staten Island. The collective shared the space with a series of heavy metal bands while finding inspiration on Buda Musique's Ethiopiques compilations as well as the pre-Daptone Desco label. It took a series of gigs by the Fela-loving Brooklynites in Antibalas to get the Band across the river with any frequency.

Since 2005, Budos Band has issued a number of LPs and 7-inches on Daptone, recording at the label's vintage gear-equipped House of Soul in Brooklyn. Last year's work included Budos Band III and the "Kakal" single. While there is little chance they might supplant hometown faves in the Wu-Tang Clan in the world's musical association with Staten Island, they have no problem with that. After all, last year, Wu-Tang affiliated producer Tekst dropped The Wudos Band, an eight-track mash-up Budos grooves and Wu-Tang verses. —Jesse Jarnow