Busty and the Bass met dur­ing their first week as stu­dents in the jazz pro­gramme at Mon­tre­al’s McGill Uni­ver­si­ty back in 2011. I first heard the octet when they released their 2020 album called Eddie, accom­pa­nied by the dis­tinc­tive­ly warm, raspy vocals of Macy Gray. And now there’s a new release – an ‘inter­galac­tic’ EP, The ET Suite via Arts & Crafts, that makes its debut on March 17. 

The ET Suite is a short but fas­ci­nat­ing and fun meld of soul­ful elec­tro funk and I’ve played it repeat­ed­ly for the past week, each play reveals some­thing new and con­sol­i­dates the intri­ca­cy of this con­cept EP. Split across five tracks, The ET Suite is a space odyssey that takes you through inter­pre­ta­tions of the orig­i­nal song. Every­thing from the verse to the instru­men­ta­tion takes on new forms employ­ing funk-laden rhythm on lead sin­gle Suite Pt II (fea­tur­ing Ver­dine White of Earth, Wind & Fire)’, del­i­cate African soul on Suite Pt III (feat. Pierre Kwen­ders) and free jazz on Suite Pt IV.

The band meld a vin­tage funk feel with mod­ern elec­tro ele­ments; retro meets space age – and they’re hav­ing a par­ty. With their falset­to vocals, the Lon­don-based col­lec­tive Jun­gle come to mind, espe­cial­ly on Part 1. ET Part III: Jupiter brings in the brass sec­tion plus some down tem­po vocals, per­cus­sive drum­ming and sexy bass, it’s just a shame that it’s so short at only 1.09. This num­ber shifts seam­less­ly into the beau­ti­ful­ly soul­ful Part IV. 

There’s even a game com­ing out soon where play­ers can guide a UFO around space to find band mem­bers. Once all are found, they’ll play the EP to you on the moon. You can play it here. 

WEBSITE Busty and the Bass