It’s hard to pin down Mauskovic Dance Band. The mischievous Amsterdam four piece, Nicola, Donnie, Marnix and Mano Mauskovic, may playfully take the same surname to preserve some mystique but their collective purpose is deadly serious. For several years now they’ve been honing a very individual, skeletal electro- funk soundtrack from their Garage Noord workspace, taking the world of rhythms and rewiring it through their own beat generator.
First releasing 7”singles through Bongo Joe then onto London’s Soundway with 2018’s ‘Down in the Basement’ EP and a self-titled album in 2020, the Mauskovic sound has emerged as a fully charged source of dance floor energy. Connecting up furious afro-beats, cumbia shuffles and a no-wave death-disco clatter makes perfect sense with MDB at the controls.
Now comes news of the next step on the Dance Band’s journey with the return to the Bongo Joe family for the release of a new LP ‘Bukaroo Bank’ (due 28th October). Stepping out of their basement to dub dance creator Kasper Frenkel’s Electric Monkey studio has had an impact, squeezing the band even tighter together in search of their groove. The result promises to be closer to the head-spinning rush of their live shows, twelve cuts of fully charged MDB music taking global beat possibilities further then roughing up the mix with more post-punk grit.
First sample to hit the airwaves is the title track ‘Bukaroo Bank’, an agile, angular rush of art-punk, all spidery guitars, frisky drums, Two-tone chants and slippery bass-lines. Add in a kaleidoscopic sax break, synth-wobbles plus those conga bursts and you get a fresh connection with the On-U/Rip Rig and Panic continuum. They may be hard to pin down but Mauskovic Dance Band are always moving forward, you’ve just got to join in and keep up.
Pre- order your copy of the ‘Bukaroo Bank’ album from your local record shop or direct from: https://themauskovicdanceband.bandcamp.com/album/bukaroo-bank
