100 Bands in 100 Days Presented by Verity Credit Union — Day 49: Budapest West
Music fans of the Pacific Northwest, hello and welcome back to our third annual year-end daily countdown, 100 Bands in 100 Days, where every day until December 31st, we’re showcasing a new band or artist you have to know about, presented by Verity Credit Union. Follow the #100Bands100Days hashtag on Twitter to stay on top of all the bands featured and make sure to follow Verity on Twitter as well. Some days the featured act could be an established and locally-adored northwest-based musician that perhaps you haven’t been turned onto yet, and other times they could be a band with a small following that just hasn’t had their deserved time in the sun yet. Either way, we’re fairly confident you can come away from this daily segment with plenty of new favorites. Today’s musical offering is a band with a unique sound called Budapest West from Gig Harbor.
As we roll through the 100 bands or solo artists that we are doing for this segment, we are bound to stumble across some interesting ones. Today’s outfit Budapest West fits that quite nicely. I’ve long been a fan of eastern influenced music and this band pulls it off without a hitch. From the laid back eastern-psych grooves to faster paced snake charming offerings, this band covers it all.
Since the release of their first critically acclaimed album Letters from Afar, Budapest West have delighted audiences around the Pacific Northwest and beyond with their unique “electro-world-groove” sound. Budapest West have performed at many of Washington’s largest festivals, including the Coupeville Arts & Crafts Festival, Spokane Pig Out, Choochokam Music & Arts Festival, Apple Blossom Festival, just to name a few. Their sound has been heard on live stages from Alaska to Hollywood and across the Midwest and Great Lakes region. In addition to traditional music and arts venues, Budapest West regularly performs at craft breweries, wineries, weddings and fine restaurants.
Their sound fuses the multi-textural and multi-style playing of guitarist Rob Rigoni with the trance-like and hypnotic synth/bass/percussion lines of keyboardist Santia. Merging old fashioned live performance techniques with modern looping, advanced synthesis, and triggered sounds, Budapest West achieve a lush, melodic, sound that is sure to take the listener on a “sonic adventure around the world”.
In addition to their compelling live show, Budapest West music has been heard on National Public Radio, and their song “Tranquility in E Minor” from the 2010 album reached #1 on the Ourstage.com “all instrumental” station. In 2012, Santia penned the trance-rock anthem “Moon Goddess” especially for Tacoma’s 12/22/12 Winter Solstice Event and the recorded version was debuted as the clock struck midnight, much to the delight of the Solstice revelers. With the 2014 release of “Journey of Imagination”, Budapest West carries on their tradition of engaging and entertaining world-rock music.
If you are looking for something quite a bit different than most other northwest musical acts, we’d recommend giving Budapest West a listen.
(You can check out Budapest West on Facebook and you can listen to them at Soundcloud and/or stream their music below. Their music is also available for purchase at CD Baby. )
Submissions for 100 Bands in 100 Days are still open to any Pacific Northwest band interested in submission. If you would like to have your band submitted for a chance to be featured in this segment, consult this link for more information on how you can do so.
