Its been yonks since we posted anything so here are a bunch of reviews from some of our recent gigs..

DailyMusicGuide
Up the steep incline on Park Street at The Cooler, there an apt reward for the initial delays. New Cross noiseniks Chik Budo managed to draw the early afternoon crowd closer to the stage with every beat. Channelling the sonic rage and avant-garde inventiveness of peers like Acoustic Ladyland, it was a shame they were constrained by their strict half-hour stage slot, with such awesome talent pouring forth in every direction. The passion, imagination and ferocity of the individual instrumentalists made it difficult to focus on the group as whole, their live performance much more compelling than their admittedly great recorded output.
DailyMusicGuide

Drowned in Sound
Chik Budo remind me of the bit in The Lost Boys where the greased up, topless muscle guy wails on the sax whilst everyone's having a sexy eighties party. If that's not enough to convince you why they should be your favourite band, then I'm not sure what is! Since the last time I saw them the band seem to have lost a saxophonist, leaving one loan reedsman to wail into the night. They've lost none of their party spirit however and wrench out a sound akin to The Gossip's rhythm section raised on a steady diet of Talking Heads' Remain In Light. Whilst the "such and such mixed with so and so" review shtick is getting old; I wasted my best comparison in the first line - what more do you want from me?! Throughout their set the band does not stop smiling or moving. Neither does this appreciative, and by now very sweaty, Dot To Dot crowd.
www.drownedinsound.com

Zip Lock Blog
This year was the third year I’ve been to the Dot To Dot music festival, and it was probably the best so far and not just because of the excellent weather. After last year’s dip when the festival was spread too thin over two days, this featival had plenty of good bands, forcing me to make some hard decisions about what to watch (which by the end of the day often came down to whichever band was nearest due to tired feet).

So what was good? The first band we saw was Chik Budo, who mixed keyboards, bass and sax to astonishingly good effect. Almost completely instrumental, their songs were really catchy, and the coming on in the tricky first slot for their venue didn’t stop the crowd really getting into them. My only criticism would be the sax overpowering everything else in the live performance, the versions on the myspace page sound a lot more balanced.
Zip Lock Blog

Suit Yourself Magazine
My day started at The Cooler with beat-driven, synth and sax-fest, Chik Budo, who played a literally banging set of irresistibly danceable tunes. Their sound swung from Hot Chip-esque, to massive metallic riffs or super ska, while at other times jazz prevailed. Whichever turn they took, one thing remained; the audience enthusiasm! In fact, as the band finished up, I noted an irrepressible smile smothered across the guitarists’ face. He couldn’t believe his luck, and neither could we.
Suit Yourself Magazine

Tiscali Festival Guide
Back in the main room and the final live act for the evening Chik Budo hit the main stage with another captive audience. It might be tricks of the mind, but the later the Ball seems to go on, the weirder the music seems to get. With two sax players and a synth, the five-piece draw out danceable free jazz with key stabs and a throbbing base. They move around on the stage with such energy, they must’ve had a cat nap earlier in the day because the rest of the sleepless hoards are nodding along like zombies.