The family that plays together stays together, as the old saying goes, and the Mauskovic Dance Band play like they’re in each other’s pockets 24/7. If you’re encountering Nicola Mauskovic, Donnie Mauskovic, Marnix Mauskovic and Mano Mauskovic for the first time, well, to be clear they’re not a literal family. On the flipside, this Amsterdam-based group can claim a collectively cosmopolitan background that informs their suave, agile post-punk funk workouts. Bukaroo Bank, their second album for Swiss label Bongo Joe, finds the Mauskovic Dance Band reinventing both their approach and their sound, while maintaining the rhythm-forward euphoria heard on their debut album and surrounding singles.

Bukaroo Bank is one of those albums that sounds brashly live, like you’re in the room while the jams are being kicked out, but in fact uses the studio very shrewdly. Recorded in 2020, during one of the Netherlands’ intermittent lockdown bouts, for this one the MDB members wanted to step up from their previous homebase, Garage Noord – an ad hoc Amsterdam space for recording, practise and after-hours parties. They chose Electric Monkey, operated by engineer Kasper Frenkel.