B2KDA: Rising (b2kda.com)

New Zealand's Batucada Sound Machine were rightly hailed -- that is, danced furiously to -- by audiences across the globe for their well oiled take on horn-driven upbeat party music with a South American vibe.

But that was then and this -- at least on this exciting and more musically diverse album from a phase two of the band -- is a beast of another bloodline.

With a change of membership and a rebranding to make the distinction between BSM and B2KDA, this album touches many bases, not the least a much more guitar rock sound in a couple of places which -- on the opener We Do It -- make a powerful statement of intent.

We Do It also comes with a braggadocio funky rap too, which means it lives up to its title.

Later Payback (where a more angry but stripped-down Supergroove comes to mind) and Rising have a similarly committed sound, but on the latter it is punched along by electronica and horns.

The brief I'm a Physicist is a brief, tweedly electronica amble off into the cosmos over simple beats.  

They also touch some familiar places in the New Zealand musical landscape between dub and soulful grooves (the lovely summershine love declarations on Tear My House Down) with consciousness messages of the kind we warm to ("I don't want to" Be That Man). On the five minute Watching the City Fall they make their Big Statement about modern life, a subject explored a little on then dub-influenced rapid skank of Same Old Thing (with a slippery guitar part).

They don't entirely abandon that South American/Latin influence but they hold it back until the tub-thumping and horn-y Por La Noche at the very end.

It reminds you of where they came from.

But where they're at now on the evidence of all that has preceded it so persuasive it hardly seemed necessary, and in the context comes off as less convincing.

B2KDA here more than rise from the former band. They start this new journey from quite a different station and arrive at a very interesting destination.

You sense this trip won't end there either. 

For B2KDA's Alex Ulrich answering Elsewhere questions go here.