Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra brings the 70's horn-driven sound of
Nigerian musician and political rebel Fela Kuti home to Brooklyn, USA.
Their CD "Liberation Afro Beat Vol. 1" features driving horns, heavy
on the bottom with baritone sax out front over a big multilayered
rhythm section. This is wake-up-and-shake-it music.
Antibalas is also a self-described political "movement". I'm not sure
how that's supposed to work — if I subscribe to their politics will
they let me sit in on their next gig? Be that as it may, like Ozomatli
at the opposite corner of the country, they haven't let the
egalitarianism of their politics stand in the way of making some
excellent music. Essentially an all-instrumental album, LABV1's few
spoken-word elements don't really express Antibalas' message all that
well — the intro to "World War IV" is an abbreviated laundry list of
oppression by "war criminal Bill Clinton" and others, which means we
must be up to World War VI or so by now. But the message isn't in the
words, it's in the music.
When was the last time you heard a political trombone solo? You'll
hear it from these guys.
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