Antibalas - Self Titled

It was a sunny 21 degrees here in Australia in the middle of winter. The planet is officially cooked. I made the most of it by opening all the windows and blasting some tunes to power up before surviving the dreaded task of buying a new fridge. 

First up was another Daptone one cos if you've been following you know I'm on a roll of late.

Today it's Antibalas - Spanish for bulletproof or anti-bullet.

I actually had never heard of this band until a few months ago when I was going through the Daptone back catalogue. That same week I watched the Fela Kuti documentary - Finding Fela where I learned they were the backing band for the musical (sounds weird but the film was good). In the documentary, Questlove comments Antibalas "is one of the few American bands I fear." He's referring to their skill and fury. Afterwards I was thought right, I need to listen. 

The 2004 album " Who is this America" is killer (still relevant album title) but hasn't been repressed since its release. However, this 2012 album is also very good. Brooklyn based outfit doing mainly Afro Beat with vocals by Nigerian/American singer Abraham Amayo. It kicks off with the opening track Dirty Money and it kind of sets the political tone from there. The saxophones on this album make it sound like they are playing in the room with you. Apparently, the singer has since left and some of the later albums have mixed reviews. 

I can't believe this band had been going since 1999 and I completely snoozed on it. 

#nowplaying #nowspinning #vinyl #records #Antibalas #Daptone