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  KG Omulo: Ayah Ye!: Moving Train
  
  A synergy of funk, rock, reggae and traditional African sounds from this inventive, young singer/songwriter.
• 
  Various Artists: Chief Boima Presents: Lone Stars - Hipco and Gbema
  
  
• 
  Mamadou Diabaté: Courage
  
  Mamadou Diabate, the kora master, takes a fresh look at Mali instrumental music with his new CD Courage.
• 
  Various Artists: The Kankobela of the Batonga, Vol. 2
  
  Mysterious melodies from a disappearing thumb piano tradition of Southern Africa.
• 
  Kiran Ahluwalia: Aam Zameen: Common Ground
  
  Indo-Canadian Songwriter Combines Folk Poetry with African Rock, Jazz and more
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  M.anifest: Immigrant Chronicles: Coming to America
  
  
• 
  Sona Jobarteh: FASIYA
  
  West African female kora virtuoso releases an album full of grace, warmth, and passion.
• 
  Sia Tolno: My Life
  
  Kissi singer releases a strong second album full of pop-infused star power over songs of strife and triumph.
• 
  Zieti: Zemelewa
  
  Eclectic blend of Afro-infused pop out of Cote d'Ivoire.
• 
  Guelewar: Halleli N Dakarou
  
  Re-released and remastered live CD from this 80's experimental Senegambian outfit.
• 
  Tinariwen: Tassili
  
  Touareg desert legends return with an offering that is meandering, sorrowful and proud.
• 
  Los Rakas: Chancletas y Camisetas Bordada
  
  Oakland/Panamanian rappers -call it "Panabay"-- return with good results.
• 
  Cheikh Lo: Jamm
  
  The unique Senegalese singer and multi-instrumentalist crafts an eclectically excellent record.
• 
  David Rudder: Random Notes
  
  Calypsonian David Rudder returns with an album that covers various styles with excellent results.

All Reviews >>

Antibalas--Spanish for "bullet-proof"--is a 15-piece afrobeat band out of New York. Their music captures the sound and spirit of the genre's founder and preeminent composer, the late Fela Kuti of Nigeria. Call it mimicry if you like, but it's no mean feat to summon the bluster, energy and drive of Fela's incomparable band, and these guys nail it, composing within the quirky conventions Fela laid out, and inserting elements of the New York milieu without distorting the signature afrobeat character. Afrobeat leaves lots of room for jazzy free blowing, as in Martin C-Perna's growling baritone sax break on "Dirt and Blood," and Jordon McLean's rowdy but lyrical trumpet work on "Uprising" and "N.E.S.T.A. (Never Ever Submit to Authority)." As these titles suggest, Fela's famed politics of resistance are here too, but rarely expressed as Fela-esque, half-spoken diatribes. Just two of these eight tracks have vocals at all, and on sly, funky opener "Si, Se Puede," they're in Spanish. This isn't a problem. Any attempt to equal Fela's personal presence is likely to fall flat. But in all the great afrobeat recordings, the band and the arrangements really made the sale, and Antibalas has that part down: fat, wall-of-brass horn passages, grounded by that ever-present baritone, and layered, polyrhythmic grooves that raise 70s funk to a spiritual plane. The drums are busier than Fela's, and the guitarist knows how to rock out. Otherwise, this could be Lagos, circa 1980.
Contributed by Banning Eyre
Originally published in: Boston Phoenix