Born in a Brooklyn warehouse in 1997, 12-piece ensemble Antibalas is credited with re-introducing Afrobeat to a wider global audience. A Brooklyn-based band, they shaped their music around Fela Kuti’s style of modern African music, developed in the seventies by the legendary Nigerian musician and political maverick. Fela’s overwhelming influence is spread all over the first two full-length albums recorded by the band, but with the release of “Who Is This America?” Antibalas carved out their own signature sound. Released in 2004, the album brought more influences, different from the evident Afrobeat foundation. They started to incorporate elements of jazz, funk, dub, improvised music, and traditional drumming from Cuba and West Africa. With the addition of bright major chords, Afro-Latin rhythms, briefer track lengths, and more compelling lyrical fomentations from Duke Amayo, “Who Is This America?” brought back the attention of the critics, who almost discarded the group as pure copycats of Fela Kuti’s music. Once more, they were regarded as the forefronts of the renewed Afrobeat craze in America in the previous decade, proving that they lead the pack when it comes to the re-imagining and recreating of Fela's revolutionary musical style. Antibalas’ signature sound is there - the deep funk Afro-beat, full of big, fat horns, trance-like pumping bass, snaky guitars, and hypno-groove percussion. In addition to the orchestra, which numbers 14 pieces, the band adds another ten guests in various places throughout the record. As critic Jonathan Zwickel wrote, “like hip-hop and reggae, Afrobeat is one of the crucial forms of expression for the world's disenfranchised. As time passes and we get further from the initial heat of Fela's influence, bands like Antibalas play a greater role in keeping the flame lit. Who Is This America? is the group's most powerful fuel for the fire.”
Antibalas were formed in 1998 by Martín Perna as "Conjunto Antibalas." The group first performed on May 26, 1998, at St. Nicks Pub in Harlem at a poetry night organized by renowned visual artist Xaviera Simmons. Over the next few years, the band's presence grew; by summer 2000 Antibalas had released their first album “Liberation Afrobeat Vol. 1” and had toured twice in England while continuing to play at venues throughout New York City. By early 2002, the band had released their second album, “Talkatif” and continued to tour the United States and Europe. After “Who Is This America?,” which is their third album, Antibalas released two more full-length albums and many EP’s and singles.
