#antibalas

[garadinervi]

Dos Santos, logos / ¿cómo?, (Limited Edition 7" Vinyl, Digital album), IARCS119, International Anthem, 2018

Dos Santos Alex Chavez: vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion Jaime Garza: electric bass Nathan Karagianis: guitars, vocals Peter "Maestro" Vale: congas, percussion Daniel Villarreal-Carrillo: drums, percussion

Feat. the Antibalas horn section Martín Perna: baritone saxophone Morgan Price: tenor saxophone Jordan McLean: trumpet Eric Biondo: trumpet

Original Music and Words performed by Dos Santos Horn Arrangements by Nick Mazzarella

Cover Art & Design: Craig Hansen Photography: Andrea Falcone

[nofatclips-home]

I.C.E. by Antibalas

[dustedmagazine]

Amayo — Lion Awakes (Self-Release)

Amayo was the only actual Nigerian in the Brooklyn afrobeat juggernaut Antibalas, reigning from 1999 to 2021 in colored face paint and elaborate headdress over pulsing Fela-obsessed grooves. A devotee of martial arts, he is a practitioner of Kung Fu’s Chinese Lion Dance, as well as Nigerian Edo traditional arts. Lion Awakes celebrates all these elements of the Amayo creative package, unfurling frantic blasts of brassy syncopation around intricate narratives of supernatural kicking, punching might. This is not a long album, but it has epic scope that’s well beyond the limitations of the usual five-song EP.

It begins with Amayo’s tribute to his grandmother, a black magic shaman woman in touch with supernatural energies. The song, “Black Magic Sister” stutters on skittering, bunching syncopation, threading wheedling keyboards and off-beat cowbells through a sinuous call and response. Amayo holds court, letting the spirit move him as he sings, swaying with the back-slanted rhythms of reggae-adjacent afrobeat as he rides the current.

“Lion Awakes” runs steamier and funkier, guitars insinuated into a smolder of percussion, the beat rambling on, purposeful but not too fast. It’s too hot to run. The lion is the main character in three out of five of these tracks, strutting militantly in the snare-shot “Happy Lion,” triumphing over all comers in the final “Ascending Lion.” The Lion, I should mention, is Amayo, and of course he’s the hero of his own story.

Amayo brings the kung-fu-fighting samurai motif out into the foreground in “Shadowless,” a track whose bristling horns and burbling organ smoke but never erupt in flames. The menace is implied, never thrust forward, as Amayo whispers “Shadowless” against a slithery cadence of funk.

Amayo surrounds himself with an able collection of afro funk musicians from Africa and Los Angeles and Brooklyn. The backing is tight, in the sense of everything landing where it should, but also loose, with a give in the joints that makes you want to move. You probably didn’t know you needed an Afro funk concept album about a mighty kung fu warrior, but you did. You can thank me later.

Jennifer Kelly

[radiophd]

antibalas -- hypocrite

[singeratlarge]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the late, great Kevin Ayers, Angela Bassett, Eric Bibb, me, John Bosco, Vanessa Carlton, Robert Culp, Bill Evans, Tim Farriss, Snowy Fleet (Easybeats), Flood, Ernie “Raunchy” Freeman, Eydie Gormé, Bob Hardy (Franz Ferdinand), Barry Hay (Golden Earring), Al Hibbler, Timothy Hutton, Eddie Kirkland, T.E. Lawrence, Donovan Leitch Jr., Ketty Lester, Gary Loizzio (American Breed), Madonna, Julie Newmar, Fess Parker, The Ramones 1974 debut at CBGBs, Rina Sawayama, Billy Joe Shaver, Bill “Sputnik” Spooner (The Tubes), Glenn Strange, Emily Strayer, James JT Taylor (Kool & The Gang), Russ Titleman, Taika Waititi, Eric Weissburg, The 1969 Woodstock Music Festival (Day 2), Wilhelm Wundt, and my pal, bandmate, comic wit, and unbelievably extraordinary singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Eric Biondo a.k.a. Beyondo. His astonishing resume includes music-making with Antibalas, Charlie Hunter, Angelique Kidjo, The Monkees, TV on the Radio, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, & other luminaries. Eric & I have done a few music projects, but we put in many years together playing in the Davy Jones/Monkees orbit. Davy was a huge fan of Eric’s music and repeatedly said he wanted to cover Eric’s songs. On a cosmic jukebox Beyondo’s music plays next to Hall & Oates, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, and Brian Wilson. For surreal but hooky pop, dance music, and jazz-inflected soundscapes for theatre of the mind, check out Eric’s bandcamp https://beyondo.bandcamp.com ...Meanwhile, HB EB and thank you for your funnybone gifts to the world.

#beyondo #ericbiondo #birthday #antibalas #charliehunter #angeliquekidjo #monkees#davyjones #tvontheradio #johnnyjblair #music #resume #thankyou #projects

[ojosdebrujapr]

✧ No te tengo a ti, me tengo a mí.

[nofatclips]

Amenawon by Antibalas, live on KEXP

[burlveneer-music]

Antibalas - Fu Chronicles - hell yes, the new album is out!

With a globetrotting 20-year career renowned for being a voice for the people across four decades of political and societal upheaval from the late ‘90s to today, Antibalas celebrates its 20th Anniversary with a stark return to their Williamsburg roots on its latest Daptone Records studio album, Fu Chronicles. Pre-gentrified Williamsburg serves as the backdrop for Fu Chronicles–voyaging back to the early days of when Antibalas and Daptone Records spawned out of lead singer Duke Amayo’s kung fu dojo. A senior master of the Jow Ga Kung FuSchool of martial arts, Duke Amayo along with Antibalas founder/baritone saxophonist Martín Perna guide listeners through an epic journey of where kung fu ingeniously intersects with Afrobeat on Fu Chronicles.