SECURITY

Description

Product Description Building from the revolutionary blueprint of afrobeat, the dozen-strong members of Brooklyn's Antibalas weave Latin, jazz, funk, and horn-laden soul into a blend that's both polyrhythmic and political, independent and infectious. Produced by John McEntire (Stereolab, Tortoise, Sea and Cake, Tom Ze) who has upped the harmonic density in the band's sound, creating a rich tapestry of harmelodic color that owes as much to Mingus and Coltrane and Can as it does to Fela Kuti. .com A ricochet of crossed-horn riffs open Antibalas's third album, Security, and what's immediately marvelous is the production, the lack of polish and purity in the tones. There's a ratty edge on Jordan McLean and Eric Biondo's trumpets, and Aaron Johnson's trombone only fattens the frays. The album's produced, engineered, and mixed by John McEntire, who made his name playing cold-blooded percussion in Tortoise, and he brings this Brooklyn-born twelvetet to the Lagos of Fela Kuti by lessening the sonic distinction between Chris Vatalaro's bass drum, his snare, and his tom-toms. The rhythm's a viscous fluid, stirred by vintage, lo-fi keyboards, slinking guitar riffs, and Stuart Bogie's tenor sax, which bears more than a hint of the roughened "Texas tenor" sound of 60s' hard bop. Antibalas is decidedly like Fela in that theirs is agit-Afro Beat, musically stirring in its core groupthink elements (rather than in flashes of solo genius). Tune into "Filibuster X," an excoriating call-and-response send-up of Republican presidential politics, and you'll hear the echoes of Fela's telltale vocal constructions, the clatter of politicized funk at its best. --Andrew Bartlett