The Massive got an email yesterday from Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, those energetic afrobeat collectivists in Bushwick, Brooklyn, about the release next month of the band's new album and its upcoming tour dates.

That Antibalas is also touring to support the new disc is no surprise, because that's what bands do. But this group always seems to be touring anyway. If James Brown is the hardest working man in show business, then Antibalas is the hardest working afrobeat band in the Western world.

One week they're off to Switzerland, the next they're doing a week of shows up and down California and the Pacific Northwest, and then they're back in New York for a one-off show before heading back to Europe for some festival. This kind of peformance schedule hasn't stopped frontman Martin Perna and the orchestra from recording a new record.

They're first record in two years is called "Who is This America?" and will drop June 8 on the Ropadope Records label rather than Ninja Tune, which released the band's first two efforts.

The sprawling 16-member group (sometimes with a greater number of members performing, sometimes fewer) is planning a few gigs in New York and Washington D.C. to celebrate the arrival of the new disc. Two non-consecutive shows are planned for the Bowery Ballroom in New York on June 3 and 5. The Washington, D.C. show will be at the Black Cat on June 4.

Antibalas also will appear live on New York radio station WBAI 99.5FM on Wednesday May 26, 7:00 - 9:00pm EST (New York Time). If you're not in the NYC area, you can still tune to the radio show via Internet at the WBAI Web site (www.wbai.org).

Antibalas, which means "bulletproof" in Spanish, first came to attention in 2001 with the release of "Liberation Afro Beat Vol. 1," their wicked take on Nigerian afrobeat that, while a blatant immitation of the genre's legendary leader, Fela Kuti, was nevertheless an album of hypnotizing rhythms and blazing horns.

They followed up a year later with "Talkatif," which was a better, more original and varied disc than its predecessor. The Fela-afrobeat was less obviously derivative, while the massive horns and rhythms remained as white-hot as ever.

Since then, Antibalas has spawned a following and a number of afrobeat immitators. And the group has almost singelhandedly brought the legacy of Fela Kuti back into the contemporary music scene from New York to London.

The group's summer North American tour leaps across the Atlantic to play the massive Glastonbury Festival in the U.K. June 26, followed by a week-long European leg that takes Antibalas to a half-dozen festivals and cities, including Amsterdam and Paris, through the first week of July.

Viva la liberation afrobeat! Power to the peeps!

--Micropundit

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