Track Listing

1. Who Is This America Dem Speak of Today?
2. Pay Back Africa
3. Indictment
4. Big Man
5. Obanla'e
6. Elephant
7. Sister

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23419 in Music
• Released on: 2004-06-08
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
As a hard-hitting Afro-beat orchestra that embellishes vintage Fela-style grooves with touches of gritty funk and fiery salsa, Antibalas quickly won over a sizable local audience in New York City with its sweaty live shows and relentlessly danceable rhythms. But while the band's past two efforts sounded fresh amidst a landscape of retro-rock cool, the discs never measured up to the band's galvanizing live show: Liberation Afrobeat Vol. 1 was a piecemeal effort of live and studio material; Talkatif was woefully short. Now on Who Is This America, the band constructs a great-sounding 70-minute studio effort where the seven songs are skillfully woven together, not because they all sound like one long Afro-beat song, but because there is imaginative arrangements and tasty musicianship. Here multiple percussion players are the launch pad and the funky horn charts ignite liftoff whether it's the tightly wound "Indictment" or the slowly building "Sister." Undoubtedly the band's finest work to date. --Tad Hendrickson

Customer Reviews

Killer tracks to dance and think to
This disc is a killer from beginning to end. Epic, unstoppable deep-groove funk with pulsating percussion, big fat horns and sharp, perceptive social commentary in the lyrics. Get your mind and feet in motion to this masterpiece, the best of its kind in this century.

long live antibalas
let's face it, antibalas can do no wrong. all the way from "liberation..." and "talkatif" to "who is this america?" every album a must have. this album brings political awareness to the forefront along with tight percussion, pulsating horns and thought-provoking lyrics.
but i have to admit, to get the full antibalas experience, i highly recommend going to one of their shows where you can't help but dance until the very end. antibalas deserves respect, not just as musicians, but also as caring citizens of this world who strive to bring issues to the ears of many who are deaf and make this world a more aware and peaceful place to live. with everything going on in the world today, we need more bands like antibalas.

If only more U.S. pop bands asked the same question....
Listening to this cd after watching TV for several hours was like a mind cleanser. Great rhythms and beats, very complex, and very funky. The band is absolutely enormous, but tight like a drum. The artwork on the cover and inside is beautiful and subtle. The lyrics are poetic and simple. I do find myself wishing the songs were a bit shorter at times, but other times I appreciate the endurance quality of their lengths. My two year old loves this stuff.