To quote myself, seeing the more than two-decades-old NYC mainstay Antibalas play “is akin to feeling like you’ve been invited to a lively tropical party that has one foot in the sun-soaked 1970s, where Fela Kuti & Africa 70 reigned with brass-splashed percussive-fueled Afrobeat, and another in the present, fusing in jazz, dub, and funk with tight prowess and no small bit of playfulness. Nigerian-British vocalist/conga player Duke Amayo leads the charge with exotic bilingual vocals, conga thumping and battering, and martial-arts-inspired dance moves while the ensemble—which, in a live setting, ranges from 12 to 15 people—supports with guitars that fluctuate from wet wah-wah textures to grittier riffs, thick throbbing bass lines, chugging and slinking rhythms, and washes of bright, urgent brass from a many-piece section led by bari sax player and band founder Martin Perna.” New Antibalas album FU Chronicles, their first in eight years, marries kung fu with Afrobeat in a way that is intriguing and intoxicating. by Leilani Polk