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Antibalas: The Afrobeat Goes On
Every now and then, one comes across music touted as "not for the casual
listener." To me, the degree of casualness depends on the music itself and
the spirit that led to its creation. There is a lot of music around nowadays
that, if the unsparing blandness of it is any indication, ought to have the words
"for casual listening only" indelibly stamped on it. With that in mind, let
me say that it took about 10 seconds to come to the realization that the music
of Brooklyn-based Afrobeat band Antibalas was to be a listening experience of
a decidedly non-casual variety...
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Linton Kwesi Johnson
The Dream Poet's Society
Linton Kwesi Johnson, commonly known as LKJ, is the intellectual conscience
of reggae music. Since the early 1970s he has forged a melding of true
poetry with roots reggae rhythms, holding to a political perspective honed
by long involvement with movements for better living conditions and rights
for black people in England, where he has lived since he was 11 years old.
As a university student, writer, editor and musician, his voice and words
have been unmistakable -- unique within reggae, really. LKJ invented dub --
or reggae-poetry, and still does it best; he is thus both the premiere adn
the premier exemplar of this singular genre of music...
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Ziggy Marley
"Everyone knows who my father is, who my mother is.... But still, where I
come from doesn't define who I am today, 'cause my father was a rebel and I'm
a rebel, you know. What rebels do is change things and go against the grain
and do things different. The musical revolution is in me. There's a
revolution within myself, where I just want to rebel and do my own thing,
which might go against what people expect of me."
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