Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2013

Organic Groove, the promoter that helped shape Japan’s international music scene by introducing jam bands here in the 00s, is back. For its first event in some time, Organic Groove hosts Brooklyn’s Antibalas Orchestra, a group that carries the Afrobeat experiment launched by Nigeria’s Fela Kuti into the new millennium.

Founded in 1999 in Harlem, Antibalas (Spanish for “bulletproof”) is an 11-piece powerhouse that stays true to the brass band Afrobeat pioneered by Kuti in the 70s, while incorporating elements of Latin and dub. They were provided the ultimate accolade by being commissioned to write and perform music for the 2008 Broadway musical Fela, based on the life of the pioneering musician and political firebrand.

Hosting Antibalas’s first Japan show eight years ago, Organic Groove, launched by US returnee Taichi Komatsubara, familiarized Japanese audiences with the jam band likes of Deep Banana Blackout. But Organic Groove actually looked far beyond jam bands, bringing to Japan improvisational acts like Medeski, Martin & Wood, Hermeto Pascoal, and forward-thinking electronica artists such as DJ Spooky.

At Unit, Antibalas will be joined by Japanese neo-folk outfit Albatrus, fronted by vocalist and outspoken peace activist Yohei Miyake, who possesses a tuneful, reedy tenor vaguely like that of Cat Stevens.

Organic Groove hits Unit in Daikanyama December 15.