Afropop Worldwide

Now, we hate to add another genre to our already lengthy list as much as the next music website, but every once in a while, a sound rolls across our speakers that calls out for it. Jano, a young ten-piece from Ethiopia, is precisely such a group. Fusing that nation's traditional rolling grooves and horn-driven marches with the precise drum and guitar lockstep of metal and alternative rock's open field distortion, they have crafted a unique sound that not only ably jumps between genres and styles, but combines them into a single satisfying whole. While not always the heaviest of the heavy, the group's ability to pivot around pentatonic riffs and complex time changes (not to mention the guitarists distorted and compressed tone) clearly marks the significant influence of heavy metal on the band. But, like earlier generations of Ethiopian musicians who performed similar operations on rock and jazz, these influences are transmuted through a distinctive rhythmic and melodic profile, and then let loose on the waiting world. Check out a tune from Jano's 2012 album "Ertale" and then catch them TONIGHT at 9 at Ginny's Supper Club in Harlem. http://youtu.be/97-tSL8irmI