Afropop Worldwide

These days, it seems like every hamlet in America has it's own local Afrobeat band, mashing up the Fela Kuti legacy with some sort of local spin--or not. In Brooklyn, it's been hard to look beyond the now-legendary Antibalas, the core of which served as the stage band for the Broadway production of Fela! But these days, Brooklyn feet are moving to a new groove from Zongo Junction. Founded in 2009 by California-born drummer Charles Ferguson after a year in Ghana, Zongo Junction brings youthful, urban American sensibilities to the brassy Afrobeat sound. The group's second release, The Van That Got Away, is now out as a digital release, with a vinyl 7-inch of release of the title track. The instrumental track sizzles with energy. It builds around a tasty weave of clean electric guitar work--strummy, tuneful and irresistibly intertwined with the band's fine rhythm section. There's a veneer of electronic music subtly worked into the mix.  When the brass hits, you feel it in your gut. The midsection of the song drifts into a sparse dream space, but gives up none of the track's rhythmic propulsion. And the brassy recapitulation is a satisfying payoff. Promising stuff from a band to be reckoned with.