The sprawling Brooklyn-based group Antibalas has a core of eleven members but frequently incorporates other musicians, with each collaboration adding unique wrinkles to the band's funk and jazz-inflected Afrobeat sound. Antibalas' music nods to the past, drawing upon the template of legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and his famed 70-person band, will incoporating starkly contemporary influences, yielding some of the freshest and most eclectic new sounds coming out of today's music scene.

The ensemble released their self-titled fifth album on Daptone Records (home, of course, of Current favorites Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings). The new album is a fiercely rhythmic and funky affair that finds Antibalas at the height of their powers.

Currently touring in support of the record, Antibalas stopped by The Current studios to play a few songs.

Songs played: "Himbelly," "Dirty Money" and "The Ratcatcher" (web exclusive track).