Album: Antibalas, Antibalas (Daptone)

You always know what you're getting with this Brooklyn-based Afrobeat 12-piece: half a dozen tracks in which the groove is everything, and it rolls along for a good 10 minutes before the next one takes its place.

Connoisseurs will delight in the controlled punch, the forward roll, the sheer discipline that goes into making such a coolly hot record. But casual bystanders might wish for more memorable songs or some advancement of the form.