Dos Santos: Anti-Beat Orquesta rocks the sounds of pan-Latin American cumbia. Their gritty, grassroots approach captures the “golden age” of streamlined, tight-knit ensembles that shook sweatbox dance floors with raw and fierce energy throughout Latin America in the 1970s—honest dance music with no frills and no fear, anchored by piercing guitars, garage organs, and straight-ahead percussive might.

The group’s five members (Irekani Ferreyra, Alex Chavez, Daniel Villarreal-Carrillo, Jaime Garza, Journey Burns) have their own storied careers in a diversity of styles—from jazz, R&B/soul, traditional Mexican folk, punk, cumbia, spoken word, and afro-Caribbean—in addition to a history of critical involvement in arts education and social justice organizing. Their visceral sound draws from this sonic, cultural, and political well of influence, and is guaranteed to make you move.