What with all the Vampire Weekending and Dirty Projecting going on out there right now, it’s clear that eclectic Americans with heavy prescriptions and 160gb iPods like their African flavors, and all the more so when they’re twice removed. The seven-woman sound system that is Zili Misik keep it at a palpably realer once-removed — that is, they’re digging into the African diaspora, blending a bit of samba, reggae, and Afro-Cuban rhythms with Haitian mizik rasin, calypso, and soul. Last year, they took this category and also a Boston Music Award for International Music Act, and rightly so — the songs snap back and forth between traditional homage and progressive abandon, thick with harmonies, rich with rhythms, and brimming with the kind of energy that’s best experienced live.
Runners-up
1_Newpoli
2_Bloco AfroBrazil
3_SambaLolo
