Best World-Music Act in Boston

Debo Band

Debo

Given Berklee on the one hand and a hearty immigrant population on the other, Boston will never run short on exciting new sounds from every corner of the world. Few bands, however, have had an itinerary like Ethiopian pop throwbacks Debo Band. Over the past nine months, the massive group have jetted with fiddles, accordions, guitars, saxophones, and tubas to Addis Ababa and Zanzibar twice on the good will of local café owners and festival organizers, all while holding down a residency here at the Western Front. With their roots in Eastern European rhythms, Middle Eastern timbres and scales, and '60s American funk and soul, Debo Band can mine a vein of pop that sounds fresh and enticingly foreign to local listeners, and that makes for tasty material when they team up with Ethiopian rappers, dancers, and filmmakers for a full résumé of projects. Coming this year: an album, finally!

Runners-up
2. Newpoli
3. Zili Misik
4. Cirkestra

by MATT PARISH

Debo Band