PUTNEY — Next Stage's Bandwagon Summer Series presents Underground System on Friday, July 22, at 6 p.m. at the Putney Inn.
“Dancing at the outdoor summer series is an opportunity for us to shake off the stress of Covid, politics, and the stress of life,” Keith Marks, Executive Director of Next Stage Arts, said in a news release. “Underground System is a New York-based party dance band that holds space for us all to experience the zen of movement and the opportunity to be free for an hour of our stress. We're excited to host them as part of the Bandwagon Summer Series.”
Underground System continues to reinvent their brand of global dance music. “From an initial purist interpretive approach to Fela Kuti style afrobeat, to drawing on a legacy of NYC indie dance inspirations, the band has crafted a peerless and incendiary sound,” organizers say.
The news release continues, “attention from national outlets such as Billboard, NPR/PRI, KCRW's most underrated album of the year, a U.S. tour with labelmates Soul Clap and Midnight Magic, and the growing word-of-mouth enthusiasm within their local NYC community kickstarted the band's journey abroad.”
In December 2018, success at a French tastemaking festival, Transmusicales, launched them into an 18-show European tour in 2019. Appearances included Eurockeennes de Belfort, Fusion Festival in Germany, and a headlining slot at Laurent Garnier's festival, Yeah!
Heavy EU radio play, press, and remixes from dance musicians Gerd Janson and Greg Wilson continued to affirm this group's sound was meant for the global stage.
The abrupt lockdown in 2020 was an opportunity to pause and return home, band members say, encouraging co-leaders Domenica Fossati and Peter Matson to write and produce music they say “served as both a reflection and a pointed, high-energy response to the times.”