We are Underground System
If you’ve seen Underground System live, then you’ve witnessed the ensemble’s larger than life presence.
One of the most dynamic bands to emerge from New York City in recent years, Underground System continues to reinvent their brand of global dance music, remaining a force determined to recreate, redefine, and reconstruct. The journey from humble beginnings taking the purist approach to interpreting Fela Kuti’s musical style, to an authentically original, internationally touring indie-dance band is a story just beginning to be told.
The production and release of 2018’s debut LP ‘What Are You’ (Soul Clap Records) proved to be the springboard that set the group in motion. Re-contextualizing and breathing fresh life into elements of afrobeat, dance punk, disco and electronic music, the album was received with international acclaim.
Attention from national outlets such as Billboard, NPR/PRI, KCRW’s most underrated album of the year, a US 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, Underground System’s featured performance at French tastemaking festival Transmusicales was so well received that it 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 music legends Gerd Janson and Greg Wilson continued to affirm this group’s idiosyncratic Brooklyn-bred sound was meant for the global stage.
Following a whirlwind year, the abrupt lockdown in 2020 served as a pause and return to home; encouraging co-leaders Domenica Fossati and Peter Matson to write and produce music that served as both a reflection and a pointed, high energy response to the times. This moment of amplified creative output has also served as a catalyst in discovering a localized & collaborative way to release new music. Much in the way the band has been able to take a unique locally developed sound further abroad, a partnership between Underground System, Brooklyn based label Razor-n-Tape, and Heavenly Sweetness in the EU will lead the group into the next era. A forthcoming EP, the first in a series of two, ‘Into the Fire’, will be released in Spring 2022. Featuring 3 originals and accompanying remixes from French Touch maestro Yuksek and Detroit’s own Andres, it serves as a lively return to recorded form.