Is the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra a group of dedicated political partisans or 24-hour party people?

The Brooklyn group, inspired by the music of late Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti, bills itself as "America's only live Afrobeat party." And the oversized band easily defends that title: Fifteen or more brass and woodwind players, percussionists, guitarists, singers and other musicians pump out surging, gritty, densely woven horn lines over deeply infectious African and funk grooves. They drive hard until the rhythms become downright hypnotic.

For evidence, check out last year's Talkatif or Liberation Afro Beat, Vol. 1, released in 1999. Both are available on the independent Ninja Tune label.

But the band, lately revered by world-music devotees and jam- band fans alike, is sober and serious when it comes to message- giving, mostly of the anti-capitalist, pro-peace, decidedly left variety. War is a Crime, from Talkatif, is an instrumental with a pointed message delivered via its title. Similar missives are fired elsewhere.

Antibalas openly embraces both identities, hoping to spark an earthy trance-dance party while changing hearts and minds, says Martin Antibalas, a.k.a. Martin Perna. The Philadelphia-born baritone saxophonist organized the group in spring 1998.

"It's about the joy in life," Perna, 24, says by cell phone from Brooklyn. "Revolutionary Emma Goldman said, 'What's the point of having a revolution if you can't dance afterwards?'

"One of the things that's a drag about people that are progressively oriented is if people never see you smiling. That joyful feeling and exuberance is completely necessary at all times. It's not a somber music, and it's not an aggressive music. There's also that melancholy, because it's a matter of struggle."

The group's name is Spanish for "against bullets," or "bulletproof."

"I like that double meaning," Perna says, "because it describes the music ultimately as pacifist music, for people struggling for the right to live in peace, wherever they are. We all have our own battles to fight, without someone trying to get us wrapped up into other ones. There's also this idea of strength in numbers, of strength in people onstage."

The ethnically diverse group - Hispanics, whites, African- Americans, Africans, Asians - draws musical inspiration from eclectic sources, including James Brown-style soul and multicolored Latin grooves. Kuti, also an outspoken political activist, remains the chief musical role model for Perna, who is of Mexican and Italian ancestry, and his bandmates.

"It was everything (we liked) about him - the music, the syncopation, the psychedelia, the sensuality, the innovation, the familiar elements, the Afro-American funk," Perna says. "I think it's such a complete music in so many ways. It appeals to so many people in so many different ways. At the same time, it's a medium for political and spiritual messages to be conveyed."