The Ethiopian band Admas has a new live video of “Anchi Bale Game,” the opening song of its 1984 album Sons of Ethiopia. Fabrica, a cafe and music room in Addis Ababa, posted the seven minute performance on its YouTube channel on Tuesday. It is part of Fabrica’s series Low End Theory.
The clip comes from a longer episode that Fabrica released on Sunday, October 18. In the 46 minute show, the band talks about its history and plays three songs from Sons of Ethiopia: “Anchi Bale Game,” “Tez Alegn Yetintu” and “Wed Enate.” Fabrica describes Admas as a band “whose music helped define a generation of Ethiopian sound.”
The Band on the Show
Abegasu Shiota and Henock Temesgen, two of the band’s founders, play on the show. According to the episode credits, Shiota plays keys and synthesizers, and Henock plays bass. Teddy Ahadoo on keys, Girum Mezmur on guitar and Andinet Kebede on drums complete the band. Firehiwot Berhane directed the episode, which Fabrica made with Qene Films.
An Album Made in a Basement
Admas formed in Washington, D.C., in 1984, when its members were young Ethiopians living in the American capital. Its name means “horizon” in Amharic, according to a 2020 article by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Shiota, who is of Japanese and Ethiopian heritage, had come to the United States as a touring musician with the singer Muluken Melesse.
He joined the keyboard player Tewodros “Teddy” Aklilu, Henock and the drummer Yousef Tesfaye. Over six to eight months, the four recorded the album’s seven songs in Shiota’s basement in Springfield, Virginia. “Whatever we could get our hands on was our influence,” Shiota told the Smithsonian writer Steve Kiviat.
Tewodros’s mother lent him the money to press 1,000 copies. The band sold only about 200 and gave most of the rest to friends, with one copy going to the Library of Congress. Busy with other work, the musicians never played these songs live at the time. Shiota and Henock later went to the Berklee College of Music. From 1986 to 1989, they backed the singer Aster Aweke at a club in Washington and played on several of her albums.
A Second Life for an Old Record
In July 2020, the small label Frederiksberg Records reissued the album under a license from the band. The label’s notes describe music that mixes Ethiopian melodies with highlife, electro, go go, samba and reggae. According to the Smithsonian article, Andreas Vingaard, the collector who runs the label, had bought an original copy on eBay for $400.
The new release drew fans in Ethiopia and beyond. “We had forgotten it,” Tewodros told Kiviat. “We are all excited about the attention.”
At the time, the members said they planned to finally play the album’s songs live. In February of this year, Admas played the Addis Jazz Festival, according to the festival’s program. The Low End Theory episode now puts three of those songs on video, free to watch on YouTube.
Video: Admas plays “Anchi Bale Game” on Low End Theory, posted on Fabrica’s YouTube channel on October 27, 2026.
