Secret Planet, Western Mass

25/09/2026

Minyo Crusaders lands at the Iron Horse this Saturday as part of their US debut tour. Here’s your need to know: 1) this is a very danceable function; plan accordingly; 2) tickets are moving fast — you should scoop one asap ; 3) this trailer from a documentary made about the band, which is a nice 2 minute intro into what this minyo/cumbia/afrobeat thing is all about.

Directed by Yuji Moriwaki
Excerpt from the documentary film Bring Minyo Back!

22/09/2026

Northampton! On 9/29, ALI علي is coming through the The Iron Horse ALL THE WAY from Jakarta, Indonesia with immaculate Khruangbin vibes for you. The quartet has a new album out with Habibi Funk and Charif Megarbane, and they’re on their first US tour this Fall. For fans of 70s global funk, disco, and cinematic groove. Just added: Pete McQuillan on the 1s and 2s!

22/09/2026

Next month!

www.secretplanet.live/events/lasguaracheras

An all-women salsa and Latin jazz ensemble from Colombia will perform in Northampton next month as part of a concert supporting earthquake relief efforts in the South American country.

17/09/2026

Secret Planet x Thump Capsule present: Horse Lords at the Iron Horse on 10/6 ⚡️ with special guests Silk Fence and No Thankyou. Ticket link in bio!

15/09/2026

You might ask yourself — what if Ebo Taylor spent a weekend jamming out with Japanese sailors? It might sound something like this.

We can't wait for Minyo Crusaders next weekend. Their long awaited US debut tour is just around the corner.

民謡クルセイダーズ, 朝倉さや – しげさ節 (Official Lyric Video)New album “From Japan...

10/09/2026

Cumbia gets cosmic again this Sunday at the Parlor Room with Dilemastronauta y su Tripulación Cosmica 🪐☄️🛸👽 featuring members of Combo Chimbita and MAKU Soundsystem. Afro-latin rhythms, dub, and plenty of psychedelia and an incredibly small but powerful traditional Colombian flute, the millo, played by Carlos Rienzo.

Here’s a clip from last time in that room for an earshot of what these grooves sound like 🎶

Tix $20 adv / 25 day of show
Link in bio

Gracias DJ Bongohead for the 📼🎥

09/09/2026

The magnificent Brazilian samba artist Rogê will be here in just a couple of weeks! Tickets are going fast for this intimate, small-room encounter with the Latin Grammy nom’d Roger José Cury … sleeper pick of the month, folks. This music will uplift your whole week.

Ticket link in bio!

07/09/2026

Brace yourselves, Northampton. ALI علي is coming from to the states from Jakarta, Indonesia with immaculate Khruangbin vibes for you. The quartet has a new album out with Habibi Funk and Charif Megarbane, and they’re on their first US tour this Fall. For fans of 70s global funk, disco, and cinematic groove. Ticket link in bio

17/06/2026

Our end-of-year party is back! This time we're going to shake out our nya-nyas with the trippy, left-field tropical dance band Los Cumpleaños, who you might recall from Barbès in the Woods a few years back. We've also lined up our local homie DJ FancyPantz to round out a night of irreverent and excessive dancing. Dress code is simple — wear as many colors as you possibly can. Same Secret Location as last time — it will be revealed to ticketholders week of show.

www.secretplanet.live/events/loscumples

🎈🎈🎈

Avant-tropical post-truth NYC quartet Los Cumpleaños play classic era Cumbia, Porro, Son Caribeño, Salsa Criolla, and Colombian Bullerengue, filtered through synth-y psychedelic sound waves, a heavy low end, and a kind of joyful, irreverent and contagious cheekiness. The vibe is retro Latin pitched through a kaleidoscope; fun-house mirrored; Macondo-like. The band cites influences ranging from Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Sun Ra to Flying Lotus.

Colombian-born Nestor Gomez Jr. (voice/percussion) brings virtuosic talent and traditional musical knowledge from Barranquillas. Lautaro Burgos (drum kit/electronics) from Chaco, Argentina explores pan-Latin rhythms with both analog and digital percussion. The band also features Americans Eric Lane (keyboards) and Alex Asher (trombone), long-time friends and enthusiasts of avant-garde and free jazz, experimental, and global sounds. They formed up at Barbès in 2016 and took a long break during COVID — we’re delighted that they’re back on the scene this year.

Los Cumpleaños are not your birthday party, but their gigs are like the kind of birthday party you always wanted in your heart of hearts. There are still balloons, and even cake if you bring it yourself, but most importantly everyone is dancing and not paying that much attention to you. Because it’s not about you, is it? If it’s about anyone, it’s about your mother. And about your friends actually having a really nice time.

10/06/2026

𝔾𝕐𝔼𝔻𝕌-𝔹𝕃𝔸𝕐 𝔸𝕄𝔹𝕆𝕃𝕃𝔼𝕐 & ℍ𝕀𝕊 𝕊𝔼𝕂𝕆ℕ𝔻𝕀 𝔹𝔸ℕ𝔻!!!
Saturday, September 12th at the Drake, Amherst.
Co-presented with our buds at /

More heavy, heavy September action for you.

Today we’re thrilled to announce that the Ghanaian Afrofunk legend will be returning to Western Mass on Saturday, September 12 with his full group. If you caught their sold-out show last August at the Iron Horse, then you KNOW how hot this one was. And if you missed it, you have another chance.

Gyedu Blay Ambolley is a musical luminary hailing from Ghana, West Africa, with a staggering 29 albums under his belt. Known affectionately as the "Simigwa Do Man,” Ambolley’s musical journey began in the vibrant port city of Sekondi-Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana. His early fascination with music blossomed into a lifelong passion. From mastering his father’s flute at the tender age of eight, to honing his guitar skills under the mentorship of “Uncle Bonku”, Sammy Lartey and Ebo Taylor, Ambolley’s musical odyssey has been nothing short of extraordinary. This all led to Ambolley becoming a musical life force and exploding on the scene in 1973 with a jazzy highlife sound called 'SIMIGWA-DO'. His name has become synonymous with Simigwa music and dance.

Ambolley's eight-piece band is the living history of how Ghanaian highlife music met on the corner with jazz, hip-hop, and afrobeat to create an iconic musical expression in SIMIGWA, Ambolley's magnum opus and a cornerstone of Ghanaian music history. It was written and produced together with the legend Ebo Taylor, expressing a pioneering fusion of Ghanaian highlife with soul and funk — and immediately evokes a musical outline of what an African James Brown might have sounded like. The rhythm section, horns, vocal stabs, and percussion all point to Mr. Brown as the main inspiration.

Tickets up on Friday at 10AM for the general public. Secret Planet members can pick theirs up starting today.

www.secretplanet.live/events/ambolley