Ghost Peppers Credit: Arjun G. Shee

Upside-down? Even worse. Things are going backwards. It’s devolution in motion and the world’s in max retrograde right now. Enlightenment bridges are being replaced by medieval walls. But the worse conditions get, the more the resistance grows.

Orlando band Ghost Peppers are pushing back by dismantling the walls of these neo-fascist times through not just message but example. Conceived by UCF English professors Amrita Ghosh and Kevin Meehan as a multi-culti project premised on the intersection of South Asian and Western traditions, Ghost Peppers’ 2025 debut (the Red EP) was a bright exemplar of world fusion music. 

Ghost Peppers have since added drummer James Campbell and guitarist Eddy Jo Martinez, and toured clubs and universities across the U.S. and Europe. Now, they’re about to make a full-length return on Feb. 20 with the upcoming No Borders LP. The blunt album title pretty much tells you where they’re going here. But for these unsubtle times, the band are even more explicit when they call it a “nine-track manifesto against imposed divisions — geographical, linguistic, cultural, musical, and ideological.”

No Borders is a new expansion of Ghost Peppers’ global vision. In addition to the blend of Tagore Songs, Hindustani classical and Western folk and pop sounds on their first EP, the band now encompasses an even wider spectrum with added colors like jazz and reggae (“Court of Love — Reggae Raga Version” and “Court of Dub”). It’s the most inclusive testament yet to their campaign of culture.

Here, Ghost Peppers again obviate fusion clash by juggling their influences with a focus on the overall tapestry over any individual threads. This is the sound of cultural traditions, but it’s a shared space. And that pluralistic interplay is the heart and soul of what Ghost Peppers do.

No Borders streams everywhere on Feb. 20. That same evening will be Ghost Peppers’ release show also featuring UCF Young Poets Society and Heerak Shah & Friends.

7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20, Stardust Video & Coffee, donations encouraged.

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This Little Underground

This article appears in Feb. 11-17, 2026.

Music columnist.