A one-Mann band. Mostly.

Marcos Garcia knows his genre-defying music — a funk-based creation he calls Afro-freestyle — isn’t “the most obvious sound.”

“There’s still a contingent of people that don’t quite get it. They hear something familiar about it, but it’s tweaked,” says Garcia, who performs under the name Chico Mann.

“It’s the convergence of electro, Afrobeat and freestyle. It’s kind of a statement to this genre of music that hasn’t really been developed until now.”

Garcia handles vocals, most of the instruments, production and programming. (“Pretty DIY,” he says.) Most of the sounds he incorporates are based around the clave, a classic rhythmic pattern used in Afro-Cuban music. The trick is that he intimates the clave with other tools, creating a sound that’s bracingly modern while still hinting at classic elements.

But don’t call it a simple mashup, where contrasting genres and elements are smashed against each other. What Garcia does is follow the natural progression from one sound to another. It makes for an effortless finished product.

“It’s a process of discovery,” he says. “They’re like dialects of this one language. I don’t know what that language is called, but a lot of people just call it funk. I think there’s a bigger, over-arching, kind of rhythmic family tree.”

Garcia’s own family played a role in his musical upbringing. His mother was a pianist and one of the first DJs on Spanish-language radio in New York City. His father was a label exec and a producer of merengue records.

He grew up listening to everything from Michael Jackson and ‘80s hip-hop to Willie Colón, Fela Kuti, Lisa Lisa, and Afrika Bambaataa.

“I think what I’m channeling is just having grown up outside of New York City. It’s like a product of that area, of that context,” he says. “Freestyle was like the indigenous music of New York and New Jersey in the early ‘80s.”

The Brooklyn-based Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra gave Garcia his first real taste of the stage. He released his first solo effort, Manifest Tone, Vol. 1, in 2007. A new disc, Analog Drift, was released this week, building on his unique intersection of Afrobeat. electro and, most recently, merengue.

“I’m basically looking to deliver something that’s going to make you want to move your butt,” Garcia says.

9 p.m. Friday. $8. With DJ Sun and Mr. Bristle. Backroom at the Mink, 3718 Main.