Hey Scotland, its been a while. We missed you guys so we decided to bring this Bulletproof Brass to the jazz festival. Are y'all ready to party? Check this link and i'll see you there.

Labels: 2012 jazz festival, aberdeen, aberdeen jazz festival, festival, hbe, hypnotic brass ensemble, jazz

After a brief reunion with the cultural community of Chicago, celebrating the First Fruits ceremony called Kwanzaa, of course we went back to NYC. But not for long. On the 22nd of that same month we were back in the CHI giving the Depaul University crowd some Hypnotic love. We don't get to do Chicago that often. But all that's changing.

SAME AS IT EVER WAS



















Overworked, overseas: HYPNOTIC and Mos in London, December 2007.

To all our fans worldwide, thanks for the love over the past year.

Check it out, even in 2008 some of America's finest have to go abroad to get critical acclaim and escape ignorance back home.

Chicago music expert/Tribune hack Greg Kot just published his list of "top local indie releases of '07"—10 artists who got it crackin while HYPNOTIC was sitting around being lazy and boring in the Chi, NYC, LA, London, Barcelona...at the North Sea Jazz Festival...and collaborating with everyone from Mos Def to Damon Albarn and Tony Allen. All that, done independently.

Can you think of any band more *indie* that HYPNOTIC?

Thankfully we had a number one record in Japan, Boomkat in the UK put yall up on the view that "Sanfoka" is one of the best songs of the year and now Tim Perlich at Now magazine in Toronto has selected the "Jupiter" CD as one of the albums of the year. Thanks Tim!

Maybe HYPNOTIC's not local enough!!!

Greg Kot's email address is greg@gregkot.com. Drop him a line and ask him if that's the case!









Or maybe just write a letter to the editor about Kot's shoddy-ass attempt at opinionmaking.

In the meantime yall let's hope Obama doesn't have to go over to Kenya to get elected Prez-o.

EUROPE UPDATE

EUROPE TRIP IS BACKDATED, SCROLL BACK AND CHECK OUT WHAT HAPPENED!




















It was a good trip, we'll fill you in over the next week or so...stay tuned!

...AND WE'RE BACK NYC!!!
























So come down and check us tonight!

THAT NETHERLANDS FRESHNESS


















If you get out there, Amsterdam has some raw barbers yall.

Just ask Smoov!

ROTTERDAM: AFTER THE SHOW IT'S THE AFTERPARTY


















Rotown? Down with brown. Who knew? WE LOVE HOLLAND MORE THAN EVER!

Scroll down, check out Hudah's champagne game and 360 doubled up with Ben and Len Stefani.

LOL.

THIS IS EUROPE: ROTTERDAM: BLACK SOIL FILM FESTIVAL


















Wow. Rotterdam. Rock star status we partied all night on Friday in London, blazed to the airport, flew to Holland and rolled in for the amazing, world class Black Soil Film Festival (get on their MySpace!). ! Remembering the love we got at North Sea Jazz over the summer (have yall forgotten?), we gave the good folks of Rotterdam a little taste of the "fresh air" HYPNOTIC, playing outside an art gallery to ratchet up hype for the show. Just a taste though! Then it was time to get it crackin at the Rotown venue.




















To be brief, gotta say that the Rotown show was one of the best HYPNOTIC shows ever. Backstage the band got reckless and decided to debut a new 3 x 3 x 3 format— three hits of three songs with no breaks, not chatter, no backstory. The crowd loved it—really gave people a chance to get into the full detonation of the HYPNOTIC sound.

Anyways...the results were INSANE!!! Not the kinda show you take pics of, just one you remember forever.



































Respect to Philip @ Black Soil (in the pic below). He set the band up lovely with a great introduction (at least it sounded great in Dutch). Plus dude's front row game is immaculate.

MORE LONDON!


















Had to throw a few Equinox pics up from the show at Shepherds Bush. Plus some videos from the fans in the stands...I don't hear any of yall complaining so...

THIS IS EUROPE: LONDON: SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE w MOS DEF














Photography copyright (c) danandsteve 2007.

This is how you get a party started. HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE packed up that horn heat and took a Thanksgiving red eye to London, where they more or less stepped off the plane and on to the stage at the legendary Shepherds Bush Empire for a Friday night show with the mighty Mos Def. Needless to say the band was a little groggy after the overnight flight but needless to say...they bodied it!

We love London, can't wait to get back for more shows in a week or so!

Dan Wilton and Steve Bliss were on hand to record the magic, and you can order some actual-factual prints for your boo here.

IT'S

REAL

FLATTERY WILL GET YOU EVERYWHERE
















Hudah and Yosh with the legedary Tony Allen, London July 2007.
Photograph by Liz Johnson

OK, looks like the HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE tune "Sankofa" aka the remix of Tony Allen's "Losun" is hitting the streets.

"Where to begin with this incredible twelve? The A-side features the much-hyped Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (with a lineup featuring the sons of Sun Ra trumpeter Phil Cohran) taking on Tony Allen's "Losun" and creating one of the most astonishing pieces of music we've heard this year, managing to sound like a school brass band touched by pure genius. Hard to over-emphasise how good this is, for sure one of the singles of the year - and that's before we've even flipped over. The B-side features Salah Ragab and the Afro-Egyptian Ensemble whom you might remember from the amazing "Presents Egyptian Jazz" reissue on Art Yard right at the very start of the year, taking on two Tony Allen originals and turning them into sparkling African gems with a hint of Egyptian romance sprayed into the air. We just love this record - ESSENTIAL PURCHASE!"

Via Boomkat, available through Honest Jons.

RRREWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIND!!!!!!!!!!

INTERNATIONAL WEEK / GERMANY
























Here's some scans of an article from the music magazine LOOP out in Germany. You might've seen these pics before but never before with German text! Eine musikalische Familienbande!

Nice work by photographer Bjorn Glusbrucht and stylist Alex Sportelli.

The clothes? Those would be G-STAR...

INTERNATIONAL WEEK / SPAIN
















It's international week here at HBE HQ, we're getting ready to head to Europe next week. This article's from Serie B magazine in Spain. Click on the pics to enlarge (ie enlarge your Spanish vocabularly).

Thanks to El Chavo, Susana and Santi for making it happen.

CHICAGO HAPPENING






















Is that velvet? KPC bodyrockin the frankiphone, Chicago, back in the day

Another anniversary of sorts: last year around this time Kelan Phil Cohran re-released his magnificent Malcolm X Memorial. If you don't know about that album you haven't been coming to class or doing your homework. For shame, nerds!

This weekend you can travel the spaceways to check KPC celebrate the album with a special performance at Borders in the Chi. It's at 3pm, giving you enough time to run over to Dusty Groove and pick up the fresh out, super-bossy, semi-bootlegged Japanese import of KPC's singles collection (image below) and make it a weekend of expansive sociospiritual edification.

Lesson of the week: cop doubles!

Kelan Phil Cohran at Borders
1539 E. 53rd Street
Chicagoland, IL 60615
3pm

WELL, DONE














Well, eBay's "ramrodius" just got his *extra* copy of "Jupiter" off for $100+ bux. The record first came out (ie was sold out of a suitcase in Europe) almost a year ago to the day so that's a pretty steep climb. That's just crazy—almost as crazy as the "NYC Live" CD going for $55...all of it a weird commentary on a bunch of levels, from the plummeting value of the dollar (maybe $100 isn't that deep) to the basic way some people "get it" and other people don't—or the way some people front and some don't. At the same time there's been a run on our CDs and vinyl in the streets and select stores worldwide, some shops act like we're twisting their arms to take five records for sale over the counter and we haven't cracked real bookings in Paris or the West Coast. And you'll forgive us for feeling some kinda way about Jay-Z's new video and appearance on Letterman. Judging from the emails and the conversations in the streets a lot of you feel the same way. (Side note: if you question the President does that put you in the same box as LL?)

Anyways, the only HYPNOTIC CDs ever sold in stores have been a few done on consignment years ago to Reckless Records in Chicago, maybe 20 we left with our friends at Honest Jons on our first trip to London last year, and then some sold in a shop at North Sea Jazz Festival this past summer. And while it's been cool to say you can only get our music in person and watch the second party seller eBay auctions come and go, obviously we're all over YouTube, we've been pirated by the Russians and bootlegged in NYC. But there's more: the downside of yesterday's auctions was the flood of emails we received from disappointed fans who missed out on the action.

So change happens.

As of now the first two HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE albums—"Flipside" aka the orange CD and "Jupiter" aka the green CD—are available for download via all international iTunes stores and Amazon.

Let's see how it goes.

ATTENTION COLLECTORS!!












A near-complete* HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE discography** is up for sale over to the eBay for another 24 hours (it's in the UK so you might have to the dollars to pounds to euros to yen thing). Looks like all dude's missing is the FLIPSIDE CD and the Tony Allen rework, but to be fair that's not out for another week or so.

We hollered at the seller "ramrodius" to find out just why he was unloading such gems. Dude hit us back talking about he has DOUBLES. Now that's bossy!!!

Anyways, happy bidding!

*yet sold separately.
**yes that means the mega rare "Jupiter" 10in.

MEN AT WORK
















Maybe HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE is on its way to a Grateful Dead dimension. First the tripped out show this past Monday and now a taper (!) just posted up 93.4MB of audio from the gig. Dude did his thing and track IDed as well as he could, so you not only get a handful of raw mp3s—a a helter skelter version of "War" and some never-before-recorded jams like the classic cover of "Moments In Love"—but also the option to leave the chatty "interludes" off to the side. Takes a while to pull down but what else are you doing on a Friday at work?

Twist to this on the weekend. "Ladies this for yall. Grab somebody."

Full show:

HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE Live at HIGHLINE BALLROOM 29 OCT 07

"War" (live at Highline Ballroom)

"Moments In Love" (live at Highline Ballroom)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!


















...if you're into that sort of thing...


















...as some Bros obviously are...