HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE Schallplatten & CDs

Review: 2020 marks two decades since eight brothers from Chicago's South Side decided to form their own jazz-fired, New Orleans style brass band, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. To mark the milestone, they've decided the time is right to unleash their first studio album in two years. As with many of their previous full-length excursions, Bad Boys of Jazz is an excitable, forthright and fiery affair featuring some stonking, dancefloor-friendly moments that brilliantly blend elements of jazz, soul, funk and more. Highlights are plentiful, from the up-tempo, brass-band-house heaviness of 'After Party' (which doffs a sizable cap to Royal House classic 'Can U Party') and similarly inclined 'In The House', to the deep and melancholic 'Mary' and the low-slung brilliance of 'What It Is'.

Review: Chicago eight-piece Hypnotic Brass Ensemble return with their first album in the best part of 10 years. Maturing with age, experience and decoration, they're even more rich, measured and magic than ever before. Our souls are arrested from the moment the slow spell-binding arpeggio of "Lead The Way" ignites the smouldering journey and the dreamy drama doesn't let up until the final whirling synth echoes of the finale track "Royalty". Highlights include the yearning trumpets and pensive plucks of "Midnight", the insistency and pace of "Heaven & Earth" and the playful swooning signature switches on "Now". Once again, a truly singular trip from the Cohran brothers. Essential.

Review: The Honest Jons casuals, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble have stirred quite a flux of interest this year, thanks largely to their stunning follow-up LP and a successful tour of performances. Here they appear outside the walls of the Ladbroke Grove HQ and are given a fine remixing by none other than Colm K and legendary Mr.Scruff! The former reinvents "Fire" with sheer tenacity, making it clear that those delicious trumpets are the key to this track, sublime and utterly infectious funked-out soul going on here. The latter spreads those trumpets out even further and loops them over and over like non one else can - this is pretty vital stuff really...

Review: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is a nine-man funk band from Chicago who recently played NYC's Apollo with Mos Def and his Big Band at the James Brown tribute/Apollo benefit Concert. The remix comes courtesy of Bulljun!

Review: This is the first vinyl offering from Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, an eight-piece with Chicago roots and a current base in New York City. Seven members of the band are brothers - they're the sons of Sun Ra Arkestra member/AACM co-founder Kelan Phil Cohran. The band makes good on that legacy with original compositions that are by turns mystical, emotionally complex tonal meditations and up rocking high octane badass brass roof burners. Having studied with their father from a young age the brothers have been playing together most of their lives, but it wasn't until 1999 that they came together as Hypnotic.

Review: Serious funk vibes abound on this repress from 2011. London duo Juan Laya and Jorge Montiel lay down a stripped-back bass n' breakbeat combo allowing full emphasis on the tightly plucked bass, tight horn noodles and chanty Jay Kay flavoured singing. Think Kraak & Smaak circa Boogie Angst with just a bit more trad JBs style funk. Flip for an equally funky adventure courtesy of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Giving the Hot 8 Brass Band a run for their money, it's a sweeping series of dreamy horns that can't help but suck you deep into the mix.