Thursday, November 30, 2006

 
INTERSTELLAR COLORWAYS


















Amal Baji aka June Body aka The Ghetto Psychologist in the moment at Robert Johnson Club in Offenbach, Germany November 2006.

Last night we were drinking tequila with a couple females and you know just kicking it having one of those cosmic consciousness conversations about the way levels go—how first you understand colors, then you understand gold and other metals. Then one girl said something about colored metals and I flash remembered Baji in Europe telling me he used to have a green trumpet. Came home and pulled the archival photo below—HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE hitting on a cold day in Chicago. If you click to enlarge you can get a glimpse of what he was talking about, dude's there second from left with the goods. It's very WTF.


Wednesday, November 29, 2006

 
SOMETIMES WHEN LT PULLS OUT THE TUBA IT LOOKS LIKE HE'S WORKING ON THE ENGINE OF A 1982 MERCEDES-BENZ 380 SEL



















THAT'S BOSSY. If he's feeling talkative he'll tell you it's actually a sousaphone.

So the Bros start making their way back to New York today. Seems like the only thing that could pull them out the Chi is the promise of some studio sessions and the lure of holiday hitting in these NYC streets. What have they been up to back there anyways—going over scales and studying with Pops? Early morning lakefront meditation? Late nights spent blazing that diesel?

We're going to record some new material for early 07 vinyl release and we know everybody's got their favorites, so while we're getting our shortlist together email us your requests and then we'll write them on a board the way Femi Kuti does in that DVD. And we'll take it from there.

The Bros are probably right when they say that after Europe, hitting in the streets won't be the same. The good news is that we've got new CD looks that the US hasn't seen yet—check the cover artwork for the "Flipside" album:


















And there's a cover for 2005's "Jupiter" as well. Not sure whose hippie-looking wine-stained Tims those are, but you gotta understand that's how it went down overseas. When in Rome, etc etc.

Or, when in Frankfurt. Here's HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE getting holiday fashion tips from the The Cagle Family The Cagle Family in Germany November 2006...Check out Pops Cagle's Santa hat!


Tuesday, November 28, 2006

 
STILL SMOKIN


















OK so some of the limited 10s that got lost in transit on the way to Europe have been recovered. That doesn't affect how limited the record is, really, just means that a couple might be trickling out on the streets of New York or popping up in Chicago over the next week or so.

In other news, apparently "HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE is looking for dancers." Unclear if that has anything to do with yesterday's post about Notting Hill Carnival, but either way holler at Yosh aka Jafar Baji aka VIP over at HYPNOTIC MYSPACE. And yes we gotta get a new tune posted up there. How bad yall really want it though?






Jafar Baji at a random art party in Frankfurt, Germany November 2006


Monday, November 27, 2006

 
JUST ON GP







Just to rewind: we were psyched to find out that selector extraordinaire Gilles Peterson played the "Jupiter" 10in on his BBC Radio 1 show last week. That's a big look, because Gilles is one of the most influential voices in soul/funk/jazz listening today and also because even though certain bros in HYPNOTIC say they got sauced with "the biggest DJ in Europe...Gilles Peters" once in Miami, we didn't meet up with him in London or anything like that—he heard about us, went to the shop like a regular human being and bought the record. And to think it was only a few days before that we dropped off a little stack of vinyl in Notting Hill and then shut down Portobello Road like this. Now we're trying to figure out how to get back around that way, maybe for Notting Hill Carnival if not sooner.

While we're on GPs—gotta send a massive shout and a big thanks to DJ Greg Poole for looking out for us in London. He set HYPNOTIC up with two great gigs, nuff Brixton love and some vegetarian dining—and he just moved there himself! Back in NYC someone wanted to know how HYPNOTIC linked up with Poole and the Sleeper clique, but hey baby connects are connects. Ay yo, now if we can just connect GP with Blacktronica, maybe we'll be just that much closer to getting that carnival idea poppin.

That's HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE aka DISOBEYERS INTERNATIONAL along with a Nigerian dude named Femi, one night in Brixton November 2006.


Friday, November 24, 2006

 
SPACE HEAT
















That's Hudah and Aquilla Sadalla on stage at Bastard in Berlin, November 2006. Photos by Jane Stockdale.

Doing a bit of work today preparing to get the "Jupiter" b/w "Balicky Bon" 10in out into the world—more news on that next week—and we spoke with Hudah this morning about the origins of the song. With interest on bubble, here's a little background:

"The song came about in the midst of us trying to complete our ‘Planetary Suite’—a series of songs like ‘Mercury’, ‘Mars’, ‘Venus’, ‘New Earth’ and 'Taygeta'. Yosh and Clef would probably argue about this, but Yosh made a major part of the ‘Jupiter’; he came in with the concept, the structure and the melody and you can hear it in there. Jupiter is one of the biggest planets and it’s the planet of expansion, so this is one of the songs that speak best to who we are—not only with the melodies and harmonies but with its ideas about space and life as continuous motion."

About the Aquilla Sadalla mindmelt vocal : "When we were children we always listened to great singers, from Aretha to Sarah Vaughn. But the one who was with us was Mama Aquilla. Of course Pops had a lot of spiritual compositions, and if you were in the right place at the right time they could send you into a trance…so all of that is in us as a band.
















"The most profound thing is that she captured the essence of Jupiter in what was basically a freestyle. She had a poem brought in a poem that she wanted to use, but in the studio it wasn’t working out. So I said, Close your eyes and let the spirit take you. And that’s what happened—she created the dynamic Jupiter."

Thursday, November 23, 2006

 
GIVE THANKS




















With HYPNOTIC back in Chicago for a big holiday meal with Pops (aka Kelan Phil Cohran) and family, it's a good day to relay that Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble's "The Malcolm X Memorial (A Tribute In Music)" is reportedly getting the reissue look. Recorded live in 1968 at the Affro-Arts Theater and released on Cohran's own Zulu Records in the early 70s, the album invokes the sounds and spirit of Malcolm as he moves from the young hustler known as Detroit Red to become the visionary El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. We were vibing on this album with Jafar recently, about what a challenge it is for an artist explore or recreate the work of their past, and what a ride a trip to the flipside can be—Amiri Baraka's Autobiography Of Leroi Jones being a prime example. So when Cohran dips back into the music of Malcolm's life, he's looking at that life with everything he's lived and learned in his own (Malcolm was born in 1925, Cohran in 1927).

The entire song cycle is a profound listen, and not just for Cohran's compositions. The entire line-up is all bossy players: you get Cohran on trumpet rather than the frankiphone, plus future Earth, Wind & Firememberss Louis Satterfield and Donald Myrick, some soulful mathic blues guitar from a pre-Agharta Pete Cosey, tuba enigma Aaron Dodd, percussionist Master! Gibson! Henry! and others.
































The OG vinyl is ballerific type rare status, so shouts to Katalyst Entertainment for putting out the CD...hopefully they've reproduced the high school yearbook style photographs from the original LP. Not sure if it's out already, but Dusty Groove is taking orders.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

 
RELATED


















LT gets the astral long tones popping before blasting off at club Robert Johnson in Offenbach, Germany November 2006.

Only now finding out about the massive Sun Ra exhibition that's currently up in Chicago, but thankfully we'll be able to dive in head first when we're in the Chi for Kwanzaa and New Year's with HYPNOTIC. It's great to see Kelan Phil Cohran getting his due in the context of a sheer detonation of never-seen-before Sun Ra memoribilia, artifacts, photography, album art, drawings, linoleum block plates, treasure maps and a secret dictionary. YES A SECRET DICTIONARY.















Anyway the other ill thing is how the Hyde Park Art Center frames the whole endeavour in a neccessary astroblackness. The site has this line about how "the exhibition...configures Ra’s activities as being part of a broad scheme for disseminating his radical ideas about race, culture, ethics, futurity, alterity, humanity and beauty. It’s essential that this be understood in a black context, on the south-side, aimed at a black audience..." After several reads I still couldn't tell if the curators are talking about now or then—and that's a good thing.

Oh yeah and apparently there's a parallel show of contemporary Sun Ra-inspired art, and it's got a work by Wangechi Mutu in it. Maybe we can convince her to do some stuff for HYPNOTIC.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

 
“HEY HOW YOU DOING I’M THE CHIPPED TOOTH PHENOM SEBA GRAVES I PLAY TROMBONE I’M 25 YEARS OLD”



Great interview with HYPNOTIC by Suzanne Berg of Germany's National Public Radio. Multisource audio here.




Monday, November 20, 2006

 
YES NO MAYBE SO















"HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE: GREAT NEW 10" (400 ONLY) COMING ON LIKE SUN RA MEETING ART ENSEMBLE AT BEIRUT'S HOUSE."

So sez Rough Trade—they threw us up on the wall when we shut down Portobello Market on Saturday. But Beirut? Not sure if he'd have us over to the crib. Maybe we can meet up next summer at the pool.


Sunday, November 19, 2006

 
EASY LISTENING
ACTUALLY THE BEST PART IS WHEN HE SAYS 'YOOPITER'

Hello lovers...we're flying back to the US in a few hours. Lots of crazed out posts to come—audio interview with German national radio, Berlin photojournal, London gigs, worldwide distribution situation—and we'll get that bubbling this week. While you wait check this mix from Michael Ruetten in Frankfurt. Dude copped the butter when we were out there last week or whenever it was. Now he stunting the "Jupiter" b/w "Balicky Bon" 10in and two album cuts in the mix with Philip Cohran & Artistic Heritage Ensemble, Count Ossie & Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, Billie Holiday, Koop et al.


Saturday, November 18, 2006

 
A YO ELECTRIC AVENUE

We're playing at MANGO LANDIN in Brixton again tonight.

40 Mathews Road SW2 1NL see you there

Other than that we're hitting the markets in London this weekend. Portobello. Camden. Spitalfields. Look out.

 
NEVER TOO MUCH NEVER TOO MUCH

Someone back in NYC said we should have more behind the scenes stuff on here and true that is but Windy City bass legend Chuck-A-Luck just sent this video of HYPNOTIC doing the brass thing onstage in Aarhus, Denmark—the first stop on the tour. It's got an ill 80s feel but maybe that's just the lighting. Throwing it up just for the ladies who love us back home.


Thursday, November 16, 2006

 
HELLO LONDON

Thursday 16 November
MANGO LANDING, Brixton, London
...with DJ Greg Poole



















Friday 17 November
BLACKTRONICA 5TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY
NFT FILM CAFE, London
...with DJs Charlie Dark, Acyde, Tic, Paul Rapscallion and DJ MC (Kiss FM)!!!























Friday 17 November
SPECIAL MIDNIGHT SHOW!!!
JUNO, Shoreditch, London
...with THE CHAIN GANG and DJ GREG POOLE


Wednesday, November 15, 2006

 
DAS KAPITAL: THAT BERLIN LOOK
























Full Germany photojournal soon come. Stay tuned.

PS Yes we are an EIGHT PIECE BRASS BAND. We'll reconnect with our two other bros back in the USA next week.

Monday, November 13, 2006

 
FRANKFURT: EINEN LIEBESBRIEF

Danke schoen bis naechstes Jahr


Sunday, November 12, 2006

 
THEY GOT REAL GYPSIES OUT IN GERMANY YALL



Obviously by this point for 2007 we're thinking of doing a Deutsch-only EP featuring HYPNOTIC songs written in gypsy and Eastern modes. Maybe we can work on getting it out with these guys.

 
HOW INSENSITIVE



It was a little awkward at first I guess—a band of young brothers coming in the door of one of Germany's oldest jazz clubs. Yall know we're gonna get that love once the horns come out...so by the time LT came through the crowd with the tuba HYPNOTIC was getting full appaluse before even having played a single note. That's how much Germany loves its brass.

And that's how much this country is getting tripped out by this band.














We only played a couple songs but that was enough to justify the warmed up reception. After that we just fell back with some beers and listened to the other musicians...all real competent with the 20th century expat bohemian jazz sound. Later in the night though a combo went in to Antonio Carlos Jobim's "How Insensitive" and Clef and Smoov had to pull the brass back out...Jobim's tune with some youngbloods running through it—never heard it that way before and it took Vinicius DeMoraes' lyrics to a new dimension.

How insensitive
I must have seemed
When she told me that she loved me
How unmoved and cold
I must have seemed
When she told me so sincerely
Why she must have asked
Did I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to say?
What can you say
When a love affair is over?

Threw a little clip up, there's another that's is 1MB too big so if someone can tell me how to chop up this footage then by all means holler this way.


Saturday, November 11, 2006

 
OUT HERE EATING NUTELLA AND BANANA CREPES EVERY DAY



Das einmalige HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE (4 Trompeten, Posaune und Sousaphon) beendet sein Gastpiel in Frankfurt - u.a. auf dem Frankfurter Filmfestival und bei CHOCOLAT - und reist am Sonntag weiter nach Berlin. Die vorerst letzte Gelenheit, die 6 Brüder aus Chicago hier im Konzert zu hören, bietet sich am Samstag, den 11.11., in den Landungsbrücken Frankfurt (Adresse s.u.). Freunde und Freundinnen der repetitiven Musik werden sich an den krassen Sound und den schweren, funky Groove dieser Band noch lange erinnern!

Einen Vorgeschmack gibt es unter: HYPNOTIC MYSPACE und www.hypnoticbrass.blogspot.com oder am Samstagmittag auf der Zeil. - B. Ritter (Nachttierhaus/Perfumed Chambers/Das Grüne Hemd) begleitet das Ensemble an den Drums.

Konzertbeginn ist pünktlich um 22:15! Der Eintritt ist frei, Spenden sind willkommen.

Am selben Abend, am selben Ort gibt es außerdem zum vorletzten Mal "Die Möwe" von Anton Čechov, in der in der Übersetzung von Thomas Brasch.

Beginn: 20 Uhr; Eintritt: 12,- € / 10,- € ermäßigt (Bei Vorreservierung: 10,- € / 8,- €) - Kartenvorbestellung unter 60 60 59 72 post@landungsbruecken.org oder www.landungsbruecken.org

Landungsbrücken Frankfurt
Gutleutstraße 294
60327 Frankfurt
(neben Tanzhaus West)

Bus 37 bis Johanna-Kirchner-AHZ
S-Bahn S3 bis S6 bis Galluswarte


 
TAKING ORDERS MAKING ORDERS

Secret weapon custom design hand-packed Pantone gold label limited edition 10" vinyl garage brass sound of "Jupiter" b/w "Balicky Bon" at 45rpm available on-site and at Frankfurt's ProVinyl. Yes really.



Wednesday, November 08, 2006

 
UNDERGROUND WARFARE MOVEMENT

HYPNOTIC bringing "War" to Frankfurt's Metro.







Cops bought a CD, took a picture and shut us down—a bank called to complain. Apparently we were affecting the day's deposits.

 
NEXT DIPS

8 November
JAZZ KELLER Frankfurt, Germany

9 November
CLUB ROBERT JOHNSON Offenbach, Germany

 
FRANKFURT FILM FREAKOUT



OK so after shutting down the Bastard club in Berlin, HYPNOTIC plowed on to Frankfurt. After moving around so much on tour brothers were anxious to take it to the streets—Chitown and NYC knows how we do it—so we hit for about an hour outside the main train station...enough time to get some energy flowing back into the band and the music.

The night really got started when we played a quick set at the Metropolis Cinema for the Frankfurt International Film Festival and then chopped it up a long while afterwards as DJ Julian Smith did it lovely on the wheels with classic soul and black pop. Dude was pulling out Mike Jackson Chicago step refixes!



















With Wim Wenders and Dennis Hopper in the mix the festival's a pretty prestigious one, but truth be told we were kicking it with folks like Diego Mestanza, the young star of Cowboy Angels. Smoov just said "Shorty gonna be famous!"



HYPNOTIC, Diego, his sister, his mom (!), plus a bunch film people rolled with us to club Unity—probably one of the best clubs in Frankfurt—and the band went in to dancefloor attack mode after that...so yeah we didn't see each other til the next a.m. bang bang.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

 
BREEZIN THRU


 
DEUTSCHLAND DIESEL



Don't get it twisted and get to thinking that this band can't tear up a rock club. HYPNOTIC IS GARAGE BRASS.

The HBE dates with The National Trust ended on Monday night, with both lineups representing Chitown at an East Berlin hotbox called Bastard. Great sets from both bands...Hey it's no surprise to see a crowd going crazy when a band has wild chops and vision but still it's always nice to get love the way we did.

Plus on the NYC side of things you never get to see the HBE with Aquilla Sadalla—while she gigs and records with the National Trust she's a mother of the brothers and hers is the voice twisting you out on "Jupiter"...you know about "Jupiter" right? (Thanks to Big C for the gorgeous images of Ms Aquilla.)
















Also gotta mention this Pete Babyshambles lookin dude. While HBE was blowing minds on stage, the Bastard bizarro world Pete version pulled out a nickel-plated trumpet and started in with some crisp solos of his own. A random guy with a horn blowing over all over HYPNOTIC—would've been annoying except the kid could really blow, albeit in a kind of classic 20th century jazz recordings kind of way. You could tell he had the catalog!



But yeah HYPNOTIC shut down the club that night with a 2 hour jam session along some weird tonal modes with Gabe the National Trust drummer and the throughly blasted Bastard patrons. Not much sleep that night.





Last note guess there's no harm in throwing up a couple looks of the next HYPNOTIC dip.





Gotta say the designer made good use of negative space with the 10in sleeve design—this waxpiece is ready-made for brass rock star autographing. But then, he knew what he was doing.

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