If there’s one word that describes the upcoming Black Market Brass ft. Obi Original 7″, it’s AUTHENTIC! And we mean that in every authentic way possible and we’re sure that you’ll get the point as soon as you drop the needle down. How do you recreate a sound today that’s very much in synch with the sounds of yesteryears Afro-beat and truly inspired by the great Fela Kuti? Well you study what made that era and bring things forward to the present.
‘BMB x OBI’ marks a new venture for the long-time instrumental powerhouse Black Market Brass. Teaming up with Obi Original, the young and visionary Minneapolis talent with a mission to share the heart of African music with the world, Black Market Brass delivers both proverbial and prophetic messages for the year to come — “You’ve got to be Battle Ready!” Inspired by the raw energy and messages of Fela Kuti and indebted to Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou for their heavy fusion of voodoo-infused Afro-beat, Black Market Brass points in both directions towards the resurgent history of West African funk and the future of where a younger generation can lead us. These tracks are bursting at the seams with energy and force the listener to wise up and march along as soon as the drums thunder and the horns blare their first notes.
The A-side, ‘Battle Ready,’ is what it claims: a band armed and ready to take on whatever may come. Strapped to the hilt with three drummers, this infectiously rhythmic track simmers, if not boils, under Obi’s demands to mount up. The energy is high, edgy, and proves that getting nine musicians in the same room to track live captures a passion that bulldozes through anything placed in its way.
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