Battle Ready + What You Make It

Description

BMB x OBI marks a new adventure for the long-standing instrumental powerhouse that is Black Market Brass. Partnering with Obi Original, a visionary young talent from Minneapolis whose mission is to share the heart of African music with the world, Black Market Brass delivers messages both proverbial and prophetic. 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 toward the resurgent history of West African funk and to the future where the younger generation can lead us. The A-side, “Battle Ready,” is what it claims: a band armed and ready to face anything that comes its way. With three drummers, this contagiously rhythmic track simmers, even boils, under Obi’s demands to step up. The B-side, “What You Make It,” summarizes a musical quality that Black Market Brass has refined over its many years of collaboration, with polyrhythmic ideas that one doesn’t need to understand to know that they feel good. Infused with ethno-funk elements and classic highlife, this work inspired by Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas approaches the listener with a simple message amidst a cacophony of danceable sounds: "Life is what you make it."