BLACK MARKET BRASS
Battle Ready / What You Make It [RELEASE DATE: 5/2/2025]

CATALOG: BMB-001
RELEASE DATE: 5/02/2025

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This item is a pre-order. It will ship or be available for pickup near the street date. Some items (like exclusives third-party labels) do not arrive at our offices until near the release date, so please expect that pre-orders will NOT arrive by release date. For any orders that contain pre-orders, all items will be held until every item from the order is available to ship.

CREAMSICLE VINYL LIMITED TO 250 COPIES WORLDWIDE

‘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.

The B-side, ‘What You Make It,’ encapsulates a musical quality that Black Market Brass has refined over its many years together, with polyrhythmic ideas you don’t have to understand to know it feels good. Infused with elements of ethno-funk and classic highlife, this Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas inspired work approaches the listener with a simple message amongst a danceable cacophony of sounds — “Life is what you make it.” Move in 4, dance in 3, or sway in 6. Whichever you choose, choose it deliberately; the music will be there to support you.

TRACKLIST
A. Battle Ready
B. What You Make It