Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Announce Australian Tour

Some of you who enjoyed The Hunger Games may recognise Hypnotic Brass Ensemble providing the music to Caeser Flickerman. Yeah, uh. About that... I don't know much about The Hunger Games myself; there were just fanboys geeking out in the comments of the YouTube video of Hypnotic Brass Ensemble's 'War'. This band deserves more than that.

The Chicago octet have a rich musical legacy, and have been playing music since they were three. Combining classical brass instruments with soul and jazz licks and funky hip-hop beats, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble have essentially reinvented the brass band, making uplifting and infectious music.

Here's a fail-proof test: listen to 'Planet Gibbous' below while typing. Now tell me that that drumbeat and bassline doesn't make your fingers feel lighter, as if you were in a movie and this were the exciting montage where you download information vital to taking down the totalitarian regime that has shaped its citizens into unthinking slaves, and that you are solely responsible for their liberation -- in reality, however, you're probably scrolling through endless memes on Tumblr. I guess that's still heroic in its own way.

So we've established that Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are pretty special, and that that is probably why they have collaborated with Mos Def, Ghostface Killah, and Erykah Badu. Now is the part where you think to yourself, "Oh boy, I bet the energy is a thousand times more infectious in a live setting...if only they could be here in Sydney, and not in Chicago's south side."

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble hear you, my friend, and they have listened, and they are coming for one night only. They will be performing their unique and critically-acclaimed show on Sunday 29 July at the Oxford Arts Factory.

Don't miss it.

HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE

Sunday 28 July

Oxford Arts Factory, Sydney

Word by Stephen Pham