The Future's Bright, The Future's Hypnotic

Groups consisting of multiple siblings may be commonplace throughout pop n’ rock history but there’s surely been no other eight-piece quite like Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

Responsible for a stunning symphony of pure brass sound, this band of brothers reside in New York but originally grew up in Chicago; members of an extraordinarily musical family, none more so than their father, Philip Cohran.

Formerly lead trumpeter in legendary jazz ensemble Sun Ra Arkestra in the fifties, Cohran left the group to become a musical activist and educator in the subsequent decade and later formed The Circle of Sound; two of its singers becoming the mothers of those in Hypnotic. Gabriel (trumpet), Tycho (sousaphone), Amal (trumpet), and Uttama (euphonium) are the sons of Maia Hubert; while Saiph (trombone), Jafar (trumpet), Seba (trombone) and Tarik (trumpet) are the sons of Aquilla Sadalla Graves.

“Our father’s original vision was to encourage the development of disciplined black children and encourage them to play cosmic music. That was the initial reason he started teaching us and other kids in our community”, explains Gabrial (aka ‘Hudah’).

Encouraged by both their father and mothers, the boys were awoken at 6am every day before school to practice, but didn’t actually come together as a band until they were older, in 1999.

“The roots of Hypnotic originally came from some of the younger brothers playing for fun in Chicago’s subways”, says Hudah. “Once the older brothers joined, we noticed a real way to earn revenue. We also saw how people seemed to respond unconsciously to our music, making us realise our potential to touch peoples’ souls. This helped us truly focus on our sound; to carve out our own musical identity.”

Indeed, it’s their distinct brand of musicality that helps draw a particularly emotive response from listeners, as Hudah points out.

“Peoples’ reactions to our live performances are intense. They take away exactly what we put out - raw energy. Honestly, people leave one of our shows with the vibe that they want to tell everybody else that they’ve missed the best live show ever. We actually hear that comment on a regular basis and we’re still growing.”

In fact, he and the band see the ability to earn those kinds of plaudits as nothing less than a necessary responsibility.

“Our duty as musicians is to first inspire…to achieve that we’ve got to give our audiences the essential vitamins they need to be healthy - great music, high energy, style, intelligence...we’ve got to take them on a journey without there permission and bring them back safely.”

Earlier this year the group released their first commercially-available album on Honest Jons Records, a label that Blur frontman, Damon Albarn is a partner in. Featuring some early career highlights, it acts as the perfect primer for an act entering a new and exciting phase of their development.

“We let Honest Jons culminate an era of our career by picking their own favourites and running with those. The tracks were recorded fresh, to help reflect our growth from the past to the present and show newer audiences where the hype originates from.”

After a successful tour of the summer festival circuit and a performance with Albarn’s Africa Exprez project (not to mention mooted involvement in his next Gorillaz work), there’s definitely scope to attract a broader range of listeners and Hudah confirms that the Ensemble are definitely aiming for greater recognition.

“We want to inspire the next generation of great musicians. You’ll definitely see lots of collaborations’ with other artists…we believe more are going to want our sound and it’s theirs’ to have. We’d love to achieve global acceptance…to truly capture the hearts and minds of everyone.”