Take Cover
After much anticipation, Hot 8 Brass Band’s latest offering “Take Cover” will be released on 22nd February. The release sees the Grammy-nominated group “Take Cover” as they bring their iconic hip hop and brass workings to classic tracks from Joy Division, The Jacksons, George Benson and Michael Jackson. The EP will be available digitally, on black vinyl and on limited edition red vinyl and will coincide with the band’s European Take Cover 2019 Tour.
Following singles “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Give Me The Night”, a festive appearance Live at Maida Vale for Lauren Laverne (BBC 6 Music) and a raucous ‘Hot 8 New Year’ offering on Jools Holland’s New Year’s Eve Hootenanny, “Take Cover” has received support from across the BBC, Rolling Stone, John Kennedy (Radio X), Tony Minvielle (Jazz FM). It will be the band’s first vinyl since their compelling fifth album ‘On The Spot’, which dropped to high praise from the likes of The Observer and Songlines to Billboard and the Wall Street Journal.
Known for channelling the joy and feel good sensations of their music into transcending any differences, this release is no exception. Though all the tracks featured on the EP are personal choices for Hot 8 Brass Band, much of the arrangements have come from the reactions of New Orleans crowds. “The more we play and see people reacting, the more we add pieces,” they confess. “Sometimes when we play on the streets people dance on a particular spot in a song and we realise that’s what we want to emphasise to be able to give something back to the crowd. In America today it’s so important to bring people together”.
Beyond the band’s affection for 1970s Britain, the parallels between the tragic stories of Ian Curtis, previous Hot 8 members and young creatives across the industry anchor the Hot 8’s attachment to opening track “Love Will Tear Us Apart”; “love tears us apart as we see friends pass and go, but of course they’re still part of us and the love we feel collectively”. In true Hot 8 style, as the EP moves from Joy Division to The Jacksons with infectious covers of “Shake Your Body” and Michael Jacksons’ “Remember The Time” that transport the listener to the street parties of New Orleans with a dose of 70s groove and samba beats.
Putting their memorable cover version skills to work on George Benson’s funk, soul and jazz amalgamation “Give Me The Night”, Hot 8 Brass Band continue to show off the nostalgic importance of their output: “R&B and pop tunes like ‘Give Me The Night’ or ‘Sexual Healing’ were always being played on our jukeboxes and radios throughout the neighbourhood and houses – growing up our parents blazed those tunes.” As a sultry take on Michael Jackson’s disco classic “Baby Be Mine” brings “Take Cover” to a close, the love, soul and party atmosphere that overflow from this release are left behind, leaving the listener with only one option – to press play again.
With the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the separate deaths of five band members and trumpeter Terrell “Burger” Batiste losing his legs in a car crash, these men have been tested by a barely imaginable series of trials. Their tragic yet life-affirming story has been featured in the Spike Lee documentaries When The Levees Broke and The Creek Don’t Rise, and David Simon’s HBO series Treme; 2016 interviews with Mary Anne Hobbs (6Music) and BBC World Service’s Outlook chimed especially intensely with listeners in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement. Transcending genres and trends, Hot 8 have performed and collaborated with artists from Lauryn Hill and Alice Russell to Mos Def, The Roots and Blind Boys of Alabama, and featured in a hugely diverse spread of media. Honouring their city’s musical traditions while forging their own powerful legacy, their story continues with each new and exciting release.
“2019 is already better knowing these guys are coming back at the end of January” – LAUREN LAVERNE (BBC 6MUSIC)