I will fully admit I don’t know much about jazz, or the talent and skill that go into creating big band-style music. I can only tell you what I like. What I love is the new album from Amsterdam’s big brass band Gallowstreet.
I don’t know if you would call it jazz; there are elements of electronic, drum&bass, hip-hop and classic stomping swing that you can draw out from the group’s music. I think it should just be called Hype Music, as that’s what it does – hype you up. The music the group composes is upbeat and thrilling.
Songs like the triumphant “Phoenix” should be blasted at football stadiums across the world, and become the anthems of any losing team attempting to rise back up from the ashes. With the huge choruses of horns and other brass instruments in these songs, it’s impossible not to feel pumped up and ready to go! Flutes and tuba combine to create an immensely spirited beat on “Hungry” that is halfway between classic hip hop and orchestral movement. Either way, it could get you dancing. The band also shows they could write the funkiest Bond theme ever with “Proper Hired Guns”.
And while all these songs are from the group’s newest album A Trip Worth Making, the group have been around for nearly a decade, having dropped their debut album Battleplan in 2016. That album contained “Asterix”, a strutting number that is also enticingly melodic as it moves from charismatic horns blasting to thumbing rhythms and quirky percussion.
All of this is to say that the band has been writing great music since its inception, but it’s time for them to break-out big time. Listen to a few of their incredible tracks in our Bad Ass Break-Outs Playlist to see why.
The Indy Review 