Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band (BRSB) is a rather mysterious steel pan outfit hailing from Hamburg, Germany who have amassed a cult following around the globe. BRSB features Ben Greenslade-Stanton & Björn Wagner and anywhere from one to eight additional musicians. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band's previous two efforts, 55 & The Serpent's Mouth, boasted a wide array of genre-spanning steel pan instrumental covers, including 50 Cent, John Holt, Mobb Deep, Dennis Coffey, Faith Evans, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Dr. Dre. Mary J. Blige, Gang Starr, and Amerie. Now, BRSB have returned once more with the announcement of their third proper album, Expansions, due out later this summer on Big Crown Records.


"On their third album, aptly titled Expansions, BRSB are back with more of the same, but more of the same with them is inherently different," explains Big Crown within a press statement. Again, covering songs that span genres and range from mega-hits to deep album cuts, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band make them their own with their own unique approach to the traditional steel pans of Trinidad & Tobago. Honesly, part of the fun with each new Bacao album is finding out what covers they chose to reinterpret. Across Expansions, we're treated to Galt MacDermot, Slum Village/J Dilla, Grace Jones, Ike Turner, Minnie Riperton, Erykah Badu, Sylvester, and JAY-Z. "An easy crowd favorite is their gritty, gully, and neck-snapping cover of the Timbaland-produced JAY-Z club hit, "Dirt Off Your Shoulder,'" Big Crown Records boasts.


We've already heard "My Jamacian Dub" and "The Healer" (Erykah Badu as produced by J Dilla) both of which re-appear here now on Expansions. Elsewhere on Expansions BRSB present covers of Sylvester's "I Need Somebody to Love Tonight," Ike Turner's "Getting Nasty," and Minnie Riperton's "Les Fleurs." By the time Expansion's 12 tarcks come to a close, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band has taken the listener on a journey that spans a myriad of energies, tempos, and moods while, somehow, managing to keep it all under one umbrella. BRSB is breathing renewed life into the originals and continuing to push the boundaries of steel pan music, or, as the title suggests, expanding upon it. Expansions was announced just this past weekend and is now available for pre-order. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band's Expansions is out on 7/16 via Big Crown Records.