Morcheeba

Rediscover Morcheeba with The Masters Collection, 28 tracks of laid back, Trip Hop Funk. London based Morcheeba feature the sweet and fluid vocals of Skye Edwards accompanied by a fusion of laidback fun and blues produced by brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey. Formed in 1995 the band rose to fame with platinum selling album Big Calm and their music and unmistakable sound has been featured in a number of high profile film and media ventures. Notable tracks include: The Sea, Part Of The Process, Trigger Hippie, World Looking In, Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day, Blindfold and Tape Loop all of which appear on this superb Masters Collection album.

Now on their second album since original vocalist Skye Edwards rejoined the band, trip-hop veterans Morcheeba stretch their wings on Head Up High, an album that follows its guest stars into outside genres and generally messes about with the group's patented sound. It's obviously an inspirational move, as "Face of Danger" with rapper Chali 2na is a instantly gripping 2013 neo-disco near-sequel to Grace Jones' declarative hit "Demolition Man," while the pride-injected "To Be" with U.K. hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks gets that dirt off the shoulder in the coolest of styles. "Finally Found You" with White Denim's James Petralli is a solid universal love song that would make the country charts if sung by Parton and Rogers or the R&B charts if sung by Austin and Ingram…

Realizing that trip-hop was a dead end, at least as far as hipness goes, Morcheeba expanded their sonic palette on their second album, Big Calm. Trip-hop and dance rhythms remain, but the trio has spent more time writing songs, crafting an album where pop, lounge, film soundtracks, reggae, jazz, and electronica all peacefully coexist. Consequently, Big Calm is a stylistic tour de force, evidence that Morcheeba have turned into a mature, sophisticated group with impeccable taste. Occasionally, the album can sound a little distant, as if the fusions and productions were more important than the actual songs, but the trio is so musically adept, and Skye Edwards' voice is so enchanting, that Big Calm become irresistible in its own way.

A more literal return to form, Blood Like Lemonade builds on the familiar downtempo grooves that filled Morcheeba's 2008 effort Dive Deep, but this time with original vocalist Skye Edwards back in the fray. Right from the opening dusty, minor-keyboard chord, the album is instantly identifiable for fans as stony, late-night grooves combine with melodies that are both pop-minded and soul-spirited. All the organic elements that sit on top of the slow, rolling drum machines are back, as is the sinister underbelly of their early material, although here it's amped up a touch. The title track references “drinking blood like lemonade,” while “Recipe for Disaster” begins “Wanna know why there's a dead guy in my dining room” before unveiling a story that's somewhere between the Jesse James legend and Natural Born Killers. The sweet tricks are Edwards using her velvet voice to make it all sound delicious, along with her ability to be equally effective on the breezy, positive numbers like “I Am the Spring.” Add “Crimson,” which would be the quintessential Morcheeba song if “Rome Wasn't Built in a Day” didn't exist, and Blood Like Lemonade exceeds expectations, coming in a close second behind fan favorite Big Calm.

Pioneers of the British music scene, Blackest Blue will be the band's 10th studio album in a discography that spans three decades. 2020 saw Morcheeba unable to tour or perform live, which gave Skye Edwards & Ross Godfrey "time to write songs and really get to hone them," as Godfrey puts it. "There weren't so many pressures so we could really take our time getting the songs right," adds Edwards.

The original soundtrack to Steven Soderbergh's striking drug war drama Traffic features Cliff Martinez's sparse, evocative score, classical pieces, and electronica, resulting in a collection of music that's nearly as complex and diverse as the film it accompanies. Martinez, who has scored virtually all of Soderbergh's films (except Erin Brockovich), proves once again why they work together so often: the score's atmospheric drones and understated rhythms build a restrained, implosive tension far better than blaring orchestral pieces. Like the film itself, Martinez' pieces aren't obvious. They don't tell the listener what to feel; they just set the scene and let the audience fill in the blanks. And though big beat songs like Fatboy Slim's "Give the Po' Man a Break" and Kruder & Dorfmeister's remix of Rockers Hi-Fi's "Going Under" could be too much of a contrast with Martinez' airy compositions, the album is deftly sequenced, allowing for the highs and lows of the score and songs like Morcheeba's "On the Road Again," Wilhelm Kempff's "Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor," and Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)." Though it sounds even better in conjunction with the film, Traffic is still one of 2000's best soundtracks.