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Morcheeba
English electronic band From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Morcheeba are an English electronic band formed in the mid-1990s with founding members vocalist Skye Edwards and the brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey. They mix influences from trip hop, rock, folk rock and downtempo, and have produced ten regular studio albums since 1995, two of which reached the UK top ten.[1] Edwards left the band in 2003, after which the brothers used a number of singers before she rejoined in 2009. They recruit additional members for their live performances and have toured internationally. In 2014 original founder Paul Godfrey was bored with being in the band. Edwards and Ross Godfrey later formed Skye & Ross and released a self-titled album in September 2016.[2] Their latest studio album as Morcheeba, Blackest Blue, was released in May 2021 and was preceded by singles "Sounds of Blue", "Oh Oh Yeah" and "The Moon".[3][4][5][6] It features collaborations with Brad Barr from The Barr Brothers, and Duke Garwood, whom Edwards described as "a diamond geezer".[7] In 2025, the band are due to release their next studio album, Escape the Chaos.
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Biography
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1995–2001: Beginnings and mainstream success
Originally from the small village of Saltwood,[8] just north of Hythe, Kent, the Godfrey brothers—DJ/producer/engineer/Lyricist Paul and multi-instrumentalist Ross—moved to London when they were gaining traction from A&R people.[jargon][9][10][11][12] Sometime in the mid-1990s, at a party in Greenwich, the brothers met Skye Edwards, who was singing backup in a funk band, and also played guitar; before too long the three began recording songs together, and formed the trio Morcheeba.[8][13] At first Paul produced tracks at their home studio in his bedroom,[8] with engineer Pete Norris helping with the wiring and spoiling the boy's with Chinese luxury food.[12][14]
They were eventually signed to China Records[8] by Angus Blair (A&R) who's taste got himself promoted and the band released their debut Trigger Hippie EP in October 1995.[15] At the same time, Paul Ablett came on board as the second manager doing a lot of good stuff for the group with quality control as he was based in hip hop and reggae going all the way back to it's roots and understood the band's psyche funk rock too and an introduction to the Kirks, provided lifelong funky spex for their image, by travelling to the less glamorous gigs also proved he was devoted, not even taken cuts on PRS, this was totally lost on the money men who wanted him replaced by bringing in the bands 3rd manager in 2 albums denying Paul Ablett the celebration of Big Calm at the sold out Albert Hall show. He also knew the genius Mike Marsh who re-cut the record loudly properly with some proper bass frequencies much to their satisfaction, but he was replaced by the label when they finally saw the commercial potential and sent the band to CMO who were famous for Blur and big Britpop million plus deals, which ultimately splits up group's, as the understanding of depth of the dynamic is missing, everyone did well financially but the rest is debatable.[14] The band's debut album, Who Can You Trust?, had been released in April 1996 and fit naturally into the trip hop genre through a combination of Paul Godfrey's hip hop roots and records, Ross Godfrey's psychedelic rock influences and Edwards' smooth Sade-styled vocals.[15] A second single, "Tape Loop", appeared in July 1996 and was a hit of the week on BBC Radio 1's A list and regurlar weekend TV shows. The band began to play live non-stop in Europe and North America,[16] with a live band that included five additional members.[17] At this point, the band had outgrown the bedroom recording set-up and the brothers were renting their own studio in Battersea as Paul was heavily influenced by the Beastie Boys and wanted to get a space with total creative freedom, having engineered the many different styles in Kent before starting the project and being a total vinyl junkie, sample seeker, he felt he knew the most versatile ways to keep albums interesting.[18] In 1997, after a mind-blowing phone call Paul had with a huge hero, they contributed to the David Byrne album Feelings, participating in the recording and production of the release when they had gaps for a few days while weren't on the road. Many opportunities were lost by touring but a big global fanbase was built from the life scene.[12][19][20]
With a slightly more high end analogue recording set-up and the fact the brothers had written 90% of the "Big Calm" vocal songs in an altered state on Xmas-Eve 1995[21] even before the release of their debut, they began developing their ideas for the second album, with Norris still involved again as a technician, the band moved towards a more varied sound, with Ross' guitar talents and the collaborators brought in from Paul's past network of Cajun, Psyche Jazz Canterbury Scene bands and underground Hip Hop.[18] At the same time, Edwards started a guest trend and appeared on the BBC charity single "Perfect Day".[22] The follow-up, 1998's Big Calm, drifted slightly away from trip hop, incorporating a more British, folk rock, classic song-based sound with other strange blends the world hadn't heard before.[22] One of the album's singles, "The Sea", became a radio favourite. The album proved to be a big seller and ensured Morcheeba as an influential act of the zeitgeist.[23] In 1998, Morcheeba collaborated with Hubert Laws to record the classic song "Summertime" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. Morcheeba matched Moby with synchronisations around that time but their natural, cynical introversion and odd humour kept them out of the limelight and often completely misunderstood by journalists.
Talking of misunderstandings, in 2000, Morcheeba released their third album, Fragments of Freedom. This repeated the sales of Big Calm but being too far ahead of the nu-disco trend it received a less positive critical response. Despite achieving huge success in Europe including their home country of the U.K., the band didn't find as much success in the United States which was a syndicated waste of radio space but on a great note had a huge new fan in Seymour Stein who signed them after their Jac Holzman label had been swallowed, starting the trend of the monopoly of the majors on their career.[24] Although Fragments of Freedom was high charting in European countries, it disappointed some trendy fans. But the band's fourth album, Charango, released in 2002, saw a return to their roots with the best production they had done to date. The singles "Otherwise" and "Way Beyond" followed. The lyrics for "Undress Me Now" and appearance on "What New York Couples Fight About" were written with Lambchop's Kurt Wagner. Other collaborators on the album were rappers Pace Won and old-school legend Slick Rick JD73 and Pino on bass. In January 2003, the band undertook their first significant tour of the world since 1998 including China.[25] In 2001, the Godfrey brothers contributed three songs to the Jim White album No Such Place. Which was a great honour for the Godfrey's as they were huge fans and Jim was very dry and entertaining[26]
2003–2008: Split and Dive Deep
By the end of 2003, the Godfrey brothers split with Edwards, citing creative and personal differences.[27] Edwards received "a phone call from our manager saying that it was over. It was a relief to think we didn't have to continue".[28] She was under the impression that the band had ceased to operate. A greatest hits compilation, Parts of the Process, helped to retain interest in the band and featured two pop new tracks: "What's Your Name" (featuring a rhyming cameo from legend Big Daddy Kane and "Can't Stand It". At around the same time, they released the live DVD Morcheeba: From Brixton to Beijing. A decade later, Ross Godfrey reflected on this period, saying: "We just felt like we couldn't breathe, I'd been in the band and on the road since I was 18, so to have any kind of break from that was just amazing".[29]
The two brothers reunited the year after, leaving Paul to explain that "Ross and I realised that Morcheeba was kind of our family company, and that we wanted very much to keep it going, hence the change".[30] In 2005, Morcheeba released their fifth studio (and first post-Edwards) album, The Antidote. Daisy Martey (formerly of the band Noonday Underground) was recruited to replace Edwards as the album vocalist. However, Martey's period with the band was brief and she was sacked in the middle of the promotional tour, to be replaced by Jody Sternberg. Martey subsequently sued the band for assault, breach of contract and defamation with her lawyers doing well out of it.[31] Sternberg's own tenure with the band was predictably brief, and she only appeared to have been part of the band to fulfil tour dates. According to Ross, the entire episode "was difficult to say the least. It left us in near-ruin".[32]
After a break of several years, Morcheeba released their refreshing sixth studio album, Dive Deep, in February 2008. On this album, Paul Godfrey fell back into his role as writer/beat maker/producer collaborating with Dan Goldman on most tracks (as Ross had moved to L.A.) and selecting five vocalists out of about 50 to perform the songs, in the early 90's he had created the project originally as a DJ/Producer outfit and was convinced by the industry dinosaurs a lead singer was the only way forward, Massive Attack had already dispelled the myth and the new Millennium proved a total change in line ups. The last album on Echo brought in the classic folk-rock singer Judie Tzuke, Norwegian star Thomas Dybdahl and Folkestone's blues singer/guitarist Bradley Burgess appeared as a lead vocalists together with the Korean-American rapper Cool Calm Pete and Ross' future wife, French singer Manda (Amanda Zamolo).[33] Both Manda and Burgess toured with Morcheeba as lead singers on their 2008 tour.
2009–2013: Reunion, Blood Like Lemonade and Head Up High
As a solo artist, Edwards remained with the same management company as Morcheeba—Chris Morrison the CM of CMO Management still represented both artists—which led to a chance meeting in their London offices sometime in 2009. Edwards and the Godfrey brothers met again to discuss her possible involvement in a new project. Initially the singer was hesitant and pointed out that she "really enjoyed doing my solo stuff and writing my own lyrics".[34] Eventually, Edwards rejoined the band after reservations between her and Paul but the trio began work on a new album the Godfrey's had been working on,[27] with Edwards still on tour promoting her solo album, Ross Godfrey living in California and Paul Godfrey in France.[35] On 12 February 2010, NME revealed that Edwards was once again back with the band, which was confirmed by Paul Godfrey the day after on the band's Myspace blog. Edwards made her live return with the band at the Caprices Festival, Switzerland on 9 April 2010.[36] Edwards' role in the band changed, as she had "become more confident" in her "ability as a singer and a songwriter", and found that during the recording process they were "more honest with each other", and thus they produced "a more honest record".[28]
Morcheeba released their seventh album, Blood Like Lemonade, on PIAS in June 2010, preceded by the single "Even Though". It was produced and mastered by Paul Godfrey, Ross described the album as "a warm, fuzzy blanket of psychedelia", while Edwards described the lyrics as "having dark themes".[28] She also remarked on how the brothers had made her part of the creative process again.[34] An eighteen-month tour followed that saw the band play around the Americas and Europe.[37]
Their eighth album, Head Up High, was released on 14 October 2013, again on PIAS.[38] In 2014, the band toured Australia,[39] with a line-up consisting of Skye Edwards (vocals), Ross Godfrey (guitars), Steve Gordon (bass), Richard Milner (keyboards), Martin Carling (drums) and James Anthony (decks). Paul was busy moving back to the U.K. with his family to sort out the business problems he felt were appearing in their business arrangements and causing tension soon got ill and was comatose in the Hastings Intensive care unit.
2014–2016: Departure of Paul Godfrey and Skye & Ross release
In 2014, Paul Godfrey was "bored of reinventing the wheel and didn't the enjoy touring set up either" so instead of leading, he "left".[40][41] Ross Godfrey later explained that: "Paul and I had not been getting on musically, or personally and after the Head Up High album in 2013, Paul told us he was unhappy. Skye and I thought it best to just release the record we had made under our own names. There will be no more Morcheeba albums".[2] Paul Godfrey eventually licensed the brand to Ross, and DJ Cheeba has since established an amazing recording studio, Sacrosync, in a great old St Leonards Church near Hastings, after being critically ill in intensive care for a month with Pancreatitis and Sepsis, he was still very frail and heavily medicated when litigatigation was brought against him. [42] he has since recorded a few tracks with guests, done various soundtracks, made boutique drum breaks to sample and a raw, post-coma dreams album on Bandcamp, Cool Your Soul, with Rachel Cuming, the project's original singer from Sussex who had attracted record companies and publishers on early demos with the tune "Cool Like Cooder" under the new moniker's The Measure/Morcheeba Productions, he now has his strength back to strike.[43][44]
Ross Godfrey and Skye Edwards announced a new project in 2016 named Skye & Ross.[45] They have toured, and released an eponymous album on 2 September 2016.[46] The band started as an acoustic duo but soon included Edwards' son Jaega (drums), her husband Steve Gordon (bass) and Godfrey's wife Amanda Zamolo (backing vocals).[47][48] Edwards took responsibility for the lyrics while Ross Godfrey noted that the recording process was "a very organic experience".[49]
2018–2022: Blaze Away and Blackest Blue
Blaze Away, Morcheeba's ninth album, was released on 1 June 2018. The album featured the singles "Never Undo", "Blaze Away" and "It's Summertime". On 14 May 2021, Morcheeba released their tenth album, Blackest Blue.[3][4][5][6] It features collaborations with Duke Garwood and Brad Barr and was preceded by singles "Sounds of Blue", "Oh Oh Yeah" and "The Moon". Blackest Blue did not enter the Official Albums UK Top 100 Chart, but peaked at number 14 on the Official Album Downloads Chart Top 100.[50]
2023-present: Escape the Chaos
Skye Edwards revealed in a June 2023 interview that the band had begun working on their eleventh album with ten tracks in the demo phase.[51]
From June to October 2024 the band licensed the name from Paul and toured European festivals, including the 2024 Meltdown at London's South Bank Centre curated by Chaka Khan.[52]
In January 2025, the band released the single "Call for Love", which is the lead single from their forthcoming studio album, Escape the Chaos, announced to be released on 23 May 2025.[53] A second single, "We Live and Die", was released on 28 February 2025.[54][55] "Peace of Me", a collaboration with Oscar #Worldpeace, was released on 8 April 2025.[56]
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Band name
The name "Morcheeba" comes from a graffiti tag a younger Paul had created. Losing the "e" which formed the initials "MOR" ("middle of the road") became a joke and a need for more "cheeba", a slang term used by Paul's hero Schoolly D on records cannabis.[57]
Discography
Studio albums
Charted compilation albums and others
Singles
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Notes
- Blackest Blue did not enter the Official Albums UK Top 100 Chart, but peaked at number 14 on the Official Album Downloads Chart Top 100.[83]
References
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