Morcheeba

The most groove-oriented act in the mid-'90s female-fronted electronica crowd, Morcheeba relies on the sweet, fluid vocals of Skye Edwards and a laid-back mix of fusion, funk, and blues produced by brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey, on beats/scratches and guitar/keyboards, respectively. The trio was formed in 1995 when the Godfreys decided to go out on their own after co-producing six tracks for David Byrne's album Feelings. They submitted several tapes of their instrumental demos to labels around London, but received little interest in return. After hooking up with vocalist Edwards at a party, however, their music began to gel and Morcheeba signed to the China label. After the release of two EPs (Trigger Hippie and Music That We Hear), the trio issued their debut album, Who Can You Trust? It appeared on the American Discovery label in late 1996, and Morcheeba toured the U.S. with Live and Fiona Apple the following year. Big Calm followed in 1998 and Fragments of Freedom was released two years later. Charango appeared in 2002 and featured guest appearances from Lambchop's Kurt Wagner and rapper Slick Rick. A year later, the greatest hits collection Parts of the Process was released and Skye Edwards left the band. Former Noonday Underground vocalist Daisy Martey joined the group for 2005's The Antidote, a more acoustic album that mixed psychedelia with Burt Bacharach-styled pop.

Dive Deep is the sixth and latest album from Morcheeba.

On their first five albums they explored the gamut of contemporary alt.dance genres, pioneering a song-based form of dance music that would soon become known as trip hop or chill-out while collaborating with a variety of singers and musicians that posited Morcheeba as an eclectic and open-minded collective.

That idea is made explicit on Dive Deep. In 2008, Morcheeba have become a vehicle for the thoughts and experiments of brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey, with no fixed singer but rather a series of vocalists who enhance the atmosphere of fluidity and free-form exploration. “A lot of them I contacted through MySpace,” explains Paul, “and they were all people who wanted to genuinely contribute something. This made the whole process extremely easy. The songs were mainly co-written with the guests spontaneously in the studio. I had an emotional template for the album and they picked it up and ran with it.”

Those guests range from established names such as acclaimed singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke who Paul grew up listening to and has, he says, “a natural sense of melody - her voice is unique and extremely soulful”, to relative newcomers such as Thomas Dybdahl, a star in his homeland of Norway (“I was gob-smacked – again, his voice was so soulful”), rapper Cool Calm Pete (“his rap was heartfelt without being slushy and his delivery is one of the best I have ever heard”), Bradley Burgess (a friend from Folkestone with whom Paul bonded over a love of John Martyn) and Manda, a French singer who contacted the Godfreys via MySpace, admitting “it was her dream to sing with us.”

Go to Morcheebas website to listen to all the lead vocals on the Album in Acapella. Where you can also have a go at remixing the tracks and send it back to Morcheeba for consideration.

Check out our written feature with the band