Morcheeba : Releases >>

Information provided by Amazon.co.uk

Blame Tricky and Portishead. They started this whole Bristol sound thing, with sleepy techno beats overshadowed by the chirrupy vocals of some slumberland chanteuse. And, just when you think the approach has lost all its steam, all its relevance, along comes a new outfit to make the music a few degrees sleepier and the singing a tad more dreamy. And singers don't come any dreamier than Skye Edwards, whose lissom trill infuses every track on this sophomore outing with a tranquil ennui. You don't jump around to Morcheeba numbers like "The Sea". You sit back and let them creep up on you, as steady as the tides. --Tom Lanham

Parts of the Process - The Best of Morcheeba >>

Parts of the Process tracks the career of one of British music's least-sung success stories. When Morcheeba first emerged in 1996, they were bracketed with the trip-hoppers, very much in the slipstream of the Bristol crew represented by Massive Attack and Tricky. Yet their fortunes contrasted with those of most trip-hoppers: trip-hop is a supposedly languid, easy-grooving genre, but its major practitioners have proved surprisingly volatile, prone to internal feuds and catastrophic slumps or liable simply to evaporate altogether, like Portishead. Morcheeba, on the other hand, with a quiet stealth that is the mark of their music, managed to garner a significant worldwide following, even touring China.

Morcheeba are a trio featuring brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey (whose backgrounds were in prog-rock and deejaying) and vocalist Skye Edwards. Their music is a seemingly effortless blend of influences from soul to hippy and rock to pop. It's smooth and beguiling, dark and beige by turns--no more so than on "Trigger Hippie". Without missing a beat, they are also able to incorporate guest artists such as rapper Big Daddy Kane on "What's Your Name" and Lambchop's Kurt Wagner on "What New York Couples Fight About". This is a fine compilation, but it's a shame that it's missing the title track from their debut album Who Can You Trust. --David Stubbs

The Platinum Collection >>

Who Can You Trust >>

Morcheeba served as the template for subsequent "trip-hop" combos, with a line-up that consisted of brothers Ross and Paul Godfrey (both steeped in a musical heritage ranging from Hendrix to roots reggae, from which they cherry-picked at will) and female vocalist Skye Edwards, whose languid vocals melted into the brothers' melange of slide guitars, scratch DJing dub and tablas like cream into coffee. "Who Can You Trust" didn't immediately win over the dance crowd, moving as it did at Mississippi pace through a marijuana haze of sound. The album's standout tracks, however, including "Tape Loop" and "Trigger Hippie", an almost edible concoction of dark funky ingredients, ensured that it became a slow-burning and widely imitated landmark mid-1990s album. --David Stubbs

Fragments Of Freedom >>

In which Clapham's dreamiest, downbeatiest, de-loveliest trio takes it uptown, takes it to the bridge, and even--on the phatter-than-phat "In The Hands Of The Gods"--takes it over to Biz Markie's house. If you aren't frightened of sudden bursts of extroversion or a whiff of the mainstream any more than those stray dismissals of Morcheeba's oeuvre as "coffeetablist" put you off, you're in for a treat. Albeit a more in-your-face variety than that of luscious predecessor Big Calm, which sold sneaky, word-of-mouth millions while still seeming like an irresistibly hoarded secret between you, Paul Edwards' turntables, brother Ross' sleepy slide guitar and Skye Edwards' mouth-watering voice. Fortunately, there's enough pop here for everyone to take a bite: bright, radio-friendly gospel choruses ("Rome Wasn't Built In A Day"), shameless disco strings ("Shallow End"), wickedly itchy grooves and Chic-style struts ("Be Yourself", "Let It Go"). Melancholics will doubtless prefer the hazily elegiac title track and hypnotic "World Looking In", but the album's real highlights radiate pure exuberance instead. And judging from the Grandmaster Flash-ised roller-rink glee of "Love Sweet Love", or Skye and rapper Bahamadia biggin' up the ladies in "Good Girl Down", rest assured that if any coffee tables were involved in the production of this recording, they were treated with a complete lack of respect. --Jennifer Nine

The Antidote >>

Since delivering their 1993 mini-opus Big Calm, second-generation trip-hop outfit Morcheeba have taken their hybrid blues/country/hip-hop/soul sound to an increasingly wider audience. Their music has suffered as a consequence, the sass and strut of the early days gradually suffocated by tired production clichés and vapid, big-name collabs (see Charango). The Antidote has none of that. It's a stonking return to form, as the band trade in their sultry singer Skye Edwards for the feistier, grittier Daisy Martey (ex-Noonday Underground), enlist experimental musician Rob Mullinder and create a massive, orotund and ear-catching psychedelic sound by recording everything live. The songs here are by far the best they've made in a decade, with catchy hooks and thoughtful lyricism matching the bright, eager production sound. The awe-inspiring confidence and thinly disguised joie de vivre that kickstarts the album lasts most of the way through too, marking the long-awaited final stage in the band's transmogrification from introspective dance act to kick-ass stadium rock band. --Paul Sullivan

Big Calm >>

Charango >>

It's no surprise that Morcheeba's fourth album Charango has been given a summer release to catch the chillout boom. Since bursting into the charts and national consciousness with 1998's sophomore album Big Calm, the trio have carved a veritable niche as purveyors of evocative nuevo-lounge and dreamy ambience. While 2000's Fragments Of Freedom saw the South Londoners' first tentative step out of the "coffee table" pigeonhole, Charango is the sound of them relaxing, infusing influences such as hip-hop, country and cinematic scores into a joyous blend of humour, romance and soothing melancholy. There are vintage moments such as the lush lethargy of "Slow Down" and the string-laden single "Otherwise" but some of the most interesting tracks are the result of collaborations. Having written "What New York Couples Fight About" and "Undress Me Now", Lambchop frontman Kurt Wagner lends his achingly-emotive vocal to the former, while providing Skye with some charming lyrical raunch on the latter; "Using Your Mind / Imagine Our Skin / Joined At The Hip / Joined From Within". "Women Lose Weight" meanwhile is far less romantic; featuring rapper Slick Rick's dulcet tones, it's a tongue-in-cheek tale of a husband driven to murder by his overweight wife. Recorded soon after Rick was released from prison for shooting his cousin, it's of dubious taste if nonetheless entertaining. Adventurous and inspired yet dripping with Morcheeba's trademark languid rhythms and tranquil melodies, Charango is at the very least a return to form and arguably their best work to date. --Christopher Barrett