ALBUM NEWS: MICHELLE - 'Songs About You Specifically'

Only the best news from Transgressive Records, always. They're celebrating their 20th (!!) anniversary this year with a run of shows later in the year and festival showcases, starting with Glastonbury later this week. For now though, album news from the label: New-Yorkers MICHELLE are back, following up their recent EP GLOW with news of an upcoming album. Their third studio record, Songs About You Specifically is due on September 27th, and features first single Oontz which you can hear below. Silky smooth and groovy as ever, I'm adoring this, and them. They're such a refreshing, exciting collective - a group that I'm always so thrilled to recommend to anybody who'll listen.

On the new record, the group have a new found closeness and vulnerability, formed through time spent living and writing in a house in Ojai, California and on the road. Talking about the developing bonds between the band, Emma shares: "there are friends I've had for almost my whole life who I won't know as intimately as I know members of this group. There isn't really an opportunity for that in any other kind of relationship in your life."

MICHELLE are Sofia D'Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee and Jamee Lockard.

You can pre-order and pre-save the album here.

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WATCH: MICHELLE - 'POSE'

Album recommendation time, folks!!!! You all know how much I love MICHELLE, right? They're an NYC-based collective that first came onto my radar about two years ago with this brilliant live session performance of The Bottom from their first record. They had just signed to Transgressive over here and have been releasing a string of superb singles since, but I think that new track POSE might be one of my favourites yet. It's taken from brand new record AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS which I can confirm, after a good few listens, is pretty damn superb too. See for yourself... 

Grab a copy of the record and check out their upcoming tour dates on the website here.

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WATCH: MICHELLE - 'MESS U MADE'

A slice of soulful bedroom pop for your Thursday... damn I love MICHELLE. The New York based 6-piece never miss, travelling across genres to create beautiful art with the layered harmonies of their four vocalists Sofia, Emma, Layla and Jamee, alongside synths and percussion from Charlie and Julian. MESS U MADE arrives with a living room session video (complete with session guitarist Maya Polsky and session bassist Nick Catrambone) and really shows off the cross-genre music they're making... and the passion behind it. The track is the second to be taken from their upcoming album AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS (due 28th January via Transgressive Records in the UK.) Enjoy... 

Having just finished up a US tour with Arlo Parks, MICHELLE recently announced US tour dates for 2022 with Mitski. They'll be supporting Gus Dapperton around the US in November, and a UK headline tour follows in February, including The Lexington on 9th February. Tickets here. 

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ALBUM NEWS: MICHELLE - 'After Dinner We Talk Dreams'

Brilliant news klaxon... NYC-collective MICHELLE have announced their new album!!! Genuinely the most joyous of news. After Dinner We Talk Dreams is due for release in the UK via the dreamboats Transgressive on 28th January. They've been one of my favourite discoveries of the past few years, bringing joy with recent singles SUNRISE, FYO, UNBOUND and latest offering SYNCOPATE. For me though, it was this live performance of first album track THE BOTTOM which got me hooked. Pure love at first listen. 

On new track SYNCOPATE, the group share: "the song at its core is about desire. Communicating your desire can feel vulnerable, so we wanted to have some fun with that and show our funky and seductive side. It really feels like we're hitting the street for the first time by putting this song out into the world."

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WATCH: MICHELLE - 'FYO'

"Why do I turn to you to tell me who I am?" 

What a treat! There's a brand new MICHELLE track out today. Really loving this project... with songwriting from Sofia D'Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee and Jamee Lockard and production from Kaufman and Kilgore, they're a group of born and bred New Yorkers making some of my favourite music at the moment. Recent singles UNBOUND and SUNRISE were two of the best tracks I heard last year. New single FYO is a powerful reflection on the four lead singers' experiences growing up with mixed race identities. It's all sorts of brilliant. Featuring the four singers, the video is directed by the band's own Layla Ku and Emma Lee (and it's also brilliant.) 

On the meaning behind the track, Jamee explains that "FYO is about belonging to different worlds, but feeling rejected by both. Growing up as a mixed-race minority in the US, my self concept was warped by other people telling me what I am and am not, pushing and pulling me between identities. Although my feelings of cultural dissonance still ebb and flow, now I have the vocabulary, support system, and perspective to unpack that inner conflict on my own terms. We should never give others the authority to define who we are." 

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WATCH: MICHELLE - 'UNBOUND'

Quickly - I should mention some blog news which is pretty cool and overwhelming - in an effort to get the blog seen by as many people as possible, I submitted to Feedspot a couple of weeks back, and got an email recently saying that it had been chosen as one of the Top 80 UK Music Blogs. The blog is number 39 currently which is wild. You can check the list out here, and if you sign up to the site, can follow the blog there and subscribe for email updates on new posts.

Back to the music: I am so so so excited about this!!!! A brand new track from NYC collective MICHELLE. They're one of my favourite 2020 discoveries, with their track THE BOTTOM getting a little resurgence earlier in the year, before their single SUNRISE dropped in July. UNBOUND is their second single of the year, and was premiered as the Hottest Record in the World on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show last week, before the video premiered on The FADER. It's glorious to see them getting such brilliant press for it because the track is superb - a giant hit of nostalgia in a slice of 90s-esque R&B. Dreamy in every way. 

Talking about the track, the band shared that "UNBOUND came alive really fast. It's about desire: the kind that oozes for the person you do want and the kind that evaporates for the person you don't. We wanted to make something groovy and colorful, that could access nostalgia while also giving our listeners something new and danceable in a way we haven't before."

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WATCH: MICHELLE - 'SUNRISE'

One of my favourite recent discoveries, I found NYC collective MICHELLE recently, as it was announced that they were signing to Transgressive for publishing in the UK. They self-released their debut album HEATWAVE in 2018, a record created in just two weeks and with stand-out track THE BOTTOM (which is so SO good!) Made up predominately of POC and queer members, their music benefits from an equally diverse range of influences, and there is something really refreshing and exciting about the group. 

They've just shared their first single since the record, SUNRISE. The single arrives alongside an animated music video directed by Kohana Wilson, with single artwork from Niko Chang, both fellow NYC creatives. Talking about the new track, the band explains that "SUNRISE holds some kind of a summer air, but more so a longing for someone who could never really show up. A sentiment as sticky, sweaty, and fleeting as summer. SUNRISE is as bittersweet as it is groovy. We're grateful that the first song we're releasing since HEATWAVE gets to be one we've held on to, sang, rewritten, and lived with for so long." 

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WATCH: MICHELLE - 'The Bottom' (Live at Atlantic Records Studio)

There's a couple of record labels that have consistently impressed and excited me with their output, ones which I feel like I'm in really comfortable hands when they announce a new signing. The first is Communion (... of course) and the second, Transgressive. They've worked on albums with the likes of Foals, Cosmo Sheldrake, Johnny Flynn and Gengahr and I am really intrigued by latest signing, New York collective MICHELLE, who fuse R&B, 80s synth pop, jazz and indie into their own unique style. The group are working with Transgressive in the UK and Canvasback Music/Atlantic Records for the rest of the world.

They released their debut album Heatwave last year, but they're a new name to me. The new live video they've just put out of track The Bottom, recorded in February at Atlantic Records Studios, is a gorgeous watch. The harmonies!!! Talking about the track, lyricist and vocalist Emma Lee says that "the song is an ode to the East river. Whispering worries to my mom by the river, mustering up the courage to dive in without fear - diving into what scares me, or into this loyal body of water."

If you're into those harmonies (of course you are) then check out this video from a Sofar Sounds NYC show last year - the stripped back environment makes the vocals even more impressive. I'm very intrigued to see what comes next from this group!

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