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"Me
and Ross are brothers. We met Skye at a party. We never repeat
ourselves. And we smoke a lot," Morcheeba's beats supremo
and deadpan humorist Paul Godfrey once told a press conference
of bemused Russian journalists when asked to explain the band.
"Great songwriting. Fantastic guitar playing,"
added Ross Godfrey, who plays the guitars and helps to write
the songs. Sitting next to them, Skye smiled enigmatically.
Looked at her feet. And sensibly said nothing, preferring
to let her mellow, jazz-tinged vocals do her talking.
But how do you sum up Morcheeba, a band who have always defied
categorisation and whose main objective over four albums has
been never to repeat themselves? You could invent an entire
new genre for them, as Mixmag did. "Dub-soul-trip-rock-meditation-trance-pop",
they called it. But even that is probably only the half the
story.
Clubbers love Morcheeba for the trip-hop dreamscapes of tracks
such as Trigger Hippie to soothe frazzled nerves after a night
of frenzy.
Socialites bought into them when the cool downtempo grooves
of 1998's million-selling Big Calm for a brief season became
an essential accessory at all the best dinner parties.
Others came on board for the more upbeat disco-pop of Rome
Wasn't Built In A Day and yet others for the limpid beauty
of the Lambchop-assisted What New York Couples Fight About.
Movie directors are drawn to their atmospheric moodscapes,
with Trigger Hippie appearing in Enemy Of The State, Tape
Loop in This Year's Love, On The Rhodes in Traffic and World
Looking In in Family Man.
But perhaps above all, Morcheeba appeal most to those who
simply love good music in whatever guise it comes and who
admire a band that dares to be different.
Where the band will venture next remains to be seen. But
one thing is certain. Don't expect Morcheeba to repeat themselves.
They haven't done so yet. They have no intention of starting
now. And they probably couldn't if they tried.
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