Morcheeba - Everybody Loves A Loser
Morcheeba - World Looking In
This is a tale of cunning, of unscrupulousness. It is the story of a three-piece band called Morcheeba, which is appearing Friday at Metro. Morcheeba was once a wholly unknown outfit, just another collection of wannabe pop stars laying siege to the record industry but unable to conquer the affections of the A&R people lounging lazily beyond its corporate gates.
But then Morcheeba — brothers Ross and Paul Godfrey, and singer Skye Edwards — had an idea. Like the Greeks, who built that monster wooden horse to conquer Troy, the three would build an elaborate vessel with which to cloak themselves.
So in 1995, Morcheeba set about whittling the image of a group that looked like a trip-hop band. The trio piled inside their trip-hop horse and wheeled themselves up to those unyielding corporate walls. Hoodwinked, the A&R people gleefully pulled the offering inside the industry gates.
“We fooled a lot of people. Really, it was just a Machiavellian way of trying to get a deal and trying to get the press on our side,” says the younger brother, Ross Godfrey. “We were fully aware of what we were doing. We got the attention, and the songs were good enough to transcend any genre kind of thing. Now we’ve just jumped off the bandwagon and started doing whatever we like.”
The strategy has worked. Though the band’s first album, “Who Can You Trust?” was dreamy and pointless (all part of the trip-hop guise, they say), it propelled the group to music’s inner circle just one year after its birth in the seaside town of Hythe, England. Musical revolutionaries to the bone, the three then looked to affect change from within.
The result is Morcheeba’s sophomore album, “Big Calm.” Much less trip-hop — a blend of hip-hop beats with atmospheric rhythms — “Big Calm” is more a work of modern-beat folk, a blend of blues and hip-hop with a Cat Stevens, Crosby Stills and Nash edge.
The name Morcheeba is a combination of “M.O.R” (an acronym for Middle of the Road, a description the band reserves for what it thinks are mediocre talents) and “cheeba” (slang for marijuana). That the band came up with it in the first place was all part of the diabolical plan to deceive the record industry.
“We had about 15 different names that we were putting on the tapes that we were giving out to different record companies so that if they chatted amongst themselves they wouldn’t pick up on the fact that they were talking about the same band,” says Godfrey. “There were loads of others. The Montana Country Band was a great one, because it used to really confuse English A&R people.”
It’s no doubt that Morcheeba has been wise every step of the way so far. Glomming onto the trip-hop and electronica frenzy in ’95 was smart. And jumping off in ’98, just as it is becoming apparent that electronica may not be the musical panacea the critics thought it would be, is even smarter.
“It’s a very confusing time at the moment. No one really knows what’s going on,” says Godfrey.”That’s why we’re moving in our own direction, rather than follow anyone else’s.”
Indeed, “Big Calm” is the metaphoric antidote for a rave scene, which may finally be coming down from its media-fueled, chemically induced high. “Big Calm” is the music you put on after the rave hat is stowed in the hall closet, after the high-pitched wail in the eardrums becomes tolerable.
The track “Part of the Process” is country fiddle and bass. “Friction” is funky reggae with trumpet and trombone. The beginning of “Fear and Love” could appear in a Henry Mancini soundtrack.
“The thing is, we’re the first generation of kids to have cool parents,” says Godfrey. “My mum used to go see Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. There’s no way I can rebel against that. You can’t get more outrageous than Keith Richards was in the ’60s. You have to submit to the fact that everything’s already been done, so we might as well carry on, enjoying it and mixing it up with different ingredients.”
Morcheeba’s first single was the semi-hit “Trigger Hippie,” which is on the band’s first album. That stirred interest in the group from David Byrne, who had the brothers co-produce nine songs on his latest solo album, “Feelings.” To date, personalities as diverse as Madonna, Ozzy Osbourne and George Michael have rung up Morcheeba, expressing interest in collaborating and professing affection for the group’s groove. From: https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/04/24/morcheeba-the-band-that-faked-being-trip-hop/
But then Morcheeba — brothers Ross and Paul Godfrey, and singer Skye Edwards — had an idea. Like the Greeks, who built that monster wooden horse to conquer Troy, the three would build an elaborate vessel with which to cloak themselves.
So in 1995, Morcheeba set about whittling the image of a group that looked like a trip-hop band. The trio piled inside their trip-hop horse and wheeled themselves up to those unyielding corporate walls. Hoodwinked, the A&R people gleefully pulled the offering inside the industry gates.
“We fooled a lot of people. Really, it was just a Machiavellian way of trying to get a deal and trying to get the press on our side,” says the younger brother, Ross Godfrey. “We were fully aware of what we were doing. We got the attention, and the songs were good enough to transcend any genre kind of thing. Now we’ve just jumped off the bandwagon and started doing whatever we like.”
The strategy has worked. Though the band’s first album, “Who Can You Trust?” was dreamy and pointless (all part of the trip-hop guise, they say), it propelled the group to music’s inner circle just one year after its birth in the seaside town of Hythe, England. Musical revolutionaries to the bone, the three then looked to affect change from within.
The result is Morcheeba’s sophomore album, “Big Calm.” Much less trip-hop — a blend of hip-hop beats with atmospheric rhythms — “Big Calm” is more a work of modern-beat folk, a blend of blues and hip-hop with a Cat Stevens, Crosby Stills and Nash edge.
The name Morcheeba is a combination of “M.O.R” (an acronym for Middle of the Road, a description the band reserves for what it thinks are mediocre talents) and “cheeba” (slang for marijuana). That the band came up with it in the first place was all part of the diabolical plan to deceive the record industry.
“We had about 15 different names that we were putting on the tapes that we were giving out to different record companies so that if they chatted amongst themselves they wouldn’t pick up on the fact that they were talking about the same band,” says Godfrey. “There were loads of others. The Montana Country Band was a great one, because it used to really confuse English A&R people.”
It’s no doubt that Morcheeba has been wise every step of the way so far. Glomming onto the trip-hop and electronica frenzy in ’95 was smart. And jumping off in ’98, just as it is becoming apparent that electronica may not be the musical panacea the critics thought it would be, is even smarter.
“It’s a very confusing time at the moment. No one really knows what’s going on,” says Godfrey.”That’s why we’re moving in our own direction, rather than follow anyone else’s.”
Indeed, “Big Calm” is the metaphoric antidote for a rave scene, which may finally be coming down from its media-fueled, chemically induced high. “Big Calm” is the music you put on after the rave hat is stowed in the hall closet, after the high-pitched wail in the eardrums becomes tolerable.
The track “Part of the Process” is country fiddle and bass. “Friction” is funky reggae with trumpet and trombone. The beginning of “Fear and Love” could appear in a Henry Mancini soundtrack.
“The thing is, we’re the first generation of kids to have cool parents,” says Godfrey. “My mum used to go see Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. There’s no way I can rebel against that. You can’t get more outrageous than Keith Richards was in the ’60s. You have to submit to the fact that everything’s already been done, so we might as well carry on, enjoying it and mixing it up with different ingredients.”
Morcheeba’s first single was the semi-hit “Trigger Hippie,” which is on the band’s first album. That stirred interest in the group from David Byrne, who had the brothers co-produce nine songs on his latest solo album, “Feelings.” To date, personalities as diverse as Madonna, Ozzy Osbourne and George Michael have rung up Morcheeba, expressing interest in collaborating and professing affection for the group’s groove. From: https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/04/24/morcheeba-the-band-that-faked-being-trip-hop/
