No “I” In “Team”
Remember the days of the concept album? Something that artists did back when people were a) buying music, b) shopped for complete albums, c) listened to them in their entirety from first track to last, and d) were happy do dive into whatever story the album was about.
It was when musicians created albums around specific stories like walls built around souls, when they took on the work of famous authors or Russian composers, or chose abstract themes such as absence and loss. We don’t get too many of those these days. And if you subtract all albums where the concept is more or less the life of the artist, the number drops significantly.
Leon Michels likes to work on themes. Sometimes his work revolves around artists he respects, especially Wu-Tang Clan (even for two albums), but also Isaac Hayes, early on in the history of his project El Michels Affair. And sometimes it’s a little more loosely built around inspirations, like Turkish pop, Hindi singing and a bit of Prog Rock on “Yeti Season“, or this latest album which is playing around with the aesthetics of 80s sports magazines, their distinct fashion and feel.
Loosely, that is, like something that is put on the wall of the studio to see where it takes the composer and the musicians. Sometimes the theme is very present, mostly in a few jingle-like intermissions and the opener which sounds like a live recording of a rather talented marching band.
The first “24 hr Sports Theme” is so early 80s that it squeaks, superbly emulating the way radio jingles sounded back then, and it hugely reminded me of what Nina Hagen’s former band did on their first album without her, Spliff was their name, and they also had these radio jingles thrown between their songs, one being about a college, Wysocki College (“for the totally dumb”), promoting such exciting courses as basket weaving.
El Michels Affair don’t go that far, it’s not a parody. They simply play with it, and weave it into the overall sound of “24 hr Sports”. It must have been a lot of fun choosing the instruments and respective sounds for this album, and then a lot of work to not just use them, but to make them work throughout the 16 tracks.
But what is it that Leon Michels and his friends actually do? The definitions vary. Some call it cinematic Soul, but I find that term a little lame. Good music will always be cinematic. Somewhere else it’s called eclectic Soul, and that’s probably a sensible definition. Soul never leaves the mix, but all kinds of other influences are very welcome to make things interesting. Like a good Gin that is not defined by its ingredients but solely by the way it’s crafted.
“It’s”24 hr Sports” has a pretty nice guest list. Not too long, not too fancy, a truly international bunch. There’s Rogé from Brazil, Florence Adooni from Ghana, there’s Shintaro Sakamoto, a Japanese vocalist, plus fellow Americans Clairo and Norah Jones who have both already benefited from Leon Michels’ superb touch as a producer. Oh, and not to forget – one track features samples of “Ode To Billy Joe” by Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
Obviously these fine artist weren’t chosen to support the sports journalism theme. It seems more like the theme led to music and the music led to artists that ideally support the idea of a piece on the album. “Mágica” lies somewhere between Brazil, Easy Listening and Hip Hop cool, “Say Goodbye” has a wonderful innocence to it, a pop-tinged Soul tune, bringing up memories of some 80s projects with a bunch of kids, way before boy groups ruined the concept, and Clairo gets a slightly jazzy Soul ballad that the 80s sound of the album to its deepest point.
Some selections may seem like late-stage sketches, or instrumentals prepared for future vocalist discoveries, and some reviews see this as a slight weakness of “24 hr Sports”. I beg to differ. It’s part of the charm of an El Michels Affair album. “Oakley’s Car Wash”, “Eastside” or “Cortex” may not be center pieces, but they are essential in keeping the overall feel floating nicely in mid-air. Not seeing the value of these tracks is a clear sign of not having understood what Leon Michels and his friends are doing.
So what if you don’t remember the titles of some of these tracks. So what if the flow of “24 hr Sports” takes you away from discerning between the single selections, blending them to form an imaginary radio program, some obscure and surprisingly cool easy listening station that picks out obscure selections like this Japanese crooner doing a deep 80s (or even 70s) Soul smoocher complete with pleading monologue, probably addressing the hurtful “Indifference” of the girl he would love to be with.
It’s no surprise that “Carry Me Away” shines a little more than other pieces on this album, with Norah Jones doing what she does best on yet another soulful ballad, probably the most contemporary sounding track on “24 hr Sports”. Even obscure radio stations grab for a hit single every now and then. Or reach for selections that bring a little Jazz into the mix, like “Take My Hand”. Michels found Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s solo when he was scrolling through Instagram, a solo he delivered at a concert in Belgium. I really like this little story. As much as I sometimes despise social media – this is one of the few remaining ways of a platform like Instagram actually creating a little bit of magic.
Time for the “Victory Lap”. After 16 selections El Michels Affair take a bow and head off to the locker room. The marching band has boarded their buses, the guest musicians are heading for the airport, and we’re strolling over to the turntable to pick up the nice red vinyl, let it slide back into the sleeve, the one with the absurdly oversized trophy, and place it back on the shelf. The winter will be full of relaxed and quiet evenings, and this will be a great soundtrack on a Sunday afternoon, just before kickoff on our 24 hour sports channels.
Release for review:
EL MICHELS AFFAIR – 24 HR SPORTS – BIG CROWN RECORDS – BC133-LP