Big Crown Records
El Michels Affair & Black Thought - Glorious Game (Black Vinyl LP)
Regular price £23.00 Save £-23.00Product Description
-
When
Leon
Michels
and
El
Michels
Affair
released
their
rst
record,
Sounding
Out
The
City,
in
2005,
it
was
hard
to
guess
what
was
next
for
Michels
and
his
then-introduced,
now-patented
“cinematic
soul”
sound.
Now,
four
EMA
studio
albums
and
scores
of
tribute
and
remix
projects
later
all
while
producing
for
some
of
the
biggest
names
in
the
industry
Michels
has
trademarked
his
sound,
with
each
project
taking
audiences
somewhere
new
and
pushing
the
boundaries
of
what
he
is
known
for.
The
man
is
a
river,
not
a
lake
and
this
time
he
takes
his
golden
touch
into
the
realm
of
hip-hop
laying
down
a
musical
bed
for
one
of
the
greatest
to
ever
rhyme
into
a
microphone:
Black
Thought
of
The
Roots
crew.
Releasing
on
Big
Crown
Records,
the
LP
is
called
Glorious
Game
and
it
is
a
remarkable
debut
partnership
in
more
ways
than
one.
Michels
provides
his
bottom-heavy,
soul-tinged
production
for
Black
Thought
who
gives
us
some
of
the
more
personal
and
transparent
verses
we've
ever
heard
from
him.
Michels
and
Black
Thought
have
been
in
each
other's
orbit
for
a
while
now.
The
two
first
met
in
the
2000s
when
Thought
was
first
getting
familiar
with
the
contemporary
soul
scene.
"Out
of
that
whole
world,
Menahan
Street
Band
was
probably
my
favorite,"
recalling
the
funk
and
soul
group
Michels
was
a
founding
member
of
back
in
2007.
Fast
forward
a
few
years
and
musicians
from
that
collective
Dave
Guy
on
trumpet
and
Ian
Hendrickson-Smith
on
sax
are
now
full
time
players
with
The
Roots.
This
connection
eventually
led
Leon
and
Thought
to
doing
a
few
fundraising
events
around
NYC
and
Philly
together.
"Before
long,
Black
Thought
was
coming
around
the
studio
and
would
jam
with
us
from
time
to
time,"
Michels
explains.
"Then,
fast
forward
to
2020
and
COVID
lockdowns,
he
just
hit
me
up
out
of
the
blue,
wanting
me
to
send
him
stuff
to
write
to.
We
both
were
looking
to
stay
busy."
Being
that
Black
Thought
is
the
co-founder
and
emcee
for,
hands
down,
the
best
live-band
group
in
hip-hop.
Michels
took
a
decidedly
different
approach
to
this
project
and
instead
of
sending
recorded
tracks
of
live
compositions,
he
pulled
out
the
sampler
and
sampled
himself
and
some
records
from
his
collection.
"I'm
a
big
fan
of
soul
music,"
as
if
Michels
has
to
remind
us.
"And
part
of
hip-hop's
appeal
to
me
has
always
been
the
sample-based
production".
For
Glorious
Game,
Michels
would
make
wholly
composed
and
recorded
soul
songs
in
his
studio,
sample
himself,
then
chop
and/or
loop
up
his
sounds
and
create
instrumentals
for
Black
Thought.
On
some
tracks
he
took
a
more
traditional
hip-hop
approach,
starting
from
samples
of
other
people’s
music
but
then
adding
live
instrumentation
on
top.
But
for
the
most
part,
it's
him
reinterpreting
his
own
compositions
into
something
new.
The
result
is
an
organic
feel
of
loop-based
tracks
that
breathe
and
fluctuate
enough
for
Black
Thought
to
‑ex
on.
"What
I
write
about
is
determined
by
the
equation
of
the
producer's
energy
and
my
energy,"
Black
Thought
says.
"It's
about
where
we
meet."
So
armed
with
Michels
sampled
and
re-sampled
soul
cinematics,
Black
Thought
rhymes
through
personal
memories
and
distinctive.
Tracklisting:
Side
A
1.
Grateful
2.
Glorious
Game
feat
Kirby
3.
I’m
Still
Somehow
4.
Hollow
Way
5.
Protocol
(feat.
Son
Little)
6.
The
Weather
Side
B
7.
That
Girl
8.
I
Would
Never
9.
Alone
10.
Miracle
11.
Glorious
Game
(Reprise)
12.
Alter
Ego
(feat.
Brainstory)
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