Mary

Leon Michels, founder of El Michels Affair, who I just discovered, is a true Producer with a capital ‘P’ in the music industry.  Not only the money behind huge music acts but also this jazz/blues/funk/symphony powerhouse. He got his start touring with Sharon Jones and the Dapp-Kings, and collaborates with Jay Z, Beyonce, Lana del Ray, he’s basically a member in all recent Tribe Called Quest music, wrote on Adele’s first album...aka a superstar musical ghostwriter. His music epitomizes the best of America’s old-school musical traditions - which is to say, black musical traditions (point of reference: 1619 podcast, episode 3: the Birth of American Music). Personally, music hasn’t felt this smooth, sexy and transportive since I had the CD of the Prague Philharmonic performing the James Bond soundtrack. It checks out that Leon Michels calls this album “the soundtrack to an imaginary movie”. 

Sean

El Michels Affair is one of those artists that are able to perfectly distill moods from other forms of media. When done right the resulting work is simultaneously familiar but new. An example I always point to is Quentin Tarantino who’s nods to grind house cinema of the 70s paved their way as a director. “Rubix” sounds like it has strong ties to classy film scores of the 1960’s. Movies where people drink from crystal stemware in rooms with high ceilings covered in books. I had a great time with this track. Listening to it over and over it is clear how strong El Michels Affair is as a composer. From the plucking of the guitar, to the swelling of the horns everything is laid into the track perfectly. It all makes for a very smooth ride.

Dillon

El Michels Affair’s “Rubix” is a stunningly cool shock to the system. Mary mentioned that Leon Michels described the album Adult Themes, from which “Rubix” is taken, as a soundtrack to an imaginary movie, and I kinda wish that movie existed, cause it’d be the coolest thing ever. “Rubix” has near perfect pacing, comparisons to classic tracks like “Building steam with a grain of salt” spring to mind, as Leon shares DJ Shadow’s rarified ability to slowly and methodically layer complexity into the mix. This track is so smooth and rich it begs for the dumb food metaphor but I’ll resist it by being meta about music writing. Seriously, this thing bangs. The texture Leon is able to evoke through timing the introduction of strings and horns is entrancing, and the overall quality of the production is inspiring.

Tommy

The lead instruments on this track hang together so loosely and talk all over each other so much that there’s definitely a nice little jolt when they brush by each other and line up! but when they don’t, it doesn’t feel messy- feels more like it just refuses to accept that there should be a limit to how many good ideas you need to make a single song