This week's PBS Feature Album is Glorious Game by El Michels Affair & Black Thought, out via Big Crown Records. On it, 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 first met in the 2000s when Thought was first getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene, and with Michels' group Menahan Street Band. Fast forward about 20 years, and Black Thought was jamming with Michels in the studio, leading to the duo teaming up over lockdowns.
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 and 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, making room for Black Thought's rhymes.
Tune in all this week to hear tracks from Glorious Game, and PBS Members have the chance to win a vinyl copy of the album via this Tuesday's e-newsletter, so make sure you check your inbox! Please note that winners will need to pick up their record from the station in Collingwood.
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TOP TRACKS WE'RE LOVING THIS WEEK
C.O.F.F.I.N. - 'Cut You Off'
Interpol & Makaya McCraven - 'Big Shot City' (Makaya McCraven interpolation)
Tiny Ruins - 'Holograms' (Corey Kikos remix)
Blawan - 'Toast'
Hard-Ons - 'Apartment for Two'
David Garnham & Stuart Joel Nugget - 'Ilbingini Agiyabarda (When the Water Goes Down)'
Lance Ferguson - 'Voo Sobre O Horizonte'
Yazmin Lacey - 'Sea Glass'
The Beths - 'Watching The Credits'
Alex Lahey - 'They Wouldn't Let Me In'
