LUCIDMEDIA

Morcheeba – deep in the ocean, through thick and thin

Written by Lisa M. Knapp Thursday, 17 April 2008 09:17

On March 30, 2008 Morcheeba played at the Opera House in Toronto Ontario and I had the pleasure of attending this event.  I entered the club with excitement.  The venue was sold out and everyone was excitedly impatient for the band to get to the stage.  I was about 5 feet away from the stage with plenty of room to move and dance.  In comparison to some shows I’ve been to, the venue was not packed this being strange for a sold out show.  As they made their way on stage, everyone in the audience was surprised to see that the singer was not the usual Skye Edwards that they were used to, but when the singer broke out into song no one any longer cared; she was angelic.  The new and beautiful Manda, a French singer from the lovely streets of Paris preformed like she owned the stage.  She was so deeply connected with the music that it almost seemed to be a part of her.  Manda soaked in the crowd and became one with the audience.  With her confidence and passion for the music made many people in the audience just move naturally without thought.  She genuinely looked as though she was having the time of her life; that her dream was now reality and she enjoyed every moment of it.  She was nothing like an exhausted artist who has been on the road for weeks doing shows nightly and running on little to no sleep.  She was completely ecstatic and living the moment with true aspiration and adoration.  She was completely fresh and in love with life, and fit into every song the band did.  She was like a key unlocking the band with a voice like an angel.  Not only did she look as though she was having the time of her life, but the whole band seemed to fit together as though they had always been together the performance.  They didn’t slip up once and just kept playing, brilliant every step of the way.  They were so perfect that everyone in the audience cheered on as they left the stage and kept cheering which resulted in them returning to the stage for three more amazing songs.



The band has been through many transitions that have got them to where they are today.  The Godfrey brothers, Paul an amazing DJ and Ross a brilliant multi – instrumentalist, from the artistically known London England, officially formed the group in 1995 with the wonderfully talented and gorgeous Skye Edwards. The brothers had a chance meeting with Edwards at a party sometime in the early 90’s who they instantly found a connection with. Edwards was with them for 5 wonderful albums, from 1995 until 2003.  She had the pleasure of being a part of the band for some of their most successful albums including Big Calm, Who can you trust?, Fragments of Freedom, Charango, and Parts of the Process.  After a fantastic journey of over 7 years together and five albums later, Edwards was asked to leave the band because the group was musically going in different directions and the brothers wanted to attempt new sounds and different musical avenues.  This was partly a blessing in disguise as Edwards now has had her own solo project on the go since 2006.  After this the Godfrey brothers recruited Daisy Martey who was formerly in the band Noonday Underground.  Martey replaced Edwards on vocals for the album The Antidote in 2005.  She contributed more of a poppy sound to the group with her beautiful voice, and although her time was short lived it was an experience that brings Morcheeba to where they are today.



The brothers don’t sit still and like to experiment when it comes to music and the sounds the can make with it.  They like to play around and see what they can come up with, and as for their new album they certainly reached for the sky, or by the sounds of the album title, they dove deep into the ocean.  Dive Deep is the name of the new album, which was just released in February of this year and features a handful of talented vocalists contributing to the lovely sounds of each song.  The talents that took part range from rap to country to hip hop to pop to rhythm and blues.  The voices include the lovely Judie Tzuke, the brilliant Thomas Dybdahl, the ecstatically brilliant human beat box with a flute Cool Calm Pete, and of course the beautiful Manda. I read on the Dive Deep’s website that most of the artists contacted the Godfrey brothers through MySpace, most admitting to them that it was a dream to sing with them.  Actually the site even mentioned that the brothers contacted a lot of the guest singers on this new album through MySpace which must have made their job much easier than going out and auditioning singers.  Could this be the beginning of a new avenue for MySpace? Talent recruitment!  Smart move on their part considering bands and solo artists post their songs for the hearing pleasure of the World Wide Web.

Morcheeba has gone through many transitions but through it all they have gathered an amazingly dedicated fan base who have stuck with them the whole time.  The two Godfrey brothers have always and seem like they will always stick together like a good family should.  Before leaving for Europe Morcheeba toured through Canada and the US, and hopefully we will see them again in the near future for another exciting and new experience.  Personally I can’t wait to see what brilliance stems out of their instruments next.