Bleep

Emma-Jean Thackray continues to blaze a trail of her own making with the release of her debut album, Yellow. Thackray occupies a unique space within the electrifying rejuvenated UK jazz scene - one with a skywards gaze towards the psychedelia-tinged exploratory pioneers of the wider US movement of the sixties & seventies, and an eagerness to blend these with myriad other sounds. Yellow is the long-form, sonic accomplishment of this experimentation which we’ve all been eagerly waiting for.

A multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer, beat maker and general virtuoso belying/defying her young age, Yellow takes confident strides and pleasant detours through many musical landscapes across its fourteen tracks. We’re welcomed by Mercury, a wonderfully disorientating ode to the sounds of legends such as Sun Ra and the Coltranes, before Say Something takes in the type of broken beat and deep house which Kaidi Tatham et al were so celebrated for. There’s the influence library record funk, big city soul and free jazz incantation abounding throughout, which Thackray masterfully reimagines into something altogether invigorating. Inspired collaborations featured throughout include Warp's recent signing Squid, International Anthem's Makaya McCraven as well as verses from California's Blu and South London's Pinty.

“I wanted the whole thing to sound like a psychedelic trip,” explains Thackray. “You put on the first track, it takes you through this intense experience for almost an hour, and then you emerge on the other side transformed.”

Bursting with innovation, musicality and a pure, binding sense of positivity, fans from across the spectrum of everything from the Beach Boys to Madlib will form a strong connection with this stunning record.