El Michels Affair — 24 Hr Sports
24 Hr Sports · 2025
Label: Big Crown Records · Genre: Funk / Cinematic Soul · Country: USA · From: New York, North America
Leon Michels has spent years as one of music’s most sought-after producers, shaping Grammy-winning records for Norah Jones, Clairo, and Kali Uchis. For 24 Hr Sports — his sixth album as El Michels Affair — he returned to his own world, drawing inspiration from the graphic flair of 80s and 90s Sports Illustrated magazines, MF DOOM’s Special Herbs series, and the gospel tradition of Pastor T.L. Barrett. The result is a sprawling double LP that stretches out beyond his mostly instrumental past: a marching band opens proceedings on ‘Drumline’, Japanese children’s choir joins on ‘Clean The Line’, Clairo sings the atmospheric ‘Anticipate’, and Norah Jones returns on ‘Carry Me Away’. Equal parts cinematic and personal, this is Michels at his most expansive.
Did you know: The album features a saxophone solo from the late Rahsaan Roland Kirk on the gospel-drenched ‘Take My Hand’ — a sample culled from the archives of one of jazz’s most prodigious multiphonic improvisers, who could play three instruments simultaneously.
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