Emma-Jean Thackray Shares 'Our People' Single
‘Say Something’ has proved to be exactly what we’ve been longing for over the last 12 months and was also on the A-List at BBC 6 Music.
By: Sarah Jae Leiber Jul. 01, 2021
Emma-Jean Thackray is releasing 'Our People', the third and final single from her forthcoming debut album Yellow, out July 23 on digital formats and August 20 on physical formats in the U.S. via her own label Movementt. 'Our People' feels in tune with some higher power, feats of communion that long to be experienced out on a dancefloor.
The single is once again accompanied by a live video shot in The Church Studios in Crouch End where Thackray is joined by her live band and singers And Is Phi, Sara Lima and David Akin Soul. Emma recently performed the first single 'Say Something' on the legendary Later...With Jools Holland which you can watch back here. 'Say Something' has proved to be exactly what we've been longing for over the last 12 months and was also on the A-List at BBC 6 Music.
Across its 14 tracks, Yellow draws glowing lines between '70s jazz fusion and P-Funk, the cosmic invocations of Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane and the gorgeous orchestration of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. "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 thing for almost an hour, and then you emerge on the other side transformed."
Her 2020 EPs 'Um Yang 음 양' and 'Rain Dance' marked Thackray out as standard-bearer of a spiritually-minded, dancefloor-angled take on jazz that stood at a slight remove from the broader UK scene. But Yellow feels like a further step into a fresh and distinct space; its 14 tracks bloom with brass and strings, choral segments and ecstatic chants.
Really, you might best understand what Thackray does through reference to auteur figures like Brian Wilson or Madlib, who straddle instrumentation, arrangement and production in order to bring the sound in their head to fruition. Alongside working on her own music, Emma has proven to be a very in-demand artist these last 12 months, providing brass on the forthcoming Squid debut 'Bright Green Field' and for London wordsmith Pinty's radio hit 'Comfort Me'. Emma was also part of the Blue Note RE:imagined album alongside: Shabaka Hutchings, Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia, Jorja Smith and more. You can also catch Emma over on Worldwide FM where she hosts a monthly show.
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