Yellow (CD)

The debut album by Emma-Jean Thackray feels exactly like the sort of thing weve been longing for over the last 12 months: a transcendent, human, shared experience. Across its 49 minutes, 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.

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. The result is an album that speaks the language of positivity, as rich lyrically as it is musically. 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.

As a composer, producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ, Emma is just as at home working with the London Symphony Orchestra as she is hosting her show on Worldwide FM. Production credits and collaborations include the likes of Squid, Makaya McCraven, BLU and Pinty.

01Mercury 02 Say Something 03 About That 04 Venus 05 Green Funk 06 Third Eye 07 May There Be Peace 08 Sun 09 Golden Green 10 Spectre 11 Rahu & Ketu 12 Yellow 13 Our People 14 Mercury (In Retrograde)

• Format Detail: CD 4pp Digipak CD
• Format: CD
• Genre: Jazz