1995–2001: Beginnings and mainstream success Originally from the small village of
Saltwood, just north of
Hythe, Kent, the Godfrey brothers—
DJ/
Drummer/
producer/engineer and
Lyricist Paul and
multi-instrumentalist Ross—moved to London when they were gaining traction from
A&R people. At first Paul produced tracks at their home studio in his bedroom. They were eventually signed to
China Records At the same time, Paul Ablett came on board as the second manager. The band's debut album,
Who Can You Trust?, was released in April 1996 and fitted snugly into the trip hop genre through a combination of Paul Godfrey's
hip hop roots, Ross Godfrey's
psychedelic rock influences and Edwards' soul-styled vocals. with a live band that included five additional members. At this point, the band had outgrown the home recording set-up and the brothers were renting their own studio in Battersea as Paul was heavily influenced by the Beastie Boys and wanted total creative freedom, having engineered many different styles in Kent before starting the project. Being a sample seeker, he felt he knew the versatile way to keep albums interesting. In 1997, after a mind-blowing phone call Paul had with a family hero, they contributed to the
David Byrne album
Feelings, participating in the recording and production of the release when they weren't on the road. With a more high end analogue recording set-up, and the fact the brothers had written most of "Big Calm" in an evening in 1995 before the release of their debut, they began developing their ideas for the second album. The band moved towards a more varied sound with Ross' skills and collaborators brought in by Paul. The follow-up, 1998's
Big Calm, drifted slightly away from trip hop, incorporating a more Californian, folk song-based sound. Although
Fragments of Freedom was high charting in several European countries, it disappointed some fans. But the band's fourth album,
Charango, released in 2002, saw a return to their roots. The singles "Otherwise" and "Way Beyond" followed. The lyrics for "Undress Me Now" and appearance on "What New York Couples Fight About" were written with
Lambchop's
Kurt Wagner. Other collaborators on the album were rappers Pace Won and old-school legend
Slick Rick. In January 2003, the whole band undertook their first significant tour of the world since 1998. In 2001, the Godfrey brothers contributed three songs to the
Jim White album
No Such Place.
2003–2008: Split and Dive Deep By the end of 2003, the Godfrey brothers split with Edwards, citing creative and personal differences. Edwards received "a phone call from our manager saying that it was over. It was a relief to think we didn't have to continue". The two brothers reunited the year after, leaving Paul to explain that "Ross and I realised that Morcheeba was kind of our family company, and that we wanted very much to keep it going, hence the change". In 2005, Morcheeba released their fifth studio (and first post-Edwards) album,
The Antidote.
Daisy Martey (formerly of the band
Noonday Underground) was recruited to replace Edwards as the album vocalist. However, Martey's period with the band was brief and she was sacked in the middle of the promotional tour, to be replaced by Jody Sternberg. Martey subsequently sued the band for assault, breach of contract and defamation but settled soon after. Sternberg's own tenure with the band was similarly brief, and she only appeared to have been part of the band to fulfil tour dates. According to Ross, the entire episode "was difficult to say the least. It left us in near-ruin". After a break of 3 years, Morcheeba released their sixth studio album,
Dive Deep, in February 2008. On this album, Paul Godfrey fell back into his role as principal producer collaborating with Dan Goldman on many tracks (as Ross had moved to L.A.) and selecting five final vocalists to perform the songs. The folk-rock singer
Judie Tzuke, Norwegian star
Thomas Dybdahl and blues singer/guitarist Bradley Burgess appeared as lead vocalists together with the Korean-American rapper
Cool Calm Pete and French singer Manda (Amanda Zamolo). Both Manda and Burgess toured with Morcheeba as lead singers on their 2008 tour.
2009–2013: Reunion, Blood Like Lemonade and Head Up High As a solo artist, Edwards remained with the same management company as Morcheeba—Chris Morrison the CM of CMO Management represented both artists—which led to a chance meeting in their London offices sometime in 2009. Edwards and the Godfrey brothers met again to discuss her possible involvement in a new project. Initially the singer was hesitant and pointed out that she "really enjoyed doing my solo stuff and writing my own lyrics". Eventually, Edwards rejoined the band and the trio began work on a new album, On 12 February 2010,
NME revealed that Edwards was once again back with the band, which was confirmed by Paul Godfrey the day after on the band's
Myspace blog. Edwards made her live return with the band at the Caprices Festival, Switzerland on 9 April 2010. Edwards' role in the band changed, as she had "become more confident" in her "ability as a singer and a songwriter", and found that during the recording process they were "more honest with each other", and thus they produced "a more honest record". She also remarked on how the brothers had made her part of the creative process again. Their eighth album,
Head Up High, was released on 14 October 2013, again on PIAS. In 2014, the band toured Australia, with a line-up consisting of Skye Edwards (vocals), Ross Godfrey (guitars), Steve Gordon (bass), Richard Milner (keyboards), Martin Carling (drums) and James Anthony (turntables).
2014–2016: Departure of Paul Godfrey and Skye & Ross release In 2014, Paul Godfrey was "bored of reinventing the wheel and didn't enjoy touring" so he withdrew from the band. Ross Godfrey later explained that: "Paul and I had not been getting on musically, or personally and after the
Head Up High album in 2013, Paul told us he was possibly leaving the band. Skye and I thought it best to just release the record we had made under our own names. There will be no more Morcheeba albums". Ross Godfrey and Skye Edwards announced a new project in 2016 named Skye & Ross. They have toured, and released an eponymous album on 2 September 2016. The band started as an acoustic duo but soon included Edwards' son Jaega (drums), her husband Steve Gordon (bass) and Godfrey's wife Amanda Zamolo (backing vocals). Edwards took responsibility for the lyrics while Ross Godfrey noted that the recording process was "a very organic experience".
2018–2022: Blaze Away and Blackest Blue Blaze Away, Morcheeba's ninth album, was released on 1 June 2018. The album featured the singles "Never Undo", "Blaze Away" and "It's Summertime". On 14 May 2021, Morcheeba released their tenth album,
Blackest Blue. It features collaborations with
Duke Garwood and
Brad Barr and was preceded by singles "Sounds of Blue", "Oh Oh Yeah" and "The Moon".
Blackest Blue did not enter the Official Albums UK Top 100 Chart, but peaked at number 14 on the Official Album Downloads Chart Top 100.
2023–present: Escape the Chaos Skye Edwards revealed in a June 2023 interview that the band had begun working on their eleventh album with ten tracks in the demo phase. From June to October 2024 the band toured European festivals, including the 2024
Meltdown at London's
South Bank Centre curated by
Chaka Khan. In January 2025, the band released the single "Call for Love", which is the lead single from their eleventh studio album,
Escape the Chaos, released on 23 May 2025. A second single, "We Live and Die", was released on 28 February 2025. "Peace of Me", a collaboration with Oscar #Worldpeace, was released on 8 April 2025. ==Band name==