Indie Duo CHAMPS Release Their New Album ‘Ride The Morning Glass’

Ride The Morning Glass, the fourth studio album from UK indie duo CHAMPS – brothers Michael and David Champion – is out now via BMG.

A unique combination of cool minimalism and evocative Americana, Ride The Morning Glass is studded with radio-friendly songs that capture the imagination with cinematic vistas and colorful characters open to a dozen interpretations. Produced by James Thorpe, the album was recorded at Isle of Wight’s legendary Red Squirrel Studios. The studio still features some incredible equipment – “museum pieces” – such as the Russian synth you’ll hear played, in reverse, on “Adeleine.” “It was a musical free-for-all,” says Michael: “We have always been analog nerds and now we are finally able to indulge it…”

Ride The Morning Glass sees CHAMPS achieve the level of creative involvement they’ve always dreamed of. With time (songs were collected over five years), space (the aforementioned Red Squirrel studios), and as many vintage analog synths as they could get their hands on, they were able finally to produce the sound they heard in their heads – a sound that unites past and present and conjures up a thousand dreamlike associations.

RIDE THE MORNING GLASS TRACKLIST

Musical siblings have a magical quality – they share the same influences, paint from the same sound palette, and trade ‘goosebump’ moments back and forth with a kind of easy telepathy. Michael and David Champion have been playing together since they were kids, as you’d expect, and they’re veterans of the Isle of Wight’s exceptional music scene: Michael fronted buzzy indie band The Shutes, and he recently contributed bass to the debut smash by fellow islanders Wet Leg.

The Champion brothers ​​formed CHAMPS in 2012. The dynamic duo has since released four studio albums; Down Like Gold (2014), Vamala (2015), The Hard Interchange (2019), and Ride The Morning Glass (2023). They have received critical acclaim from mainstream press and indie tastemakers alike. ​​The Guardian praised their “highly effective pop” in a 4-star review of the second album, while The Line of Best Fit admired a debut which “pays homage to the godfathers, performed amid the disco balls of a train hurtling through time” (8.5/10). The Independent, Ones to Watch, FLOOD, Q Magazine, BBC Radio 6 Music, and many more have also enjoyed the duo’s “dazzling” (MOJO) display of writing, but even now, in their new material, it feels as though this is a band who have really hit their stride.

CHAMPS have toured with the likes of Alt-J, Lord Huron, and Wolf Alice and have built a global following with their beautiful delicate harmonies, heartfelt lyrics, and pop-rock melodies.

Credit: Milly Cope]

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