El Michels Affair - Yeti Season [Big Crown Records]

Fresh off their 2020 release, Adult Themes, El Michels Affair returns with a new full length album. Entitled Yeti Season, this newest record has everything we’ve come to expect from EMA’s signature cinematic approach to instrumental soul music.

If Adult Themes evoked an imaginary film soundtrack, Yeti Season transports us to another time and place, with new influences. Inspired by Turkish-style funk and an almost Mumbai-esque approach to soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season.

For those who have been following the band’s path, this album shouldn’t feel like a major departure from their sound. Already in 2018, the first single from Yeti Season revealed some of its proposition. A double-sided release that previewed the musical textures that dominate this record. The first track, “Unathi,” comes to life with the beautifully haunting yet hopeful voice of Piya Malik, formerly of 79.5. Singing in Hindi, Piya’s ethereal voice urges us to work and strive together for progress. Even if you don't understand the language, the urgency of the message is palpable, creating an immersive atmosphere that holds it all together.

Leon Michels explains that Piya was a vital influence on this album: “When Piya started singing in Hindi, her voice had a different tone. I knew we had to do something together.” Thus, Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: “Zaharila,” “Murkit Gem,” and “Dhuaan,” each with a particular stamp within the album. “Zaharila” is a constantly evolving love song, marked by strident trumpets, forceful drums, and Piya’s lyrical plea. In contrast, the more energetic “Murkit Gem” opens with a distorted, Wu-Tang-esque bass line that drives Piya’s singing. The psychedelic guitar and the changing nuances of her voice, singing about an all-consuming love, have made “Dhuaan” the second single from Yeti Season.

Another vocal appearance on the record is that of Shannon Wise, from The Shacks, another artist on the Big Crown label. Her song, “Sha Na Na,” is more in line with EMA’s usual style: melodic, hypnotic, visually evocative. But between Shannon’s ethereal singing, the bouncy bass line, the melancholic vibes, and the dynamic drum lines, it sounds like the soundtrack to a thoughtful walk after a strangely dramatic night.

So, what is Yeti Season? It may be more of a feeling than a place or time of year. It’s an intense album, as evidenced by its characteristic musicality and the dramatic expressiveness of its vocals. But it is also a hopeful record, with phrasing, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better—or more complete—to come. This is felt in songs like “Ala Vida,” where pulsating, sharp chords serve as the foundation for EMA’s brilliant trumpet lines. Or in “Fazed Out,” which leaves a sense of determination, a drive towards resolution, even if its martial structure seems like the march of a conquering army.

That persistence surely comes from the fact that Leon Michels and his team finished this record during lockdown. It was a difficult and troubled period. But look what came out of it: Yeti Season, an album of great drama, but also of hope and promise.

Perhaps you have to have left a year like 2020 behind to find hope in a big-footed winter creature like a Yeti. But here we are.