MJ Cole Shares Soothingly Atmospheric "90 Miles" Ahead Of New Album 'MJ Cole Presents Madrugada'

MJ Cole Shares Soothingly Atmospheric "90 Miles" Ahead Of New Album 'MJ Cole Presents Madrugada'


March 19, 2020

Earlier this year, UKG legend MJ Cole released an intriguing collection of remixes entitled MJ Cole Presents Madrugada, all of which were reworkings of unreleased music. That, of course, had us wondering whether those originals were from an upcoming project or if they were simply dusted-off gems from the archive. After all, producers as prolific as Cole are almost always sitting on a bank of countless unreleased tracks.

Now we have official word that the former was correct and that a new album, MJ Cole Presents Madrugada, had been slated for an April 3 release following the release of lead single "Cathedral", itself remixed for the recent EP. Cementing that announcement is the original version of another of those tracks, the soul-nourishingly atmospheric "90 Miles", a sorely-needed antidote to our increasingly stressful times.

Led by a brooding string section bolstered by rich, organic textures, "90 Miles" and its video (directed by Henry Dean) tell the story of the album's title, which roughly translates to "early morning" in Spanish. In it, we see the world slowly waking up as night gives way to daylight and the early risers step out into the world long before the rest of us have even stirred.

Speaking on the creation of the album, MJ Cole explained: "I've made hundreds of records and had albums out before, but this record has always been brewing in the background. It's been gestating my whole life — but the execution of it has been very quick. I really feel like a new artist. This isn't just me sitting down at the piano and writing something nice and ambient, I'm coming at it as a hardcore manipulator of sounds. You can hear my breath, you can hear the pedal, you can hear the piano as a living instrument. It's all about expression. When I play the piano I go into a meditative state, other thoughts don't come into my head."

Pre-order the new album here.



Words: James Keith


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