• News

• All

Jun 02, 2025 By Issa Nasatir Photography by Mike Lawrie

El Michels Affair has announced the new album 24 Hr Sports along with the lead single “Anticipate,” which features Clairo. The album is due out September 5 via Big Crown.

El Michels Affair is the long-time project of producer and multi-instrumentalist Leon Michels. Michels has been particularly notable from his collaborations with hip-hop giants Wu Tang Clan and Black Thought and his production of Clairo’s last album, Charm. The duo have come together again to present the single “Anticipate,” a song that picks up right where they left off.

This is El Michel Affair’s first full-length since his soundtrack for the film Boy Kills World last year and 2023’s Glorious Game, his collaboration with The Roots’ Black Thought. The new album will feature artists such as Norah Jones, Shintaro Sakamoto, and Roots trumpeter Dave Guy.

In a press release Michel says that 24 Hr Sports was inspired by “the fashion and graphic design of ’80s and ’90s, Sports Illustrated magazines—the graphic design, the look, the pictures, and the way people dressed. That kind of super colorful, but very two-dimensional design. I wanted to make music that sounds like that.”

Musical influences on the album include MF DOOM’s Special Herbs albums and the sample sources used on them, as well as gospel music, such as Pastor T.L. Barrett.

He continues by speaking on his evolution as an artist. “I think the evolution of my sound is this: It’s coming from old records, so it references the past a lot, but I’m not a purist, I’m a fan of modern technology. I think what I’m doing is new. It’s a merging of the past and present, not unprecedented, but a good mix of then and now.”

24 Hr Sports Tracklist:

01 “Drumline”
02 “Mágica” (feat. Rogê)
03 “24 Hr Sports Theme No. 1”
04 “Say Goodbye” (feat. Florence Adooni)
05 “Oakley’s Car Wash” (feat. Dave Guy)
06 “Anticipate” (feat. Clairo)
07 “Eastside”
08 “Clean The Line”
09 “Cortex”
10 “Shining”
11 “24 Hr Sports Theme No. 2”
12 “Indifference” (feat. Shintaro Sakamoto)
13 “Carry Me Away” (feat. Norah Jones)
14 “Take My Hand” (feat. Rahsaan Roland Kirk)
15 “Open Season”
16 “Victory Lap”

Subscribe to Under the Radar’s print magazine.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.