George Michelle - Watchin' Me

27 Jul 2018

George Michelle

// MUSIC

A member of post-punk band Death Bells and founding member of Sydney label Burning Rose, George Michelle, aka Maurice Santiago, has been producing a nostalgic blend of ‘90s industrial, garage and progressive, which borders on simplistic, but is no-less effective.

Burning Rose pack out small rooms with warehouse sounds for the musical elite and their lock-in after parties have become infamous. Having toured the US twice this year (where Death Bells do most of their touring) their audience and culture is swelling to a point where we’ve taken notice.

Until recently, Santiago had been content releasing George Michelle material via Bandcamp in high quality FLAC, as well as one-off release on vinyl. His debut LP 'Gang Signs for Outsiders' was manufactured in limited quantities on double cassette and covered by Vice’s NOISEY labelling it "a heavy dose of deep house and garage on the 12 tracks of scattered club music."

Through no direct effort of his own, tastemakers have become acutely aware of George Michelle who’s now picking up the support of Davide Squillace (Desolat, Minus, Cadenza), Yoshitoshi's Miss Nine, and DC-10 resident and Resident Adviser Top 100 DJ Richy Ahmed.

Signing with etcetc before heading on a Death Bells US tour which included SXSW and two shows at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, George Michelle’s unapologetic 90s house burner ‘Watchin’ Me’ drops via the imprint on 27th July, 2018.  

Undeniably elusive, George Michelle has no social media to speak of. However the project was documented in a Red Bull interview with Burning Rose entitled 'Why You Should Know Sydney's Burning Rose Records'. In the interview Santiago mentions his George Michelle project and reflects; "People from punk bands are now making electronica and techno, experimental noise, pop, house and hip hop…fans are fully into it. I think that’s really cool.”

Buy/Stream Watchin' Me