Melé dropped So High and the Defected LP is still coming.

There is a specific kind of track that makes you stop whatever you are doing and turn the volume up before you have even consciously registered why. So High by Melé, Jords, and Wonky Logic is that track. It arrived on Defected on May 1st and it sounds like absolutely nothing else sitting next to it in any playlist right now. A Liverpool born producer working out of Miami. A London rapper with one of the most distinctive flows in the UK scene. A multi-instrumentalist guitarist who has been playing with jazz royalty on one side and underground house artists on the other. Put all three of them in a room and what comes out is So High. And it goes exactly as hard as that combination suggests.

The man behind it and why his whole story matters

Melé, whose real name is Krissy Peers, started DJing at age 13 and founded his own dance club party called Club Bad, which eventually became a fully fledged record label and clothing line and one of the most respected underground house brands in the UK.

His sound utilises a mesh of world music influenced house, transatlantic hip hop, broader UK sounds and classic Chicago grooves. That last part is important because So High is not a pivot for Melé. It is not him suddenly deciding to try something new. It is him doing exactly what he has always done which is refusing to let any single genre tell him what he is allowed to make.

He moved to London from Liverpool at 18 and was influenced by the melting pot of cultures in the ethnically diverse city, going to different parties every weekend and soaking up DJs spinning tracks that skipped across genres with ease. Grime, house, tribal house, and garage all in the same night. That is the musical education that built the person who made So High and you can hear every single one of those influences somewhere inside it.

His catalogue includes an In The House compilation on Defected Records following in the footsteps of Loco Dice, Masters At Work and Nic Fanculli, which tells you everything you need to know about how the house music world views him. Most recently he headlined Defected's sold out fabric London show in February 2026, while also playing at their flagship parties in Croatia, Malta and Ibiza for many years. The relationship between Melé and Defected runs deep and So High is the next chapter of it.

The three people on this track and why each one matters

So High spotlights Melé's love for hip hop alongside Jords, an established London rapper whose flow has recently featured on records with J Clu, Kobie Dee and Marie Dahlstrom. Jords is not a name that needs an introduction in UK rap circles and his presence on a house track is not the awkward genre crossing experiment it might sound like on paper. It sounds completely natural because it is. His flow sits inside the groove rather than on top of it. He is not rapping over a house beat. He is part of the music.

Then there is Wonky Logic. A London based multi-instrumentalist who has worked closely with artists like Nala Sinephro and Nubya Garcia, as well as performing and recording with Nightmares on Wax, K.O.G and Yellow Days. Nala Sinephro. Nubya Garcia. Those are two of the most critically acclaimed names in UK jazz right now.

Wonky Logic brings that world into a house music track via live guitar and the result is a record that has a warmth and a physicality that purely electronic productions almost never achieve. You can feel that the instrument was played by a human being in a room and that feeling changes everything about how the track lands.

Together the three artists deliver So High with Melé's percussive expertise combining with Jords' dynamic lyricism and distinctly UK sound as Wonky Logic's world class guitar riffs bring a live sensibility, bridging the gap between electronic and instrumental. That gap is where the track lives and it is a very comfortable place to be.

What the track actually sounds like and why it works

So High runs at 125 BPM in B minor and it moves with the confidence of something that knows exactly what it is. The percussion is tight and purposeful in the way Melé's production always is. Jords' delivery is cool without being detached, present without being overwhelming. And the guitar riff from Wonky Logic is the thread that ties everything together, the element you did not know was missing from house music until it showed up and now you cannot imagine the genre without it.

This is not a track trying to be a crossover hit. It is not reaching for a mainstream audience that it does not already have. It is a track made by three people who each understood what the other two were bringing and trusted the collaboration completely. That trust is audible.

What comes next and why you should pay attention right now

So High heralds the release of Melé's upcoming LP with Defected later in 2026. That means this single is not the main event. It is the appetiser. A full album on Defected built around this same philosophy of genre fluid, live instrumented, rapper featuring house music is one of the most exciting things on the horizon for the rest of the year. If So High is the preview then the full album is going to be a serious moment for Melé and for Defected as a label.

The scene has been moving in this direction for a while. House music and hip hop have been circling each other for years and the artists who do it properly rather than just slapping a rap verse over a four to the floor beat are the ones who end up making the records that people still talk about a decade later. So High does it properly. It does it in a way that sounds obvious in retrospect and inevitable the moment you hear it.

Go find it on Defected now. Stream it twice. Then tell someone who has not heard it yet.

Stream So High: https://defected.lnk.to/DFTDM482