Let me know if you agree with this- it isn't unheard of for modern worship music songs to have a 'borrowed aesthetic.' Whether it's chasing Coldplay's anthemic, arena rock sound, or U2's dotted eight note guitar delay, the sounds that end up on worship albums can often trace their roots to somewhere else entirely. 

Here's how we tracked the viral Mkgee guitar tone from a living room live recording in 2021, to the 2026 Coachella stage with Justin Bieber. And you guessed it, we're hearing that same sound now in new worship songs. 

Things got exciting when we purchased the exact same piece of vintage hardware attributed to Mkgee's tone, and sampled pads, synths, guitars, even pianos through it, inspired to see what we could create for keys players. 

It started with a baritone guitar in a living room

In 2021, a short film/live album from artist Dijon called Absolutely surfaced on YouTube. To me, the standout was the guitar tone. Raw, slightly gritty, baritone-tuned, with a chorus or flanging quality and an unusual dryness. That guitarist turned out to be Michael Gordon, who goes by Mkgee.

In 2024, Mkgee released his debut solo album Two Star & the Dream Police. He went on to co-write and co-produce for Justin Bieber's Swag and Swag II Albums, appear with Bieber at Coachella, and contribute to Bon Iver's latest record. Mkgee's sound became the sonic fingerprint on some of the biggest releases of the year.

The secret sauce: a $200 tape recorder nobody wanted

When gear enthusiasts finally unearthed a rig rundown video from Mkgee, they found something unexpected. No amp. No boutique overdrive. Instead, he was using the Tascam Portastudio 424,  a multi-track cassette recorder from the '80s, designed as a budget home recording unit. Its preamps were always considered a weakness, push them too hard and they break up harshly. Mkgee ran his rig into the 424, right at the edge of breakup, turning the "flaw" into a defining character: a brittle, fuzzy, tape-saturation quality unlike anything digital or tube-driven.

The internet noticed. Used prices spiked. Even JHS released the 424 Gain Stage Pedal as an in-box recreation of the effect.

When the trend arrived in modern worship music

It wasn't long before this popular sound started to show up in worship music. Abbie Gamboa and Aodhán King's latest collaboration album Throwing Paint is perhaps the clearest example of this aesthetic landing in a worship context. The opening tracks "PRIVILEGE" and "OBSESSED" are a near one-to-one translation of the Mkgee sound. 

Inspired by this Sound, we bought an original Portastudio 424

But, rather than recreating a guitar tone, the Sunday Sounds team ran vintage synthesizers, organic samples, pianos, electric guitar swells, and even vocals through an original Tascam Portastudio 424 and sampled the results.

The Tape 424 Ultimate Exclusive is the result.

Juno pads, gritty guitar stabs, noise ambience, organ pads, Rhodes-style tones, and vocals, all carrying that uniquely fuzzy, warm-but-gritty Portastudio character.