North London producer-artist Isabelle Mettle announces self-produced EP ‘CMD’ out September, sharing new single ‘Good In Me’ with Philly soul warmth
Isabelle Mettle announced her debut EP CMD on July 2, 2026, alongside the release of new single “Good In Me.” The North London songwriter and producer has set a September release date for the project, which she describes as a fully self-produced collection rooted in 2000s era R&B, nodding to Jill Scott and the Soulquarian crew, filtered through a gritty London perspective. The announcement of CMD is not just a music release. It is a deliberate statement about who gets to take credit in a production landscape that still skews heavily male.
That authorship point is central to how Mettle frames the EP. “It’s a collection of songs that capture my sound as a producer-artist,” she says. “As it is fully self-produced, ‘CMD’ is also an important statement of authorship for me, particularly within the male-dominated space of music production.” In a genre deeply shaped by the Soulquarian collective, where the producer-artist distinction has always mattered, Mettle stepping into both roles simultaneously is worth noting.
The Soulquarians, that loose early-2000s collective around Questlove, J Dilla, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, and Common, built some of the most influential records in neo-soul and hip-hop history from a creative model built on collaboration and mutual authorship. CMD positions Mettle as an inheritor of that tradition operating fully on her own terms.
What ‘Good In Me’ Sounds Like and What It Means
“Good In Me” is the EP’s introductory statement, and the choice of it as the lead single is deliberate. The track infuses Mettle’s production with a Philly-style warmth, the kind of thick, golden-hour soul sound associated with producers like Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell, translated into a contemporary London register. There is a softness to the texture that never quite loses the gritty undertow beneath it, which is the combination that makes the track sit in an interesting place between nostalgia and urgency.
Mettle’s own description of what she was reaching for in “Good In Me” is specific in the right way: “I wanted to create a track that feels like coming home to yourself through your relationships. Where you feel like you’re not performing, you are just undeniably yourself.” That last phrase, “undeniably yourself,” is the emotional core of everything the track builds toward. In a pop landscape where performance and authenticity are constantly in conversation, “Good In Me” is a track about the moment the performance stops.
The Broader Context: London R&B in 2026
The North London R&B scene that has shaped Mettle sits within a broader London moment where artists working in soul, R&B, and neo-soul are producing some of the most critically and commercially significant music the city has generated in years. The lineage runs through Jorja Smith, Cleo Sol, Mick Jenkins, and a network of independent producer-artists who have largely circumvented the major label system while building genuine audiences through craft and consistency. CMD fits naturally into that context and adds a distinct voice to it.
The EP title itself is worth attending to. CMD is the keyboard shortcut for command, the key you hold down to make something happen on a Mac. The name implies control, intention, and the ability to make something from nothing. For a fully self-produced debut EP from a female producer in a space that still needs to be reminded that female producers exist, the title is doing more than one thing at once. September will tell the full story. “Good In Me” tells enough of it right now.
