Listen: Glass Animals feat. Tei Shi – “Holiest”

Oxford’s Glass Animals team up with Brooklyn-based RnB singer Tei Shi for the second track taken from their upcoming Gooey EP.

This little hint of the urban has always been bubbling away in the background of Glass Animals’ music, so in a way it’s no surprise that the band – the first signing to Paul Epworth’s Wolf Tone label – have moved even further in that direction from the Wild Beasts-like waters they inhabited on their first self-titled EP.

Hot on the heels of the title track “Gooey”, which dropped last month, “Holiest” grows out of opening brittle percussive beats and dribbling synth lines, before unfurling an (unsurprisingly) gooey RnB vibe, heavy on echo as it spirals dreamily upwards. With Tei Shi’s vocal weaving a magical spell over the track, the band again demonstrate their ability to constantly evolve and escape being labelled – other than that of being both surprising and brilliant, that is.

Glass Animals’ Gooey EP is out 7 April, ahead of the band’s debut album, ZABA, which is released on 9 June.