Listen To The Five Best Songs This Week

TĀLĀ has been making some of the most exciting music of the past six months. May’s The Duchess EP was full of expansive, dubby and Middle Eastern-influenced sounds that never tired upon repeated spins. This week, the mysterious British/Iranian artist returned with “Black Scorpio” and brought the possibility of another release that bit closer into view. “Black Scorpio” moves away from the insidious curl of tracks like “The Duchess” and “On My Own In Hua Hin” with big brass screeches and gravity-defying drum blasts. It’s colossal in sound from beginning to end and boy does it make us excited for what’s next.

We don’t need to detail what a fantastic year Glass Animals have had. The Oxford quartet’s Zaba is simply one of the best debuts of the year. It’s stylised, sure, but if you’re partial to warped and exotic RnB with a bit ‘o groove (and endlessly inventive lyricism) then it’s a surefire winner. “Hazey” is another exasperatingly assured cut that hears Dave Bayley’s vocals trickle down pentatonic scales and deep, dark beats. The band headline London’s Oval Space, among other venues, this October.

North London lot Gengahr unveiled their debut single proper on Transgressive this week, the brilliant “Powder”. A track where consonance meets dissonance over gritty guitar snarls and slacker harmonies, “Powder” has the kind of effortless cool Unknown Mortal Orchestra emits minus the psychedelic wooze.

Deers arrived out of nowhere at the beginning of April with the perfect imperfection of double demo “Bamboo” / “Trippy Gum”. New song “Castigadas en el granero” combines the dilapidated lo-fi surf of “Bamboo” and the psych trip of - you guessed it - “Trippy Gum” to make arguably their strongest track to date. The brainchild of Madrid friends Ana Garcia Perrote and Carlotta Cosials, Deers have since been completed by two other members but haven’t lost their scrappy and ramshackle appeal. We love them.

Finally, Venezuelan producer Arca dropped “Thievery” and geared us up for his anticipated debut record. “Thievery” is a conniving piece of work with its writhing, banshee synths, offset by clean piano jabs and carnival-inspired beats. Alejandro Ghersi’s (Arca’s) production skills on FKA Twigs’ debut have been recognised by her recent Mercury nomination but we’re not at all surprised. Arca’s debut album Xen is released on 3 November.

Listen to our selection of the week’s best new music below:

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