Listen To The Five Best Songs This Week

A discussion was held this week with one of Best Fit’s most prolific (and excellent) writers: should we really pigeonhole bands who are in the early stages of their career? One of us predominantly disagreed with the question, one of us didn’t. Berlin’s Ballet School, due to release their debut album via Bella Union in September, scream dream-pop from the outset. Drilled with Roland 808s (or is it 909s? Step up, music techies), starry guitar lines and a dazzling vocal range, the trio’s latest cut “LUX” simply has to be filed next to Cocteau Twins. It’s probably no coincidence the band is on one half of the pioneering duo’s label either; nostalgia likely struck Simon Raymonde square on when he fell upon these master revivalists. Whatever your take on it, “LUX” is yet another confident cut of twisted melodics and pin-sharp rhythms from an extremely exciting act.

Shura has been one of the year’s most inspiring underground success stories of 2014 - if you measure success by touching an unprecedented amount of people around you. You practically couldn’t go to a gig in the colder months of this year without industry tastemakers gushing about her debut, “Touch”. Now, with Pitchfork premiering her follow-up “Just Once”, it seems she has the traction to go even further. On “Touch” she sang of the irreparable bond between former lovers. On “Just Once” she is searching for intimacy with strangers after her relationship turns sour, though a sadness in its ultimate futility lingers. “Just this once, I’m gonna go get drunk” / “If you get my name wrong I won’t get pissed off” / I wanna get lost”, she confesses over rolling percussion, flitting guitars and glowing synth embers. Watch out, 2014.

This week we were delighted to premiere Irish producer REID’s new track featuring Best Fit favourites Woman’s Hour. Roused by a lustral guitar riff, “Tarnished” hears layers of electronic atmos pile on top of one another, completed by Fiona Burgess’ spiraling burr. It’s immersive, transcending stuff that’s not too dissimilar to Young Magic’s ethereal electronica, and we frankly love it.

Jessie Ware has been teasing us recently with “Tough Love” and the beautiful artwork for her second album. “Share It All” is a more downtempo affair than “Tough Love” with its gentle beats and dusty clicks, hinting at perhaps a more measured direction on her forthcoming record. Composed with The xx’s Romy Madley-Croft, the sparse and intricate detail of the Mercury Music Prize winners’ songwriting bubbles under the surface but doesn’t detract from the power of Ware’s compelling modern soul.

Norwegian artists Jenny Hval and Susanna will release Meshes Of Voice this year and one of the featured tracks is the mind-blowing, “I Have Walked This Body”. It’s five minutes of unbounded, unapologetic, uncompromising art, ballooning with dissonance and consonance, bile and beauty. Hval and Susanna’s vocals could soar across fjords, mountains, oceans, skies - just about any natural formation of epic proportion - unafraid to bellow or whisper within the musical cacophony. Startling and boundary-pushing songwriting.

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

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