Round-up Tracks: Chairlift, MØ and more

Chairlift have unlocked a code on new single ‘Ch-Ching’, and it’s not just the ’27-99-23’ digits Caroline Polachek goes on about in the chorus. There’s an added spring in the duo’s step. Polachek’s ultra-flexible vocals match up to whichever fancy tricks Patrick Wimberly has up his sleeve, and there’s plenty on show here.Clipped synth notes come and go against handclaps and razor-sharp beats. Like ‘Hollaback Girl’ being given a 2015 sheen, it’s the most confident these two have sounded, a million miles from the gloomy bedroom-pop charm of the ‘Bruises’ days. (Jamie Milton)

A lot has changed since Karen Marie Ørsted released her debut LP ‘No Mythologies To Follow’ early last year. MØ teamed up with Diplo for the first time on that record for the ‘XXX 88’ track, but it was the pair’s collaboration with Major Lazer, ‘Lean On’, that really took Ørsted to the next level - it’s said to have already amassed one billion streams.

Speaking to Annie Mac on Radio 1 on the unveiling of ‘Kamikaze’, MØ said working with Diplo is “always such a fun and open process,” and fun is something that flows through ‘Kamikaze’ to the point where it defines it. Carnival-style horns burst out of the track with absolute glory, abandoning all inhibitions along the way.

“Are you never gonna get enough?” Ørsted sings, but ‘Kamikaze’ has everything. MØ said last night that her and Diplo are “not all about making a hit record, more that we have fun together.” The second aim has clearly been fulfilled, and whether they want it to or not, ‘Kamikaze’ has all the ingredients to achieve the first goal along with it. (Will Richards)

Cast Jack Garratt in a different pair of shoes, take away the goofy charm and production knowhow, and his songs would still do big things. Like previous single ‘Weathered’, ‘Breathe Life’ could be a sappy singer-songwriter blubfest if it fancied. And as Garratt races into 2016 as the go-to new name - a dead cert for the BBC Sound Of if ever there was one - it’s hard to argue that his doe-eyed sentiment does get him places.

But on his best track to date, the Londoner exhibits so much more than earnest lyrics like “tell her I owe it to her”. As the song progresses from deep-thinking verses to shimmering synth blitzes, it begins to develop a life of its own, the kind giving Garratt is own unique platform of being more than just an ambitious one-man machine. An emotional mid-section could be mistaken for a Thom Yorke solo verse, and there’s even room for a clattering, Samba-style coda. Jack Garratt is the opposite of a one trick pony, and he’s only just beginning to show his hand. (Jamie Milton)

Erasers; the tools for rubbing out and obliterating all of life’s mistakes. Metz might not hover carefully over grammar errors with a red correction-issuing biro, but they’ve certainly got the destructive side down. Snarling and screeching, ‘Eraser’ is a spike-encrusted, grimacing, and totally unforgiving beast of a song. Chords shred haphazardly, the drums clatter in strange, unwieldy syncopation, but somehow, it all seems to gel, despite the chaos. (El Hunt)

“Tell Australia I’m sneaking in with a mic in my damn hand”, Tyler Okonma warns. On ‘Fuck It’, you’re getting angry Tyler. The Tyler from ‘Bastard’ and ‘Goblin’, the one with the frenetic, breathless flow, from a time where his lyrics would eventually get him banned from Australia and the UK, meeting the ire of feminists and LGBTQ rights campaigners world-wide. There’s the intrinsic irony; ‘Fuck It’ exhibits an anger towards his critics using that same flow; harking back to the time he was harvesting detractors as much as he was attracting rabid fans in Supreme t-shirts and Vans.

Therein lies the difficulty with Tyler, the Creator. Yet again, the beat is HARD. The production he does now makes ‘Bastard’ sound amateurish by comparison (which it was), and builds on the layered, textured sound of ‘Cherry Bomb’. But he does himself absolutely no favours lyrically. You want to root for him yet he’s joking that he can’t be homophobic “’cause his boyfriend’s a fag”.

He’s a walking fuckin’ paradox, y’know? Tyler is angry: he addresses the allegations of racism that met his banning from certain nations, and praises his own production, talking about “writing string sections on my tour bus”. It’s angry, it’s exciting, but unless this is a teaser for something to come, it’s a short riposte that raises as many questions as it does answers. (Euan L Davidson)

Whatever your expectations may be from a Mura Masa and Shura collaboration, the Game of Thrones-style strings and woodwind intro is almost certainly not one of them. What is more predictable, however, is the quality and assurance of this track from two fine musical minds. Shura’s slinky vocal is swathed in Mura Masa’s irresistible beats and a spacious, strange but perplexingly coherent soundscape.

As someone who has never shied away from dealing with the complexities of relationships in her lyrics, Shura loses none of that disarming honesty in ‘Love For That’ in which she laments falling in love for the wrong reasons and its unshakeable hold. For anyone who has been crushed by ‘2Shy’ or ‘Just Once’, ‘Love For That’ might cause similar welling-up on the dance-floor as Shura admits “I need some time from you to know if this is best for us”. That’s before a deep voice interjects with the demand “London, let me see your lighters” and goes some way to lighten the tension in a track which remains playful without ever verging too far into the ridiculous. Beyond the ‘Shura Masa’ pun opportunity, the team-up between both artists is clearly well-matched and is a promising first single from Mura Masa’s debut album. (Emma Snook)

Things escalate quickly for Slutface’s Haley Shea in her band’s ‘Shave My Head’ single. First she’s offering to go bald, then she’s throwing dishes at the subject’s head. “They warned you this was not worth fighting for,” she chants, all of a sudden gaining the foothold and owning the agenda. The Norway-based group’s latest track builds its own momentum and confidence, swinging fists by the time its thrashy pop punk trip comes to an end. (Jamie Milton)

Tags: Chairlift, Jack Garratt, Metz, MØ, Mura Masa, Sløtface, Tyler, The Creator, Features