Now Hear This: Eliza Shaddad, Col3trane and Charlotte Dos Santos

In her weekly column, our music correspondent goes through the best new music of the week

Charlotte Dos Santos (Photo by Eli Salcedo)

In these strange and often scary times, it can be the familiar that provides a source of comfort. I'm not claiming that The Independent's weekly playlist is going to be the thing that saves us from extreme boredom, as many of us self-isolate and work from home during the coronavirus pandemic... but it could help?

One thing that is worth noting – as well as streaming music from your online service of choice, it's important to support your favourite artists and venues as best you can in difficult times. Whether that's buying physical album copies or merch, or sending financial donations to independent or local music venues and new artists, there are plenty of ways you can support the music industry.

With that in mind, here's some of the best new music from the past week that you should consider supporting.

"Good News" feels like something we could all use more of, so check out Col3trane's vibey title track from his three-song EP. Eliza Shaddad, about whom I've previously written in this column, has shared a fantastic cover of "Pure Shores", with her own grunge twist.

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Never one to do the same thing twice, Tom Misch has teamed up with drummer and producer Yussuf Dayes for "Lift Off", the latest track from their forthcoming collaborative album What Kinda Music, due out in April via the esteemed label Blue Note.

I've added "Pop Song" by Porridge Radio to the playlist – it's from their debut album Every Bad, which I reviewed last week (read the full review here).

Allow yourself to be immersed in Chronixx's rather eerie new single, "Dela Move", and you won't regret it; the Jamaican artist is making moves for a return this year, and I'm very excited about it.

Then there's Charlotte Dos Santos, my spotlight artist for this week. She's a Norwegian singer, but quite unlike anything to emerge from the country in recent years. Her new EP, Harvest Time, has just been released via Because Music – it reminds me of Solange's gorgeous, multi-textured compositions and is full of strange harmonies.

Check out my Q&A with Charlotte below:

– Hey Charlotte, how's your 2020 so far?

2020 has been very exciting, it’s been moving so fast already. It’s been really great to release new music and to go on my first tour, but unfortunately my US shows have just been postponed due to the coronavirus - so it’s been an incredibly strange juxtaposed few days. Right now, I hope everyone takes care.

– Tell me about Harvest Time: did you notice any themes you kept being drawn to?

I wrote the EP during a time of a lot of changes in my life and the world around me, so evolution and growth is something many of the songs touch on. Self love and loyalty, despair. I always create freely but it’s often in retrospect I am able to see similarities in subjects in the music I make. It has not really been intentional or planned, it is a documentation and an audio diary of my life.

– In such fractured times, would you say your music works as a soothing tribute to the power of human connection?

I hope so but I don’t know? The world is in an extremely fragile and unstable vibration right now, I really hope people can find the time to ground themselves and remember why and what brings them joy, what makes them feel safe and what makes their heart burn with passion. I hope we can take our media intake with a grain of salt and look up once in awhile. Try taking the subway or train without looking at our phones. It feels great, remember what that feels like.

– What else do you have lined up this year?

My EP release, of course, and some playing over the spring and summer, hopefully, if everything goes accordingly. All the while I’ll be finishing up writing my album.