The Friday Dispatch
Chiedu Oraka, Shabaka Hutchings, claire rousay, Southern California’s Social Distortion and Metz
The proud dreams of Chiedu Oraka
A formidable force in the North’s rap scene over the past decade, Chiedu Oraka has been a champion for neglected towns that sit in the shadows of success. Fresh from his first international shows in Austin, Texas – including the closing slot at Best Fit's SXSW showcase – Oraka’s time in America has changed his mentality entirely; he realised he wasn’t dreaming big enough. “I was ignorant with it,” he tells Best Fit. “I only thought about conquering the UK. I didn’t think about going international. And it wasn’t until I went to Texas that I realised that. It’s opened my eyes massively—I even think the UK is a bit small now.”
‘‘Don’t get me wrong man, I love my city. I’m an advocate for Hull and I will always represent Hull, but yeah, I was just sad coming back. I had a really good conversation with one of my friends. He said what you’re experiencing isn’t actually holiday blues—what you’re experiencing is that your dreams are starting to come true. And it’s a whole different ballgame now.”
Misfit will undoubtedly get that ball rolling. Due for release next week, the mixtape is his most vulnerable work yet. Standout track "Counselling" reveals his own unpicking of the past through counselling sessions and the empowerment and peace he found through the process of understanding his “inner child”. Oraka paraphrases his counsellor’s words: “it’s the little Chiedu basically. It’s the little version of you when you were younger when you felt rejected or upset, that seems to be the catalyst for a lot of your behaviours right now.”
“I wanted to make songs that would help people,” he says. “With me being who I am, having a bit of reputation and being a bit of a hard man, a man’s man and people knowing that, [they think] oh what Chiedu Oraka went to counselling that’s mad—and now I feel like I can go now. And that’s the reason why I made that tune. That means more to me. When I get messages that my song made them want to go to counselling, that means more than getting a million views.”
Shabaka Hutchings on the process
I’m on a kind of practice retreat [right now]. Just practising as much as possible, trying to build up to 14 hours a day. That’s the goal I set myself when I was going into this, but having seen what has actually happened, in terms of what you have to go through trying to build up to that amount of practice, you can’t just jump in. It’s quite tough, psychologically, to be able to be focused for that long.
I’ve just been building up the stamina, in terms of knowing what I want to practice on each instrument, and then spending a long time on that. Getting back to fundamentals and stuff. I’m out here for 3 weeks, and it’s probably been 8 days so far. Actually I just did a forced 14-hour practice. It’s been great. It’s really good to get to practise by the sea.
I’m [also] reading a bit, but really I’m just trying to practise as much as possible and make some music using an OP-1 and a Roland SP-404. I’ll take some of the stuff that I’ve been practising and put it into whatever I’m making. For example, if I’ve been practising particular skills I might make some beats in Abelton based on those skills, just so I’ve got something drone-like to practice on. I’ve just been making lots of… stuff.
Probably one of the first things that I’ll do after this retreat is to start to actually do some file management with all my recorded material. I’ve been recording my practice as well, so it’s a case of just trying to find my way through this sea of creative ideas. Around the practice, I’m basically just trying to keep my life in check. Any time I’ve got left is genuinely spent just trying to catch up on emails and all that stuff.
As told to Laura Misch
Claire Rousay greets loneliness as a friend
Growing up in an evangelical Christian community in San Antonio, Texas, it was only after entering the emo scene as a teenager that claire rousay had her first taste of fluid self-exploration. On her latest album, sentiment, rousay dips into that journey, introspectively exploring themes of connection, sex and loneliness on perhaps her most intimate and vulnerable album yet.
“Emo was one of the first genres of music that I discovered and really got into,” she says. “It was a very big part of my personality when I was a kid, because it was one of the first things that I decided I liked without anybody telling me to.”
“[When] you decide something for yourself, you’re in total control and that has a lasting effect,” she adds. “Especially coming from Christianity, where you have people in charge and a book and all this shit telling you what to do.”
For rousay, leaving the religion she grew up in and no longer having a belief in a higher power fuelled what she describes as a “baseline loneliness that never went away.” Traces of the church followed her everywhere. On the standout track “head,” for example, rousay sings “spending half of my whole life giving you head / just in case you need to forgive me / for one day for something that I did” – a lyric that carries the weight of a penitential religious hangover.
But that emptiness, she says, she’s slowly been able to fill again on the road and in her creative community. “I did a gig for this pretty big touring church where there were 10,000 people in a room,” she recalls. “When you start building the song back up and 10,000 people react to it, you’re like ‘Oh my god, I have so much power,’ and I feel the same way sometimes even now when I play live. You’re really just responding to the energy in the room, trying to tap into other people’s feelings.” And though these moments may not be a complete a cure, they’ve reminded rousay to hold the loneliness she carries gently, greeting it as a friend.
Three things to get excited about this week
The (long) track: Having bounced around the industry as a touring musician for Ryan Beatty, Lizzy McAlpine, Dijon, and more, multi-instrumentalist Ryan Richter is stepping out on his own. This week, he released his debut album As Good A Place As Any (No Hard Feelings) which is, in fact, a single track. Clocking in at 19 minutes and 37 seconds, Richter has brought to life a lush soundscape of guitars and lap steels. Almost entirely instrumental, it’s a work that is deeply moving and meditative, gently guiding its listeners into a state of transcendence.
The documentary: After having limited releases across the EU and in US theaters, ENNIO, the film following the life of famed composer Ennio Morricone was finally released on global digital streaming last week. Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and featuring comment from film giants Hans Zimmer, Quentin Tarantino, and John Williams, ENNIO is a moving portrait of a man who changed the sound of cinema.
The live session: For Best Fit’s latest live session, Irish four-piece SPRINTS present their take on Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon” at Crouch End Studios in North London. "Kathleen Hanna and the Riot Grrl movement have had a pretty obvious influence on SPRINTS but the lo-fi electronic playfulness of Le Tigre always made their records a staple on any of our tour, van and travel playlists," lead vocalist Karla Chubb says of the track. "It’s a cover we’ve played across the UK and the USA, through stage invasions and collaborations. It felt like the perfect choice for our cover track and is just a lot of fun to scream along to."
Something Old, Something New
Every week, one of Best Fit's writers or editors share their recommendations of two records they love - one from the past, one from the present. This week, Albums editor Steven Loftin on White Light, White Heat, White Trash by Southern California’s Social Distortion (1996) and Adam England on Up on Gravity Hill by Metz (2024).
Mid-career albums tend to be where artists wane. Particularly when their debut (and in the case of Southern California’s Social Distortion, a blue-print for melodic-punk-to-come) finds great favour in the world. But, in 1996’s White Light, White Heat, White Trash, the quartet led by Mike Ness returned to that dynamically buoyant melodic sound, just with a fuller body, all while dealing with a disparate mind and addiction. Their 1983 debut Mommy’s Little Monster is one of my all-timers, but White Light digs deeper, triggering something feral in me that makes me want to journal all my woes and worries before swiftly setting it alight, and finally throwing it in the air and attempting to punch it all while wearing some sick Docs and a studded leather jacket (two things I cannot pull of). “I Was Wrong” brilliantly brings Ness’ woes to a head (“I was fighting everybody / I was fighting everything / But the only one that I hurt was me”) and lays White Light’s thesis out nicely. A band plagued by a rotating lineup (bar Mr Ness) – and never quite hitting a stride post-White Light – nevertheless, their impact is timeless, and this album contains all you need to know and cherish about Social Distortion – a perfect entry point.
The rabble-rousing sonics of Metz have returned for a fifth time, and in all honesty, this is my first foray into a band I am now obsessed with. The Canadian trio hold the right levels of chaos and heart, channelling the outer rims of hardcore and grunge and pummelling them into their own bonafide cacophony carnage. With their 2012 self-titled debut, they teed that rabble-rousing sound up, and throughout four albums they’ve honed it and crumpled it, with Atlas Vending broaching on their most accessible and ready-to-rock. Here on Up On Gravity Hill, they careen from the get-go. And cutting the crap at a blistering 34 mins and 8 tracks, it packs a hell of a punch. No moment is wasted, their confidence thrashing around, bringing all the elements of their previous elements to a head culminating in an album that’s made a newcomer like me enthralled with its predecessors without chasing them away.
Listen to the week in new music by following our Discovery playlist
Dropping at midnight every Thursday, follow our 20-track playlist for a taste of the best new music from the most exciting breaking artists.
These are the songs our editors and writers have on repeat right now, taken from the hundreds of tracks released in the last seven days. Leading the selection this week are new tracks from Good Looks, Zach Templar, Sila Lua, joshua epithet, and coverstar Body Meat.