Many have said that we don’t know The Very Best (cha! don’t vex I!).  Say what you will, but all that ended last month when we discovered a heart-rending performance by the duo of singer Esau Mwamwaya and producer Johan Hugo (who go forth under the humble moniker, The Very Best).  At the time of our discovery, we couldn’t find much on the ensemble and feared the worst.  Thankfully,  The Very Best have just announced that they will release a new album in 2015.   The new album was recorded in Mali’s M’dala Chikowa Village.  Below you can watch/listen to the first single from the album, Hear Me.  We love the hypnotic song, with sublime bass added by Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio.   Check out the time-lapse video below in which Hugo filmed M’dala Chikowa Village.  We love this track and hope for deliverance from the Mali (and other) oppressors.

Hugo has this to say about the song and video:

Hear Me:

“We wrote this song in May 2014, only days before the Malawi general elections. It was also the 50th anniversary for Malawi independence from colonial rule. One day we where sitting outside the house listening to the radio and Joyce Banda (the president that day) was talking about something to do with the election and progress, or lack of progress for Malawi as a nation. We put an iPhone next to the radio and recorded some of her voice. That’s the voice you can hear in the beginning of the song. Esau really wanted to write a song about the corruption, poverty, struggle of Malawi, and how frustrated he was about the fact that very little has changed since independence. We recorded the whole song that day, and the next day we asked the local church choir to come in and record some choir vocals for it. As with most vocals and instrumentation on this record, we recorded them outdoors, on the beach, singing the bridge and last chorus with Esau. Back in London a month later, Chris Baio from Vampire Weekend came in and played bass on the song.”

And the video:

“Between writing songs and recording, we would climb the mountains above the lake and set the camera up to take time lapses. any time we wanted a break we would bring the camera on a tripod to the shop or to someones small house and always leave it taking time lapses. we would sit for hours in the dark while the camera clicked away, working on a song, tweaking melodies or words. mosquitos everywhere. Sometimes we would leave the camera running and trek back to the house, hoping none would find it.”

We look forward to much more of The Very Best.