Today's Top Tune

808s stay bumpin’ to the bone when LA artist, DJ, and producer TOKiMONSTA turns her attention to music making. With  new album Eternal Reverie slated to drop on March 7,let’s spin the slick sound of “Feel It (Feat. grouptherapy.).” 

Afrobeat superstar Seun Kuti teams up with Zambian singer, rapper, and songwriter Sampa the Great. Dedicated to uniting a panoply of voices across the African diaspora, Kuti lights up the airwaves with the powerful  “Emi Aluta (Zamrock remix).” 

You’ll recognize the voice within the first few notes…  It’s the signature sound of Little Dragon’s celebrated vocalist Yukimi, and there will be more to enjoy as she puts the finishing touches on her solo album debut For You (set for release on March 28). We share “Winter Is Not Dead,” inspired by Scandinavia’s long, dark winters. Yukimi states what it's like to live there: “The lack of light brings many of us down. At the same time, underground, life thrives. Microbes stay busy breaking down organic matter, recycling nutrients and improving the soil, quietly preparing for spring. I also grow during my personal winter seasons, even though things might feel dead on the surface. Wheels turn as I transform and move through it getting ready for spring and summer.”

Rapper, actor, and film-director Dear Derrick’s new film The Black Sea features an accompanying soundtrack of the same name. It’s an homage to the golden era of hip-hop and offers reflections on his own upbringing in Brooklyn. “Ven Aqui (feat. Dario),” is an anthemic love song in Spanglish.   

One of LA’s finest multi-instrumentalists Charlie Bereal is back with his latest song, “Hope.” It was originally written as a tribute to the great Martin Luther King, Jr. on his birthday. Now the song has added meaning for Charlie, who shares: “Being a Pasadena/Altadena Native and watching my family churches, homes, and businesses burn has been completely devastating for me and our community. But one thing I know is that my city is strong, and we’re finding hope.”

Dan Bejar (aka Destroyer) is not afraid to take chances and he steps out of his comfort zone with each new album as the music takes on new and distinct characteristics. Dan’s Boogie, the latest collection in the Destroyer repertoire, will be out at the end of March. “Bologna” is one of those songs, and it’s chock full of gravitas so lean in to listen. 

Known for her improvisational recordings — turning warehouses, trailers, and lofts into studios – Japanese Breakfast front-woman and founder Michelle Zauner took to a proper studio for her fourth full-length album For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women),  due on Mar. 21 via Dead Oceans. For a unifying theme, this collection turns to the Greek mythological plight of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and died. A noted author (Crying in H Mart), Zauner riffs on the work of another author John Cheever’s Orlando Innamorato for the melodious “Orlando In Love.” 

Paris-based trio Oracle Sisters will (appropriately) deliver their sophomore album Divinations  on Valentine’s Day. After clocking countless hours touring, the band began to compose as a trio, building songs from sketches while channeling the mystic. “‘Riverside” is, “a respite, a song to wrap yourself in. It’s about turning rust to gold,” say Oracle Sisters’ band members. “We hope it inspires you to go on long walks and to get lost in the wilderness.”   

Sometimes it’s best to let an artist speak for themselves, as is the case with The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser on his new solo work: “Knockin’ Heart” is sung by an estranged, stoned lover on their way home, who is dying to get a message through to someone who is probably not listening. It is ‘I will love you for life if you’ll let me.’ I wrote and recorded it one evening and put it away for over a year. I knew I liked it, and I didn’t want to mess anything up by trying to perfect it. It was the last song I played for Aaron when we got together, and the first song he helped me work on. I’d say he raised the ceiling and lowered the floor on the entire thing sonically. He actually used a funny bass technique he said he’d used on a Taylor Swift song, which I got a kick out of. I gotta say his bass sounds fantastic. Now there are three basses on it! One of mine and 2 of his. That is a first for me.” 

Storyteller Olivia Wolf grew up in Northern California steeped in the bluegrass tradition. Now based in Tennessee, she’s able to blend both worlds to narrate her tales of desolation and rebirth. Her debut album Silver Rounds (due January 17) is a collection of 10 penetrating songs including “Lucky One.” RIYL: Sturgill Simpson, Gillian Welch, and Bobby Charles.

LA neo-soul group The Altons will release their new collection of songs Heartache in Room 14, on Valentine’s Day, but we don’t need to wait to share the love. They’ve generously gifted us with the early single “Your Light” — a dreamy, declaration of love with a call-and-response chorus for you to chime in on.

Let’s call him a polymath, cause these are just a few of the skills he’s aced: singing, rapping, playing bass and producing music… It's Dylan Cartlidge whose song “New Day” is a soulful, joyful antidote if you’re having a dreary time of it.   

Two decades after his debut with Animal Collective, Noah Lennox (best known as Panda Bear) delivers more of the signature sound we’ve come to love via his  latest single ahead of new album Sinister Grift, “Ferry Lady.”  But don’t take our word for it, LA singer-songwriter Jessica Pratt is among the first to experience and review Panda Bear’s first album in five  years. She says: “On Sinister Grift, Panda Bear cuts a lone figure, bracing himself against the winds of fortune and calamity. Noah’s pure and poignant lamentations are less elusive this time around, as though our narrator has awoken from a sobering dream. Singing a familiar round on an imperiled path, Panda Bear presents a set of torch songs conveying hard-fought wisdom, buoyant despite the load they bear.”

LA-native songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Kowloon will soon deliver his sophomore album. His latest track finds him stepping into a sound that plucks from 80’s new wave, to African Highlife — intertwining his dulcet tones into a bopping beat on “Heart Begins With You.”   

Mexican band Karen y Los Remedios stir cumbia and downtempo sound together into their own heady blend. Their 2023 album Silencio — an exploration of epiphanies that come from sitting with silence — caught the ear of fans and critics alike, and now has a remix issue that includes “Las Muchachas,” reworked here by Mexican Institute of Sound. 

It’s been seven years since we last got new music from Benjamin Booker, but don’t despair — a new album is on the way! Lower is out January 24, with the first taste being “Same Kind Of Lonely,” a track full of fuzzy guitars and whispered singing. Benjamin says: “I was thinking a lot about existence and the natural world — how things that start off so beautiful are often twisted into something unsettling or sinister. Maybe the disconnect between the natural state of things and the modified state of things is the source of a lot of pain, suffering, and loneliness in the world.”

It’s the last day of the year, and what better way to celebrate the end of 2o24 and the rise of 2025 than with LA-based artist Declan McKenna, who started his own new chapter this year by taking control of his music by self-releasing his recordings. Let’s pop the cork on “Champagne.”   

One of our favorite musicians and producers, Tom Misch, has recently unveiled his new EP, Six Songs. A master at R&B-infused, smooth, soulful melodies, we share “Colourblind” featuring Loyle Carner.

Brazilian native Rogê has been referred to as LA’s samba king, shedding new light on a classic sound. Joyous and sunny, “A Força,” or “strength” in english, is off his new Latin Grammy-nominated album Curyman II. 

KCRW shared a copious amount of new music with you in 2024. One of the bands that we fell in love with and might still be just a tinge under the radar is the Chicago-based indie rock trio Dehd. After a banner year, including their debut on Morning Becomes Eclectic and their HQ courtyard performance at Summer Nights, we’re spotlighting “Magician,” a track they will be sure to perform throughout the world as they tour in 2025.