Today's Top Tune

In the midst of recording Liam Bailey’s 2020 “Ekundayo” album, producer Leon Michels (and leader of electric soul project El Michels Affair) sprinkled a little reggae into the mix on the side. Inspired by this blueprint, the two created a new album under the moniker El Michels Affair meets Liam Bailey that transcends dub, calling it “Ekundayo Inversions.” Album opener “Conquer & Divide” features Black Thought of The Roots; prepare to blow out a woofer.

If you draw inspiration from a wide variety of eclectic sources — say, as wide as from speculative fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin to surrealist painter Edward Hopper — and then turn them into sound, you’d come up with of Montreal’s “Blab Sabbath Lathe of Maiden.” It’s like taking a sonorous, mind-boggling rollercoaster ride with Stereolab and T.Rex.

Let’s step into the newly expanded and euphoric sound of Foals with “2AM.”

Their seventh album “Life Is Yours” is the UK rockers’ most dance-ready, high-energy, joy-filled sound of summer yet. Time to get on your feet!

There are songs that are so good, they become embedded in the fiber of your being. That’s the case with The Mantles’ 2009 garage pop-ready track “ Don’t Lie .” The song is a longtime favorite, now translated and reworked by Ty Segall into a disarming solo acoustic sound.

Buoyed by strength and creative renewal after a period of loss, the Bay Area duo Brijean packed up “Angelo” — their 1981 Toyota Celica — and bid farewell to their community. The experience turned into an EP named after their car, and explores some of the characters important to them during that time, as on “Caldwell’s Way.”

Rejoice as LA-based grunge-gazing fourtet Goon have a new album, “Hour of Green Evening,” coming out tomorrow! If a picture paints a thousand words, then a song can capture a color. “Ochre” is frontman Kenny Becker’s favorite color to paint with, brought to sonic life with his lilting orchestration and made all the more vibrant by a beautiful piano improvisation from Spoon’s Alex Fischel.

Son Little digs deep into his soul to reveal vulnerability and the long road into transcendence and self-acceptance on his forthcoming album “Like Neptune,” coming this fall. “Stoned Love” peels back the layers of life at this point in time. Son Little takes the stage Tue. Nov. 1 - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour

Public defender-turned-powerhouse singer Danielle Ponder has raised the bar by delivering social messages via song. A tireless advocate for justice, Ponder asks us to consider the red flags we detect upon entering into a relationship (and tend to ignore in hopes of true love) on “The Only Way Out.”

Music is meant to build community — which is just the intention and truth behind 21-year-old Bay Area newcomer Satya’s latest single, “Oakland,” a love letter to her hometown and chosen family.

Prevailing modern funk band Lettuce gets the stamp of approval from none other than a grandmaster inventor of funk and fun, Bootsy Collins, as he lends his voice to “Keep That Funk Alive.” You won’t be able to stand still when you hear this dirty bass line.

Get in on it live July 9, as JABM X KCRW Present Grammy Award-winning rapper and songwriter Common and Double G’s Stardust Symphony with special guests Lettuce and Nikka Costa, plus a DJ sets by KCRW’s Novena Carmel at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank.