Today's Top Tune

Today’s Top Tune is committing this week to sharing the work of some of the most gifted budding musicians we’ve found through KCRW’s Young Creators Project . Our focus today is on Studio City’s Magnus Ferrell , who began studying jazz in the 8th grade. Now 18, Ferrell is giving us major Chet Baker vibes with an alt-R&B edge, with quite the knack for conjuring heartfelt tunes on his piano, like the impressive “Held You So.”

Today’s Top Tune dedicates this week to sharing the work of some of the most gifted burgeoning artists we’ve found via KCRW’s Young Creators Project. Next up, it’s Leimert Park’s Ras, who’s been honing his rap and hip-hop craft since 2015. Now 20, he initially got into making music through a high school music production class, which led to his DAW of choice, Ableton. He helms both the production and recording for his tracks, whose raw, asynchronous flow punches effortlessly over his lofi, chillwave beats and melodies.

Today’s Top Tune dedicates this week to sharing the work of some of the most gifted burgeoning artists we’ve found via KCRW’s Young Creators Project . At 14, Nathan Horowitz, a.k.a. Ruler of Program, began his electronic journey with an Audio Production class at Beverly Vista Middle School. Inspired by The Beatles and Marc Rebillet, Ruler of Program works his magic through meticulous program mixing, a live loop station, and a laptop to create what he calls “instrumental tracks that put a spotlight on anything but the speaker, letting the melody take its place.” Let's listen to the radio debut of “Lose It” and check out its video here .

This week, Today’s Top Tune is dedicated to sharing the amazing homegrown budding talent we’ve sourced via KCRW’s Young Creators Project . First up is Silver Lake-based high school senior Tatyana Richaud , a young queer woman with a passion for social activism and film scoring who has already collaborated with the likes of Graham Coxon and Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino. As a child, Taty says she “worked out melodies on my alligator keyboard while dreaming of the stories they told,” and learned to read music before she could learn to read words.

Warm Sound is the sonic love child of LA-based artists/partners Bryan Sandlin and Myke Dodge. After being together for years and making music separately, they have found a common language that gives them new ways of communicating. You can hear the connection on their lush and hypnotic debut “Lightshade.”

At age 89, Charlie Gabriel is the most senior member of the legendary New Orleans jazz ensemble Preservation Hall Jazz Band. While Gabriel has played with many giants throughout his illustrious career, crossing genres alongside Charlie Mingus, Ella Fitzgerald, and Aretha Franklin, his name has never appeared on the front of an album until now. “Yellow Moon” is a new original composition from the album “89.”

After a move to LA from Cincinnati, Sudan Archives celebrates domestic bliss via song on “Home Maker,” saying "It took nesting — building a home, investing in partners that were worth my investment — to shake my anxiety and depression."

Songwriter, bassist, and vocalist for The xx Oliver Sim steps into the spotlight as a solo artist. We are excited by the sound of “Romance with a Memory” ’cause it’s sexy and it sways — plus it was produced by bandmate and beat luminary Jamie xx.

Dutch outfit YĪN YĪN think of themselves as musical dreamers. Tapping into the cosmic, they simply want to make you dance on their Eastern-inflected instrumental “Shēnzhou V.”

Glasgow’s finest, Belle & Sebastian, are back with their first full length album since 1999. “A Bit Of Previous” was produced and recorded by the seven-piece band during the pandemic, clocking in every morning, writing together, and trying new things. One of the songs they came up with is “Unnecessary Drama.”