Today's Top Tune

Hologram Teen is the solo project (and anagram) of former Stereolab keyboardist Morgane Lhote. The French native who’s now based in Los Angeles has a feel for disco and ‘80s pop from her homeland. We’re drawn to “Connection transpacifique.” "I lost my brother two years ago,” says Lhote, “and ’Connection transpacifique’ is an homage to him and the bond we had. He lived in Tokyo so the song talks about being connected across the Pacific Ocean, almost telepathically. I wanted the song to celebrate him so chose to have playful lyrics in French on top of an upbeat, funky track that is influenced by the 1980s collaborations of Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson. The German DJ and musician Sandra Zettpunkt ("The Legendary Bang," "Die Fünf Freunde") is on vocal duty here and did a fantastic job singing obtuse rhymes in French."

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Joe Ely has released his twenty-ninth solo album, Love and Freedom. To tackle the turmoil and social issues we’re living through, we turn to Ely’s sweet sadness in the Tex-Mex sound of “Adios Sweet Dreams.”

Award-winning harpist Ashley Jackson, whose expressive work melds traditional classical music with the rich heritage of Black spirituality, has a new album on the horizon — Take Me To The Water (out March 21).  In her masterful dip into transformative and spiritual power of water, Jackson interprets work by Alice Coltrane, Claude Debussy, and — on Today’s Top Tune “Deep River II” — the work of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. 

Dear Elizabeth is the forthcoming debut EP (out March 28) by the artist known as Bellzzz. It’s based on her childhood imagination of a young girl she invented. The story unravels with the second chapter, “Far Away” a song that Bellzzz says, “is about wanting to escape, and wanting to prove to people that you can make something of yourself. But it’s also about Elizabeth reaching out to me; about how she no longer has a voice and wants to speak through me to tell her story.”

Amy Millan is a Star, literally, she’s a member of the beloved  Montreal indie-pop group Stars. She’s also a satellite member of the iconic Broken Social Scene collective. But the song you’re about to hear, “Wire Walks,” is from her first solo release in fifteen years — I Went To Find You. Diving deep into her past, Millan taps into one of her favorite memories with her father, whom she enjoyed singing with in the evenings before his tragic death when she was five. 

Soul-disco-fluid duo Franc Moody gives us an infectious, psychedelic pub-rock track “Space Between Us.” It comes in advance of their third album Chewing The Fat — ready to be delivered on March 7. 

“El Dia Que Perdi Mi Juventud” or ‘The Day I Lost My Youth” (in English), is an acoustic Spanish-language song written by Argentine star Nathy Peluso. It reveals a more mature and emboldened artist, and features special guest Blood Orange. 

Husky Gawenda, frontman for the Melbourne-based group Husky, shares “Silencio,” a new song that sounds like a throwback to the early work of Simon & Garfunkel. Gawenda employs his Tascam 388 tape machine and the voices duo Charm of Finches to create a timeless sound. 

We first met LA-native musician Jensen McRae in 2020 and she swiftly became one of that year’s favorite artists, before she had even released her debut album(!). So when fires began destroying our city, Jensen got down to what she does best. 

Melbourne-based collective Surprise Chef are busy cooking up their new album Superb.It’s slotted for release mid-May, but we are here to share the song “Fare Evader” — a creamy drum-heavy beat that’s guaranteed to shake, rattle, and roll your speakers.