Today's Top Tune

British soulstress Alice Russell is back with a gorgeous new track, “Rain.” It’s her first release in over a decade and seems very personal. A song about reflection is apropos as we start a new year.

Let’s check in with one of our 2022 finalists from our Young Creators Project , Nathan Horowitz, a high school student here in Los Angeles. Under the moniker Ruler of Program , he began his musical pursuits while taking an audio production class in middle school. Now, at 15, Horowitz has released his sophomore album “Environments.” We are keeping an eye on this artist’s uplifting electronic evolution as we listen to “Breathless.”

Guitar guru Charlie Hunter teams up with the singer Victoria Victoria for resilience and redemption after a dose of personal existential angst in the form of a pop-punk anthem on “Peanut M&M’s.

As we close out 2023, a year of many ups and downs, we turn to a trio of LA royals. On “Facing The Sideways Rain,” multi-instrumentalist Nate Mercereau teams up with saxophonist Kamasi Washington and percussionist Carlos Niño , fresh off their involvement with André 3000’s excellent album New Blue Sun.

Pillars of West Coast soul Orgōne have been making beautiful music together for more than a decade. And they’ve been doing double duty in 2023 as the studio and the touring band for the artist behind KCRW’s Album of the Year , Say She She. There is a lot to look forward to in 2024 as we await their new album Chimera, slated for release on Feb 9. The Los Angeles-based outfit offers gritty sounds on “Lies & Games.”

A favorite Inland Empire outfit, Brainstory have been putting the finishing touches on their sophomore full-length album with producer and labelmate El Michels Affair , due out in 2024.

While we wait with bated breath, let’s take a taste of what’s to come as we drop the needle on “Nobody But You.”

The highly-talented Inara George has collaborated with Dave Grohl and Van Dyke Parks, has had Jackson Browne write a song for her, and is one half of the duo The Bird and the Bee (along with nine-time Grammy-winning songwriter Greg Kurstin). The daughter of Little Feat’s Lowell George, Inara is no stranger to the music world and specifically the sonic tapestry that makes up Los Angeles. It’s no surprise, then, that components of her community arise in her work. “Ventura Blvd.” has a personal narrative from a rare native.

Grammy-winning Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter Alex Cuba didn’t have the tradition of Christmas while growing up back home in Cuba, but it’s nonetheless a holiday close to his heart since he and his wife decided to get married on the day back in 1995.

Not gonna lie, we just freaking love pioneering producer, DJ, and composer DJ Shadow and have been spinning his projects for years. Shadow’s eighth studio album, Action Adventure, continues the artist’s evolution through a swath of 14 mostly instrumental tracks, with a couple of exceptions including the synth-heavy flow called “You Played Me.”

Get into the mind of DJ Shadow: Action Adventure KCRW interview from October 2023.

Sibling duo William G. Hardy and Olivia Hardy formed Wasia Project in 2019, sharing their mixed British-Asian perspective alongside their outstanding classical chops for quiet-yet-sweeping DIY sensibilities. 2023 has been a banner year for them as emerging artists on the rise, and they’ve announced their first UK tour for 2024. We hope they get to jump the pond so we can experience their song “Remember When,” lush with bold and poignant lyrics.