We’re all about music discovery here at KHOL and love sharing what we’re listening to at any given moment. Here are a few tracks we’re currently obsessed with to get you through the week ahead. Follow us on Spotify to keep up with our recent favorites, including Top 5 Tracks of the Week, Sounds of Now and Local Favorites.
Daft Punk – Infinity Repeating (2013 Demo)
The recently retired legendary French electronic music duo Daft Punk have thankfully returned, albeit momentarily, with a special 10th Anniversary Edition of their final album, Random Access Memories. Excitedly sifting through the bonus material, the highlight for me is a 2013 demo called “Infinity Repeating” featuring Julian Casablancas from The Strokes. The lovely and bizarre track immediately transports you into a warm cocoon of gentle machines and hypnotizing repetition. The progression and lyrics of the track are meant to echo on forever like an infinity loop. The accompanying video by longtime collaborator Warren Fu cements that ideology with its cyclical display of human history. Such a special springtime treat. Long live Daft Punk! – Jack Catlin, music director
Jayda G – Blue Lights
London-based house music producer and DJ Jayda G is soaring upwards through the dance music underground. “Blue Lights” is the second track of her forthcoming album “Guy,’ which she says she recorded amid the Black Lives Matter movement. The lyrics of this track share a story about her father being swept up in the Washington Race Riots of 1968. He was a local radio DJ who locked himself out of his apartment as a throng of rioters and police moved towards him up the street. It’s a powerful piece of electronic music that showcases the power of the dancefloor offering not only release but also an education. – Tyler Pratt, news director
Peter Gabriel – i/o (Bright Side Mix)
i/o (Bright Side Mix), the title track from Peter Gabriel’s forthcoming studio album, almost sounds like a children’s lullaby. Easy to sing along to and with a simple reminder that maybe some adults need to learn as well: we’re all connected. i/o means input/output.
So we think we really live apart
Because we’ve got two legs, a brain, and a heart
We all belong to everything
To the octopus suckers and the buzzard’s wing
To the elephant’s trunk and buzzing bee’s sting
Stuff coming out, stuff going in
I’m just a part of everything
I’m just a part of everything
i/o will be Gabriel’s 10th studio album and his first full-length album of new original material in over 20 years. – Emily Cohen, executive director
Diplo – Use Me (Brutal Hearts) [feat. Dove Cameron & Sturgill Simpson]
Disco cowboy is in! It’s a move Diplo attempted when he released “Thomas Wesley, Chapter 1: Snake Oil” back in May of 2020, which wasn’t received well. That album is a skip, but Diplo has taken to Instagram saying he’s getting back to his Southern roots with his next installation titled: “Thomas Wesley, Chapter 2: Swamp Savant.” He’s even going as far as to call it “the greatest single piece of work I’ve ever done.” Time will tell, but “Use Me,” a cover of a 2010 Bedouin Soundclash song, is a lot of fun. For me, nabbing one of my all-time favorite artists – the genre-bending outlaw Sturgill Simpson – is what makes Diplo’s new move exciting. Simpson goes undercover with alter-ego Johnny Blue Skies played by Sean Penn in the video. A lot of layers going on here, but for now – grab yer boots and chaps, hit the neon bar, and take a sexy ride on the mechanical bull! – Tyler Pratt, news director
Jim Croce – Rapid Roy (That Stock Car Boy)
“He got a tattoo on his arm that say ‘baby,’ he got another one that just say ‘hey’” and “You know he always got an extra pack of cigarettes, rolled up in his T-shirt sleeve.” Makes me think of Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused. The artist, James Croce (January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973), was an American folk and rock singer-songwriter from Pennsylvania. This tough, high-tempo jump will make you feel like tearing down a dirt road with dust and exhaust billowing to the wind. – Reed Russell, development manager
