Dan Digs 2025 Essentials
A continuously updated playlist of 2025’s best songs. If you dig leftfield beats, electronic soul, and experimental sounds, you’ll feel right at home. Listen to my 2025… Continue reading
Tag Archive: New Favorite Tunes
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Recommended Gem: Four Tet DJ Set from Awakenings During ADE 2024 (Video)
A recommended gem of a DJ set. A four-and-a-half-hour inspirational, emotional journey from one of the best to ever do it. (And infinite respect for the… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: SBTRKT Live From DJ Mag HQ (Video)
A recommended gem of a DJ set. SBTRKT‘s latest DJ set for DJ Mag is chock-full of unreleased heat, including a stirring edit of Mk.gee! (“RIP… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Michael Kiwanuka – The Making of Small Changes (Video)
A recommended gem of a music documentary. A behind-the-scenes look at how my Album of the Week last week was made. (Stick around until the very end… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: House Music Royalty: The Story of King Street Sounds by Beatport Films & Armada Music (Video)
A recommended gem of a music documentary. Hear DJ Spinna, Danny Krivit, David Morales, Barbara Tucker, Ultra Naté, Blaze, Joe Claussell, and more tell the story of a NYC house… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Ambient Country and Americana Mix from NTS (DJ Mix)
A recommended gem of a mix. After seeing Hermanos Gutiérrez play live at the Ryman twice in the last seven months, I’m most definitely on an ethereal music-that-makes-you-want-to-move-to-the-desert… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Japanese Soul from the 70s: ライトメロウ with Kengo for My Analog Journal (Video)
A recommended gem of a DJ set. Can’t stop listening to this comforting mix of vintage Japanese soul sounds from the Tokyo-born, London-based DJ and artist Kengo for… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Roni Size Talks About the Making of “Brown Paper Bag” for DJ Mag (Video)
A recommended gem of a video. A true originator and innovator in the world of drum ‘n’ bass, the Bristol, UK legend breaks down the history of one of… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Floating Points 5-Hour Set for Boiler Room New York (Video)
A recommended gem of a DJ set. A jaw-dropping mix from Floating Points for Boiler Room, recorded live in New York City, that spans boogie, disco, R&B, house,… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Glass Beams Live on KEXP (Video)
A recommended gem of a video. The bejeweled Australian trio take their instrumental grooves influenced by the sounds of India to Seattle’s KEXP (an NPR Music affiliate station… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Nightmares On Wax presents CARBOOT SOUL (Live at Royal Festival Hall) (Video)
A recommended gem of a video. Watch George Evelyn aka the jazz-hip-hop-electronic-downtempo-dub-funk-soul artist and longest-serving Warp Records signee Nightmares on Wax talk about his seminal release, Carboot Soul,… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Jamie xx Goes Digging for Records in France with Konbini (Video)
A recommended gem of a video. This rare interview with Jamie xx in a warehouse full of even rarer vinyl conducted by the French entertainment outlet Konbini is… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: The Story Behind Every Song On Air’s Moon Safari by Larry Fitzmaurice for Stereogum (Writing)
A recommended gem of an article. I love this album so much, although almost every time I play it I usually just end up listening to the opener, “La… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Hiatus Kaiyote Live at The Evelyn in Melbourne, Australia (Video)
A recommended gem of a live show. After hearing the band’s brand new track “Everything’s Beautiful” a few days ago, I was more than excited to check out… Continue reading
Dan Digs 2024 Essentials
New songs added every Monday. An ongoing playlist of 2024’s very best songs. If you dig leftfield beats, electronic soul, and experimental sounds, you’ll feel right at… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Rob Harvilla – 60 Songs That Explain the 90s (Book)
A recommended gem of a book. I found this one to be unputdownable. The book version and companion to the podcast of the same… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Interview with André 3000 In a Laundromat by GQ (Video)
A recommended gem of an interview. You’ve already watched this video, so I don’t need to tell you that it’s a brilliant and perceptive yet relaxed conversation with one… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Interview with Unknown Mortal Orchestra by Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Video)
A recommended gem of an interview. Featuring clips of Unknown Mortal Orchestra‘s fantastic performance recorded in 16mm for the Danish music platform Brodie Sessions, this interview with the band’s… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: A Day in the Life of Sam Gellaitry (Video)
A recommended gem of a production masterclass. The Scottish musician and producer chats with Lucid Monday at his studio in London about his process, switching from only making instrumentals… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: Toro y Moi – MAHAL (Live from Big Sur)
A recommended gem of a live show. One of my very favorite albums of 2022 gets the live treatment, recorded at Fernwood Resort in Big Sur, California. … Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Micatone – “Where Do You Belong?” (Sonar Kollektiv)
I first got switched on to Micatone when I heard the mellifluous “Sweet Child” on a mix CD that Gilles Peterson put together for Muzik magazine back in 2003. (The track,… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Hector Morlet – “We’re So Tight It Hurts”
Quite possibly the slipperiest bassline in existence. The latest single from Perth, Western Australia’s Hector Morlet marries the stratospheric falsetto of Toro Y Moi with the charming lo-fi indie-pop… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: 26fix – “Stone Killer” (MakeOutMusic Records)
Can’t believe that an artist sounding this accomplished has only three previous singles to her name. Having supported Alvvays and The Marias while playing in another band last year,… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Until the Ribbon Breaks ft Lucius – “Everything Else But Rain” (VERO/Venice Music) (Video)
The first single in five years from the Welsh musician and creative. Pete Lawrie Winfield, the mind behind Until the Ribbon Breaks, has teamed up with the band Lucius… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Flourish & Jack Howard – “Words Can’t Describe” (Zimbo Records)
“That’s the one, that’s the one!” is the last thing you hear during the closing moments of this new single from Hertfordshire, UK musician Michael Keefe aka Flourish and Jack Howard. … Continue reading
Diggin’ This: SBTRKT ft Sampha & George Riley – “L.F.O.” (Save Yourself/AWAL)
A Low Frequency Oscillation theory. Over bouncing synth stabs and bass waves, SBTRKT and Sampha, responsible for some of the best collaborative tracks across the 2010s electronic soul spectrum,… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Ruti – “Luh Luh Love” (PMR Records) (Video)
British bossa-neo-soul. After winning The Voice UK in 2018, Essex’s Ruti Olajugbagbe has returned with two new singles for 2023: “So Much More,” a collaboration with Jordan Rakei, and… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Lady Wray – “Joy & Pain” (Pete Rock Remix) (Big Crown Records)
Rebooting the golden soul of the original with delayed piano keys and a toughened hip-hop beat. Love Pete Rock‘s recreation of the Virginia-born, Atlanta-based artist and former Missy Elliot… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: The New York Times Presents The Legacy of J Dilla (Video)
A recommended gem of a music documentary. It’s kinda weird that one of the best, most well-produced documentaries on the prolific and beloved Detroit beatmaker and hip-hop game-changer isn’t a standalone doc,… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: TOTEK (Allysha Joy & Max Dowling) – “Touchh” (Darker Than Wax)
The project of 30/70’s Allysha Joy and Max Dowling. “Touchh,” a new track from the Melbourne, Australia duo, is a humid and subtle slow burn that places Allysha’s standout vocals… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: quickly, quickly – “Satellite” (Ghostly International)
Tape-delayed 60s psyche-soul from Portland, Oregon. Graham Jonson returns with “Satellite,” an easy and buoyant tune that imagines Thundercat jamming with Tom Misch. Love those synth squiggles… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Secret Night Gang – “Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings” (Brownswood)
When they’re not holding the elevator door open in the chillest way possible, Callum Connell and Kemani Anderson, old school friends from Manchester, UK, are Secret Night Gang. “Don’t… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: The Lahaar (Julien Dyne, Horatio Luna, Surprise Chef’s Lachlan Stuckey, Mara TK & Toby Laing) – “Doin’ It” (Soundway Records)
Over nine minutes of boogie-jazz. Recruiting the best and brightest from the Australian and New Zealand jazz and electronic soul scenes, The Lahaar is comprised of Horatio Luna, Julien… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Joe Nora & fantompower – “Giraffe” (Friends of Friends)
As fantompower puts it, “Music is wiggly air.” Unwind your mind to this new one from LA-via-Chicago-via-SF producer Joe Nora and musician fantompower. “Giraffe” is a vibey… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Salami Rose Joe Louis & Brijean – “Propaganda” (Brainfeeder)
Never has questioning misinformation been so danceable! On “Propaganda,” Lindsay Olsen, otherwise known as Salami Rose Joe Louis, melds her galactic electronic science with Brijean‘s low-lit beats and vocal… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: The Ironsides – “The Web” (Colemine Records)
Another goldmine from Colemine. “We started the band to write music that evokes cinematic landscapes” says Max Ramey, bassist of the Bay Area psyche-soul collective, The Ironsides. … Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Gareth Donkin ft quickly, quickly & The Breathing Effect – “GEEK OUT!” (drink sum wtr)
An ode to late-night music-making sessions. London, UK musician Gareth Donkin has recruited DanDigs.com faves quickly, quickly and The Breathing Effect for his latest single, “GEEK OUT!,” a spacious… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Kay Young ft Ego Ella May – “Woe Is Me” (Video)
I first heard the voice of Kay Young featured on “Get Connected” by Sekrit back in 2017. Since then, between supporting Jay Electronica in London and appearing on the… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Tagua Tagua – “Pra Trás”
Felipe Puperi lists Bill Withers, Shuggie Otis, and SAULT as his soul heroes past and present. Opening with lush strings, “Pra Trás” by the ex-frontman of Wannabe Jalva, Sao… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Photo Ops – “The Dream Is Done” (Paul Is Dead Records)
I’m all about these guitar pickings, that persistent piano, and especially those lightly dusted drums. When he wasn’t touring with the likes of Camera Obscura and Fences, Terry Price,… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: No Buses – “Eyes” (S.S.G.G. Records)
Named after an Arctic Monkeys deep cut. “Eyes,” a math-rock-flecked indie jaunt from the Tokyo five-piece, contains the most delightful guitar riff. Fronted by Kondo Taisai (近藤大彗)… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Jaguar Sun & Husbands – “It Gets Better” (Born Losers Records)
Chris Minielly, the Ontario musician behind Jaguar Sun, has teamed up with Oklahoma City duo Husbands. “It Gets Better” is a highly pleasant and pastoral indie march that culminates… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Kassa Overall – “Ready to Ball” (Warp Records)
“It got a shine to it.” A gleaming collage of deconstructed hip-hop and jazz, “Ready to Ball” is the latest single from the Seattle drummer, producer, musician, emcee, and… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: JGrrey ft Kojey Radical – “May” (PACE Records)
A collaboration between two of London’s best. “May” is a summery yet bittersweet bop about love and loss. Jgrrey ft Kojey Radical – “May” … Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Dijon – “Coogie” (R&R Digital)
Raw and in-the-moment. The artist behind my number 1 song of 2021, Dijon makes music that sounds so immediate, it’s as if you’re right there witnessing in real time… Continue reading
Recommended Gem: New Mix from Ta-ku – Drive Slow, Homie Pt 6 (Video)
A recommended gem of a mix. A slow roll. Ta-ku returns to gift us with a new edition of the Drive Slow, Homie series, the first in… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Water From Your Eyes – “Barley” (Matador Records) (Video)
“1, 2, 3, 4…” With its centrifugal beat and pleading guitar lick, “Barley” by the experimental art-pop duo Water From Your Eyes is relentless and hypnotic. Water… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Rahill – “I Smile for E” (Big Dada)
A horn-led and piano-driven shuffling sundowner from the Iranian-American artist and NTS Radio DJ. Originally from Lansing, Michigan and now based in upstate New York’s Hudson Valley, Rahill‘s latest… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Dele Sosimi & the Estuary 21 ft Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – “Mo Ṣe B’ọ́lá Tán” (Wah Wah 45s)
An easy and breezy jazz rhythm from the Afrobeat luminary. Hackney, East London-born and Nigeria-raised Dele Sosimi was the keyboard player and musical director for Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80… Continue reading
Diggin’ This: Close Counters ft Izy – “Only One” (Holy Sound) (Official Video)
It’s all about those piano key runs. Allan McConnell and Finn Rees, the Melbourne-via-Tasmania duo otherwise known as Close Counters, sampled fellow Aussie artists Izy and enlisted Lucky Pereira to… Continue reading