Friday Dance Music Guide: The Week’s Best New Tracks From Zedd & Bea Miller, Tsha, Rüfüs du Sol & More
This week in dance music: the queen Charli XCX ascended to No. 1 on Dance/Electronic Albums with Brat, tracks from which also currently make up a third of Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, and Lorne Padman was named president of Steve Aoki’s venerable Dim Mak label.
It’s also a big day for big name releases. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
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Zedd feat. Bea Miller, “Out of Time”
It’s been [checks watch] nine years since Zedd’s last studio album True Colors, and while he’s released a flurry of singles since — including his 2018 Maren Morris collab “The Middle,” which hit No. 5 on the Hot 100 — the album cycle is finally rumbling back to life for the artist born Anton Zaslavski. The lead single from his forthcoming Telos, coming August 30 through Interscope Records, is “Out of Time,” an urgent, elegant affair that leans hard into indie pop (a realm his buddy Porter Robinson is also currently exploring) while maintaining a firm electronic backbone. It all serves as a foundation for Bea Miller to go HAM on vocals, with the whole production building to a place that’s more a crescendo than a drop. The Telos tour starts September 6 in Los Angeles.
Tsha & Rose Gray, “Girls”
With the bouncy, punchy, electro-flavored “girls” Tsha delivers the lead single from her second album Sad Girl, coming in September via Ninja Tune. A collaboration with singer/songwriter Rose Grey, the song rides the line between pop bop and the kind of blissful dancefloor track that facilitates getting out of your head and fully into physical motion. So it shall be all summer long for Tsha, who’s playing a run of dates across the U.S. and Europe — which includes Michigan’s Electric Forest this weekend, and a residency at H? Ibiza through the end of August.
Rüfüs du Sol, “Music Is Better”
Three years after Surrender, which won a Grammy for best dance/electronic album, the Rüfüs trinity is back with music that, like a dancefloor ouroboros, is about the joys of music itself. “Music sounds better when we’re together,” sing’s the Aussie trio’s Tyrone Lindqvist, with the sentiment melding with the group’s signature lush melodic house. The single comes after a surprise Rüfüs set at SoCal’s Lightning in a Bottle last month and ahead of the group’s only currently announced show, a headlining slot at Portola in San Francisco this September.
Jamie xx feat. Robyn, “Life”
Dance royalty Robyn swaggers onto Jamie xx’s forthcoming album, In Waves, with their brassy, Latin-leaning “Life.” Sophisticated yet unapologetically fun, the song is the third single from the LP and one which the U.K. producers says he “made pretty fast (for me) and loved it from day one. When I first heard Robyn’s vocal it was at 6am after finishing playing at Pacha in Ibiza, it was the perfect moment. Robyn and I have spent time working together and hanging out for some years now, it’s always a joy and always inspiring, I’m so glad and grateful that she is a part of In Waves. Thank you Robyn for bringing this track to life!”
Purple Disco Machine & Chromeo, “Heartbreaker”
Both Chromeo and Purple Disco Machine have managed to make the camp factor of their respective public images work, given that their music has always been great enough to support the kooky but intellectual brands of fun. So, putting these two acts together is something you’d expect to totally work, and it does. On “Heartbreaker,” PDM’s slick disco fuses with Chromeo’s modern funk, with the three guys together leaning into pop while also keeping it nuanced and characteristically groovy. “He brought this demo to us, and it basically produced itself,” Chromeo says of working with the German producer. “We hope that our lyrical twists and synth touches add a little chrome je-ne-sais-quoi to his winning formula.”
“Working with Chromeo on my album is a real moment for me in my career,” adds Purple Disco Machine, who also just announced a new album coming in September. “Both as a ‘fanboy,’ as I’ve followed these guys for years and they are a real influence on Purple Disco Machine, but also as a ‘producer,’ as 10 years ago I couldn’t even dream about a day when I would go into the studio with Dave and Patrick and make a record together. And…probably only these guys could get me singing and dancing in a video!”
John Summit & Kaskade feat. Julia Church, “Resonate”
Call it bromance, call it mentorship, call it power in numbers, but the musical tag team of John Summit and Kaskade firms up today with the duo’s first collaborative single, “Resonate.” Coming after Summit opened for Kx5 at the Coliseum in 2022 and then played b2b with Kaskade at Hard Summer 2023, the song hails from Summit’s forthcoming LP, Comfort in Chaos, falling in the same dreamy, progressive house singalong sonic wheelhouse as the album’s previously released tracks. Vocals here come from Julia Church, who also sings on Comfort In Chaos‘ previously released Sub Focus collab “Go Back.” Summit is also headlining Madison Square Garden next weekend.
Glimji, “Needs 2 B”
Manchester-born, London-based producer Glimji today releases his debut EP, glimji? Mag!. Comprised of six songs coming in at a tight 16 minutes, the hyperpop-leaning project emphasizes Glimji’s abilities with melody and especially with percussion, with tracks like “Fall Apart,” “Out Cold” and “Needs 2 B” built on spare, crisp beats placed effectively at the front of the mix and sprinkled with synth fairy dust.
Designed to mimic the style and feel of a ’90s zine, the EP comes with a refreshingly honest take from the producer: “This project for me is an embrace of the current – it’s meant to represent the transient nature of artistic taste and development. Creating a body of work can become ever evolving to the point of it never reaching a finish date; our tastes and our intentions constantly changing can lead to a lack of a fulfillment of the now. I wanted to format the work as a periodical magazine to admit both to myself and the audience that this is where I am right now; it’s not necessarily where I want to be yet, but it’s definitely a development past where my previous work was, and I’m using this project to reflect exactly that, and I’m embracing all I love and all that inspires me as of the present.”
Mind Against, “Love Seeking”
The Italian duo give a warm and experimental take on disco with their latest, “Love Seeking.” Out on DJ Tennis’ Life & Death label, the song is like a very cold glass of rosé at 6:00 p.m. on a summer Friday, slowing down midway before warming back up to a warm, sensual swirl that’s the sonic and spiritual opposite of the duo’s typically dark and more pummeling output, but which proves they can do both equally well.
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