Friday Dance Music Guide: The Week’s Best New Tracks From Purity Ring, Chris Lake & More

Electronic pop duo Purity Ring release their first new music since 2023 with “many lives” and the single’s B-side “part ii.” “many lives” in fact speaks to the passage of time, with Purity Ring’s Megan James singing that, “You know I’ve lived many lives, many lives, many times,” in a crystalline voice that floats over a production melding cinematic synths of drum & bass-style drums.

“In a lot of ways, many lives + pt ii is the epicenter of things we’ve been working on recently,” the duo say in a joint statement. “It’s like the sun we’ve been orbiting around for the past few years. It feels pitch black and impossible, but also has in it all the things we can make out of that. We’re just really excited about making music at this point in our career and we felt a kind of vastness and possibility when making this.”

The accompanying video for the self-released project is by creative director Mike Sunday and demonstrates the pair’s influences including Automata and Final Fantasy X.

Listen to “many lives” here.

Chris Lake releases the third single from his forthcoming debut album with “Savana.” The breezy track, which opines about wanting to “get wild and walk on water,” comes before the July 11 release of Lake’s Chemistry. He himself says the album “has been a long time in the making, and it features some really special artists I’ve been lucky enough to work with, I can’t wait to share this with you.” The project will be released independently through his own Black Book Recordings.

Listen to “Savana” here.

French hero Myd announces that he’s got a new album coming via the release of its latest single, “So High.” The warm and refreshingly long (nearly six minutes!) track is loaded with feisty swagger and a killer drum section, altogether sounding like the seasonal gears fully shifting to summer. The track comes from Mydnight, which will drop August 29 and include collaborations with Channel Tres, Calcutta, Trueno, Carlita and Bethanie Home and which will, according to Myd, mark the beginning of a clubbier and more personal era for the longstanding artist.

“So High” is out via Ed Banger Records/Because Music. Listen to it here.

The gentlemen of Keys N Krates turn up the heat with a whole lot of hand percussion and a vocal that basically just consists of the seemingly rhetorical but perhaps totally serious query: “Are you a freak?” A collaboration with African electronic music outfit Afrique Like Me and Bay Area producer 96 Vibe, the single is the first release from the longstanding trio’s new label Old Soul Records.

Listen ot “RUAFREAK” here.

Montreal trance producer TDJ gives those good old soaring etheric vibes with “Where Is My Angel,” a single from her forthcoming eponymous album coming June 27. The song fuses an indie pop sensibility with the big builds and big emotions of trance, while also putting a fresh, chic spin on the genre. The album itself will include collabs with Danny L Harle and Hannah Diamond and altogether serve as a meditation on trying to feel something in an often numbing world.

“Where Is My Angel” is out on Collection Disque Durs / All Night Long. Listen to it here.

Rising Turkish-born, NYC-based artist Inji gives a treatise on the modern party girl mentality, declaring “now you don’t need cash when you look like that because you’re outfit’s propane/ Maddy you got kicked out ’cause you just hooked up with Diplo/ no way! /turns out it was just another guy with some bleached blonde hair/ but no shade!”

The rapidfire vocals then build into a sharp, punchy club track in which the artist declares, “I know a good time girl needs a night like that!” over cutty synths that give the effect of strobe lights. The track follows Inji’s killer May single “U Won’t” with this b2b drop bringing a refreshingly no f–ks given energy to the summer.

“We need a change in the DJ booth – it’s time for the girls to take over – the guy-in-a-black-t-shirt vibe is getting old,” the artist says in a statement. “I want to bring laughter, color, dancing, sweating, shouting, and ass shaking back. Even my 55-year-old dad said he couldn’t keep his butt on his chair – that’s saying something.”

“Good Time Girl” is out AWAL Recordings. Listen to it here.