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Music

TOKiMONSTA’s “Don’t Call Me” Got a Surprisingly Tender “Re-Freak” by Dam-Funk

The Los Angeles producer shares a swoony cut from her forthcoming remix compilation 'Lune Rouge Remixed,' out April 6.
Photos courtesy of the artists.

Los Angeles producer TOKiMONSTA treads the divides between dance music worlds. She’s came up involved with the dizzy psychedelia of Los Angeles’ beat scene—issuing early works through Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder—but over the years she’s explored so many more worlds. From emotive balladry to skyscraping synthwork befitting of big tent EDM stages to hard-nosed rap beats, she’s basically shown she can bring her vibrant signature to any style or form she so chooses. Last year, she brought her neon-bathed jack-of-all-trades aesthetic to album length on Lune Rouge, a record that demonstrated more or less the full-range of her talents—pulling in guests from disparate worlds like Chicago rapper Joey Purp, the dreamworld-explorer Yuna, and pop technician MNDR. Somehow it all works.

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On April 6, she’ll push into even more worlds, care of Lune Rouge Remixed, a collection of flips, edits, and reimaginings from a host of other electro-experimenters, including the L.A. club boundary-pusher Kingdom, the vaporous Japanese producer Qrion, and Sofi Tukker among a host of others. There’s also one track billed winningly as a “re-freak,” care of Dam-Funk, debuting here today. His take on the track is surprisingly tender, ballasting the original with breezy synthwork and queasy basslines. It transforms the emotive original into a breezy 80s boogie ballad, proof that even the real freaks are just waiting to show off their sensitive sides. For his part, Dam imagines this mix as a soundtrack to a coastline drive.

"With this Re-Freak, I decided to take a song I already loved from my fellow L.A. native Tokimonsta's album Lune Rouge and give it a glide below the 10 Fwy, during a hazy L.A. sunset” he says via email. “It was a pleasure to expand "Don't Call Me" (which features the beautiful vocals of Yuna x Tokimonsta's always unique music as a template) into new territory, while still maintaining my influences of the past, such as the lush soul-funk of groups like (early 80's era) The Isley Brothers."

TOKiMONSTA herself clearly feels the breeze. "Dam Funk is a straight up legend. He reimagined 'Don't Call Me' in the classic Dam Funk way--smooth with that G funk spirit," she says. "It's perfect! I couldn't be more grateful."

You can listen to the track here in advance of Lune Rouge Remixed next week. And if that’s not enough TOKi for you, she’s also playing Noisey Weekend on Saturday March 31 at Brooklyn Steel alongside Deem Spencer and Leikeli47. Tickets for that are available now.