Making beats in Massachusetts
Can't-miss top tracks from local artists
The great metro area produces an enormous amount of awesome music every year. So much music that we’re less than two months into 2023 and the ace releases are piling up.
In an effort to champion a sliver of the scene, here’s a playlist of tip top tracks. You will be left on your own recognizance to dig deeper into these artists, which I know you will once you start spinning the glorious tracks.
“Running Back,” Mel Go Hard & SING
Mel Go Hard’s new EP “After the Storm” is big, wide and rich. That’s not too surprising considering Mel Go Hard, aka producer Melissa Sanon, collaborated with so many different (mostly) local talents: Amandi Music, MityMaose, Bianca Iman, Zxire, Keem LaAmour, Leon Monroe and Atikin Rose. But it’s still a little surprising — Mel manages to neatly package quiet storm r&b, neo soul, modern pop and futuristic grooves into smooth-as-silk deconstructions of love and pain. So where to start? “Running Back.” Why? Because you can’t fake a hook. Mel’s production throughout is cool and creative, but, damn, that hook. When she teams with SING for “Running Back,” the pair craft something catchy and sharp, an irresistible pulse that could climb to No. 1 in 1985 or 1997 or 2023.
“Wine,” High Tea
New England’s recent track record of roots rock (or rootsy rock, if you please) is flabbergasting: Kingsley Flood then David Wax Museum then Ballroom Thieves then the Suitcase Junket…. Next up is High Tea. The duo of Isabella DeHerdt and Isaac Eliot blend earthy acoustic blues and astral folk harmonies. “Wine” is an ideal example of this mix. Just listen to that thundering stomp (a little Zeppelin III?) set the groove screaming vocals and rumbling guitar. All of High Tea’s new release “The Wick And The Flame” shines (a little CSN? A little Indigo Girls?); “Wine” blinds like a spotlight.
“Lovely Tunes,” MyCompiledThoughts
“Baby… tell me… why you act so indifferent?” Lazily, slinkily, MyCompiledThoughts opens new groove “Lovely Tunes” with this question. And it’s a worthy one — what lover could be indifferent to an r&b singer with such soulful swagger? In a tight (but loose), smooth (but fiery) two-minute track, MyCompiledThoughts lays down the year’s best slow jam with this stand-alone single.
“The No Name Song,” D-Tension
D-Tension is the local hip hop scene’s secret weapon. D-Tension is also the local rock scene’s secret weapon. The Lowellbased producer-MC-beatmaker-singer-songwriterguitarist will return this spring with a one-manband album — the tag teams that often define his LPs will be nowhere to be found. The first taste of all-D-all-the-time is recent single “The No Name Song,” a cheeky ode to instantly forgetting the name of a lady you just met at the bar that’s been wrapped in a candy shell of power pop and glam metal. Delicious, delightful, and hopefully an indication of the LP to come.
“All the Way Back,” Devine Sweater
Have we all slept on Divine Sweater too long? I freely admit I have. My word, what a charming and devastatingly-gloomy dream pop band. Now don’t put too much emphasis on “gloomy” or “dream” and ignore “charming” and “pop.” “All the Way Back” is flush with melancholy but the hook, the just-forceful-enough instrumentation, the coo and call of singer Meghan Kelleher’s ethereal voice, it’s absolutely hypnotic.