There is seriously some crazy shit going on these days in Boston music. The city’s hip-hop scene is blowing up on a national level, Americana and folks bands are packing venues on both weeknights and weekends, and the time-honored garage rock bands keep ripping up both basements and rock clubs. It’s always been futile to try to attempt to pinpoint a “Boston sound,” but in 2016, it might be as varied as it has ever been.
While the sound remains impossible to peg, the Record Co. is trying to capture the spirit of the Boston music scene. This week, the Massachusetts Avenue non-profit music incubator has revealed its new compilation Beast: Boston Sessions Vol. 1, a 13-track collection of new material that captures the raw energy of some of Boston’s most exciting bands and artists.
Today, Vanyaland is excited to premiere the razor-sharp new track from hip-hop rhyme-slayer Dutch ReBelle, titled “RudeBoys” and available to stream below, as well as open a portal to hear a snippet of a new Ruby Rose Fox track titled “Skydiver”.
Both tracks appear on the comp, alongside new cuts by Julie Rhodes, Animal Flag, Palehound, Michael Christmas, Bent Knee, Black Beach, Littlefoot, Tigerman WOAH, CreaturoS, STL GLD, and Pile. And the Pledge campaign has just been launched to help deliver the vinyl and its corresponding merchandise to fans in Boston and around the world.
“When someone asks us, ‘what do you mean Boston’s music scene is world class,'” says the Record Co.’s Executive Director Matt McArthur, “we’ll say, ‘here’s a copy of this record, listen to it’… this is a fantastic mechanism by which fans can discover new songs and new artists. As an organization we exist to build those relationships.”
Program Director Jesse Vengrove says the Record Co. began with a list of roughly 150 bands and artists, and slowly whittled that down to the 13 that appear on the comp. “If it was possible we’d put all 150 bands on the album as there’s so much good music in the city right now,” Vengrove tells Vanyaland. “All of the bands and artists on this album are at varying degrees of development but every one of them represents a piece of what’s happening in the Boston scene right now, and we’re really happy to showcase that diversity of talent and genre all in one place for people to experience.”
While there are some familiar names on the compilation, the Record Co. hopes that fans of one artist will digest the comp as a whole and discover others he or she may not know are Boston-based, or be exposed to a new type of sound for the first time. Check out the Dutch track below, recorded at the Record Co. by Marquis Neal and mixed at the Bridge Sound and Stage by the Arcitype, as well as more info via the graphics under the Soundcloud embed.
Beast: Boston Sessions Vol. 1 is targeting a mid-December release date.
