This time last year, we became accustomed to dancing on our own. But through 2021, the uncertainty of just how to manage and navigate the pandemic led to some tough choices to make: To go out or to stay in, to return to nightclubs or stick to livestreams, to be amongst friends IRL or remain in the group chat? While live music returned this year, albeit with some hesitation of its participants, dance parties did as well, and Boston was not alone in trying to understand the role of nightlife in the age of the pandemic.
But no matter how we digested dance music over the past 12 months, it remained another stellar year for New England artists to show off their talents, either from the DJ booth or through our collective screen. And once again, Nick Minieri’s annual Hometown mix is the perfect end-of-year showcase to recap the highlights and bring us up to speed on what we may have missed.
Though Mineiri’s mixes exclusively cover the past year, he does it with context that stretches back two decades, from his 2000s blogging days at Beantown Boogiedown, to releasing music over the past decade through his Zakim Recordings, to being a familiar and respected figure across a spectrum of scenes and circles (no easy task in this town) both inside the DJ booth and across the bar. So when he pulls something like this together, he does it with his usual style and sophistication.
His 2021 mix compiles more than 70 local artists clocking in at just north of 50 tracks, with house music and underground hip-hop as the focal points and techno, ambient, mid-tempo and drum and bass weaved in throughout. And as usual, it’s a wildly diverse collection, linking up Freezepop with Van Buren with Billy Dean Thomas with Dev/Null with Lightfoot… and on and on.
“I always try to make sure there’s a good amount of first-time appearances to prevent the series from getting too stale; roughly half the tracks fall within that category this year,” Minieri tells Vanyaland earlier this week. “Then, as always, making sure there’s a decent range of Black artists, women and members of the LGBTQ community being represented. Both of these criteria were met with minimal difficulty; we have loads of talent from all walks of life here.”
He adds: “Then things are organized roughly by tempo, style and key, which is important to stay organized as the mix always hops between many styles. Over 300 tracks were purchased and considered for this year’s edition over the past four months and it was honestly really tough whittling it down to 50. So much heat.”
Minieri also understands the context of these mixes in the pandemic age, and with it sees a perhaps unexpected positive development in local nightlife that will hopefully help propel it forward in years to come: An elevation of local DJs to fill the spaces left by touring artists no longer able to travel with ease.
“I think all of us have learned to accept the fact COVID is likely here to stay and the balancing act between safety and sustainability is going to be a hot topic at the forefront for many years to come,” he notes. “The landscape has changed a bit since things re-opened, however there’s one silver lining: More local DJs have had opportunities to play out due to headliner travel restrictions. Promoters have to be innovative in these times in order to survive, but groups like Infra have been finding new spaces and getting permits to make some really interesting things happen. And many of us are very grateful to see well-established weeklies like Re:Set, Elements and Soulelujah back in business; we need the things we enjoyed in the pre-COVID world more than ever right now.”
Of course, what is gained is also accepted with what is lost. And the Boston dance music community suffered its share of losses.
“While this year was better than 2020, it still wasn’t great,” Minieri adds. “We lost two very dear and well-known members in our local community: Pat Fontes and Glen Washington (a.k.a. Siouxside). Both have tracks that, while several years old, I absolutely had to include here; this mix is dedicated to both of them.”
Hit the mix, and keep dancing.