Welcome to another installment of our monthly local music feature, New Music NC!
Each month highlights some of our particular favorites, followed by several categories to sift through. Think of it as your virtual record store, except all the music is new and local!
[Pst! Get included in a future issue!]
Top Selections
Abigail Dowd — Saints & Warriors [Winston-Salem singer-songwriter]
Abigail Dowd‘s fourth album is an impressive example of atmospheric restraint. Where many singer-songwriters lean heavily on confessional intimacy, Dowd draws from regional history and environmental consciousness while maintaining an emotional core that never feels distant.
What lingers most is Dowd’s ability to make the historical feel immediate and the personal feel universal. Her voice carries a smokiness that suits both the tender moments and the more assertive declarations scattered throughout. This is an album that rewards close listening but doesn’t demand it. For those seeking folk music that engages with something larger than itself while never losing sight of the individual, Saints & Warriors delivers quietly and confidently.
Top Tracks: “Sister’s Heart”, “Already Free”, “Nothing Matters”
Burlap Circus — Avenue [Greensboro folk/indie rock]
There’s no better sign of the dense musical talent in this state than almost missing a debut album I would describe as “transcendent.” Burlap Circus makes a strong case for one of the year’s best albums from the jump with a folky sound that dabbles with loungey jazz and swells with intense orchestral rock breakdowns. The best way I can think of to describe it is like Black Country, New Road, born and raised in North Carolina rather than across the pond.
Singer Kaitlyn Tracy is a revelation — think Emmylou Harris meets Gwen Stefani — but the band behind her is no joke. Every song has a flair to it that makes me go, “Oh come on!” that ranges from clever chord progressions to viola, flute, and horn arrangements. It helps that the production is immaculate, but there’s a clear vision here that will keep me coming back again and again.
Top Tracks: “Irish Goodbye”, “Running Habits”, “On top”, “Mask”, “Bitter & Better”
MAVI — The Pilot [Charlotte rap]
MAVI has been on the come-up since his 2019 debut record, Let the Sun Talk. He’s put out two more albums, toured around the world with the likes of Earl Sweatshirt and Freddie Gibbs, and hyped up a new record with new singles over the past few months.
Plot twist: those singles were really for a full-length mixtape that’s coming out before the next album. And it’s finally pulled me onto his bandwagon.
From the start of “Heavy Hand”, he’s rapping like it was forcing its way out. While his past releases flirted too much with mumble rap for my liking, The Pilot is clear-throated and often aggressive. There are still slower, introspective moments, but ultimately, the diverse beats make for a sublime pairing with his sobriety-fueled level-up. I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.
Top Tracks: “Silent Film”, “Typewriter (feat. Kenny Mason)”, “Landgrab (feat. Earl Sweatshirt)”, “Potluck”
scrape — Flood [Durham sludge metal/noise rock]
With their first full-length project, Durham’s scrape leaves nothing to chance. They want you to drown in their sludgey, Tool-esque metal sound.
The opening track, “This Blood”, is chock full of heavy riffs, melancholic lyrics, and screeching noises that catch your attention. Cymbals and crashes create breaks in the instrumentation, underscoring how polished the song is. It’s often easy for certain elements to get lost or drowned out in a genre based on making as much noise as possible. But scrape blew past that barrier and stuck the landing.
The themes of working through the pain and working till you’re exhausted, then pushing through it anyway, were felt real instead of phoned in. Throughout the album, the guitar riffs are sharp while the drums provide the steady, grueling base for the vocals to shine. Many people can resonate with the album’s message overall and easily find a track to love, just as we did.
Top Tracks: “This Blood”, “Smile”, “The Taking”
Monthly Round-up
Rock, alternative, and punk
Bat Asterisks — Impossible Girl/Armageddon Demos [Wilmington punk rock]
CHEEKS — CHEEKS [Asheville noise rock/post-punk]
DE()T — Welcome to the Idiot Factory [Raleigh synth punk]
Erie Choir — Golden Reviser [Carrboro indie rock]
Floating Action — A Hand Carved Garden Tool [Black Mountain soul rock]
glow in the dark scars — glow in the dark scars [Rocky Point lo-fi rock]
Jack The Songman — Faces [Chapel Hill yacht rock]
Lucy Mayhem — THE IN BETWEEN [Winston-Salem goth rock/grunge]
Oblations — Sun Going Down [Chapel Hill alt rock/blues/jazz]
Observatory B — in waves [Chapel Hill indie rock]
Warp Street — Warp Street [Charlotte garage rock]
Folk, Americana, and country
American Aquarium — Live at Red Rocks [Raleigh Americana rock]
Brandon Dawson — “Wide Open” [Durham singer-songwriter]
Gavin Conner — The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits [Asheville singer-songwriter]
ghostdaughter — body, estranged [Asheville emo folk/slowcore]
Hiss Golden Messenger — Seven Dollars: a Benefit for North Carolina Food Assistance [Durham folk/roots/Americana]
Johnny Sunrise — Live From Home [Carrboro country folk]
m.b. mulkey — two songs about food [Raleigh folk punk]
Madelyn ilana — Seeker [Asheville acoustic/singer-songwriter]
Payne Fulcher and Gabe Pelli — The Jackson Press [Raleigh alt-country]
Metal and hardcore
Bughouse — Bughouse [NC hardcore]
fixations — TRY LESS [Charlotte hardcore punk]
MADDER MAX — SURVIVES [Asheville post-apocalyptic hardcore]
Old Dead Gods — Controlled Burn [Asheville black metal/heavy resin metal]
thelineswedrewbetweenus — thelineswedrewbetweenus [NC screamo]
The Reticent — please [Charlotte progressive metal]
Electronic, ambient, experimental, and more
cosmic collective — COSMICCOOKS vol. 4 [Charlotte jazz fusion
Cut Rugs — Tossed Off Tha Yuckies [Asheville glitchhop/dubstep]
Observance — eviscerating abundance [Asheville ambient/electronic/techno]
SSG — Flared [Charlotte experimental/avant garde]
Wiz — Skip any you don’t like [Concord groovy electronic]
Hip-hop/rap, soul, jazz, and funk
.zone + sifi! — WHEN THE SKY OPENS [Durham hip-hop/rap]
Ken Moshesh / Andrew Willard — Live Grooves Through the Cosmos [Durham cosmic jazz improv]
Sheme of Gold — The Sweetest Escape [Wilmington experimental hip-hop]
Ready to get featured in our monthly roundup for new music from NC artists? Fill out this short form and we’ll include your latest release in a future issue!
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