Last Updated on January 9, 2024, 5:24 PM | Published: January 9, 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY — The year is new, and that means the music scene of Oklahoma City is raising both its hopes and its defenses for whatever 2024 might bring to the table.
But before some anticipated, high-profile new local albums land, and well before the spring/summer concert and festival season hits the ground running, a few OKC artists have dropped recent singles to help you prepare for anything this year might toss your way.
Whether you’re hoping to hide from this notoriously difficult opening month, looking to reaffirm your own strength and confidence for the months ahead, or just feeling like smearing on some warpaint and facing the year head-on, these locals have just the anthems you need.
Music and film
by Brett Fieldcamp
Sponsored by True Sky Credit Union
Sweetest Pot – ‘Nothing Good Happens in January’
A sound like a lone cello playing in the middle of a chaotic, windswept street scene kicks off this wistful chillhop offering from OKC electro/glitch/lo-fi-beats-to-study-to-style producer Sweetest Pot.
It’s a pretty apt way to open a track dropped on New Year’s Eve, and aiming to capture the inherent isolation and anxiety that seems to set in right when the ball drops and the new year strikes midnight.
But rather than settle into the brooding, a glistening, watery guitar and fuzzy backbeat pick up the mood and start building something surprisingly hopeful and genuinely rousing.
With overlapping lo-fi melodies and chopped/pitched vocal glitches, the track constructs itself around you layer by synthetic layer, always evoking the same colorful cyber-futurism aesthetic of the digital art and anime frames that make up so much of the Sweetest Pot style.
And then, suddenly, it all falls away in a single drum fill, and you’re surrounded by something like a live band, with big acoustic drums and electric piano and a funky, fully underwater guitar, and after all that chaos, you feel like you’re around friends, and like it’s going to be okay.
For a song that wants you to believe that nothing good happens this month, it’s an honestly cathartic and fantastically listenable track that should be soundtracking your January right now.
“Nothing Good Happens in January” by Sweetest Pot is streaming now.
Follow Sweetest Pot on Instagram at @sweetestpot.
Perseus – ‘Regenerator’
Like a punch to the chest, Oklahoma metal veterans Perseus plunge into their newest single “Regenerator” with a rolling, cascading wall of drums and crushing distortion, wasting no time on pleasantries and announcing themselves reborn.
Perseus have been around in various forms and states of activity since launching in Shawnee back in 2008, but post-pandemic, they’ve re-centered their efforts and set their sights on metal master status.
“Regenerator,” then, is the anthem for their current incarnation, and a showcase for seemingly everything they can do stylistically.
Alternating between adrenaline-pumping blast beats and imposing, half-time breakdowns, they continuously shift tempos and rhythms in hairpin, neck-breaking turns adorned with dueling stereo guitar riffs and even the occasional, explosive prog-metal solo break.
Atop it all, the seething, guttural growl of vocalist Jeremy Knight proclaims “I am reborn with fire and blood.”
Indeed.
This is music to march into battle to, and it feels like that’s exactly what Perseus mean to do.
“Regenerator” by Perseus is streaming now.
Follow Perseus online at facebook.com/ThePerseusBand, on Instagram at @perseusbandofficial, andon their official site at perseusepk.com.
Psych the Wordsmith – ‘Set it Off’
OKC-based rapper Psych the Wordsmith is out to prove the accuracy of his name with this track that showcases his flow, speed, and clearly unshakeable confidence.
With a chilled-out backbeat-and-electric-piano bed beneath him, Psych starts calm and collected, taking aim at the insecurities and dishonesties of his rivals.
It’s a common trope, but, wordsmith that he is, he’s got the skills to back up the claims.
“Set it Off” is all about Psych’s ability to continuously build and develop his flow, to change up and pivot his rhythms and rhymes, starting simply and adding more speed, more syllables, more emphasis, more intensity, until the beat falls out from under and everything drops back to the hook.
But rather than just an exhibition for his abilities, he uses the track as an opportunity to reaffirm his faith, not only in his god, but in himself and his own hard-won authenticity, declaring “I done gave up on the different methods on how to appease.”
With a steady stream of collaborations (including a full EP release with Finite Galaxy groundbreaker Sundeep) and a seemingly never ending supply of freestyle bars, Psych has already been garnering respect in the scene. If you’re not on his wavelength yet, this is the track to get you there.
“Set it Off” by Psych the Wordsmith is streaming everywhere now.
Follow Psych the Wordsmith on Instagram at @psychthewordsmith official and on Soundcloud at soundcloud.com/psychecreation.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
