Finding Direction in Sound
TrackNorth
A compass for independent music. Deep dives, honest takes, and the artists you need to hear.
A compass for independent music. Deep dives, honest takes, and the artists you need to hear.
The first submissions to TrackNorth came from Philadelphia, Seoul and further afield: an R&B song that sounds like more than a first attempt, vocals run through a cassette four-track, and beats licensed from seven different producers.
For the first time in 35 years, no rap songs sit in the Billboard Top 40. But underground hip-hop has never been healthier. The question isn't why mainstream rap is struggling — it's why going mainstream became the thing artists are running from.
A blurry reel, a split screen with FL Studio open, and a song that sounds like weeks of work. Ten seconds in, the first try turns out to be something else.
Hyperpop was supposed to be a phase. Instead, it evolved into something nobody expected — a generation of bedroom producers turning the internet's sensory overload into the most visceral, honest music being made today.
He calls it floating. Neuroscience calls it something else entirely. The Brooklyn artist behind "Military Floater" has a vocal technique that bypasses your critical brain.
He found him through a random Twitter post. No PR. No budget. Central Pennsylvania's most undetectable rapper just made his best record — and the craft inside the murder music is unlike anything else in the underground right now.
A bedroom pop artist and a street rapper have no business on the same stage. The story of how they got there is the most Track North thing that's ever happened.
The chorus inflection runs backwards, which is exactly how a broken promise sounds.
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Punchlines that almost read as jokes until they don't, and a voice that changes shape every few bars. The Danny Brown comparison comes to mind and then doesn't hold.
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Guitars with enough depth to fill a coliseum, delivered through AirPods. It sounds like a halftime show, if the halftime show were at Burning Man.
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Most rap tells you where it's from within a bar. This one doesn't sound like it's from this planet, over a beat that feels made to be sampled for exactly this song.
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Built on Alice in Chains' 'Nutshell,' with just enough grunge left in it. Good to know the kids haven't lost the recipes.
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"The cherry is the lit end of a blunt. He's saying the pack is so strong the flame isn't burning at normal color. It's going blue. He can see it. That's not a lyric — that's proof of presence."Read Feature →
"The float isn't a genre trick. It's what happens when a vocalist stops performing and starts transmitting."Read Feature →
"'wut dat mell' sounds like a song that was worked on for weeks. The video it arrived in looks like it was filmed in one minute."Read Short Take → Instagram: @everybodyreen
Every week, hundreds of thousands of tracks get released into the void. Most will never be heard beyond the artist's headphones. Track North exists to change that equation — one honest analysis at a time.
This isn't a hype machine. We don't chase trends or optimize for algorithmic reach. Track North is built on the belief that independent music deserves the same depth of critical attention that major-label releases get — real analysis of songwriting, production, arrangement, and the ideas behind the art.
I'm Vince Gordon, and I started this because I kept finding music that moved me in bedrooms and Bandcamp pages, made by people who had no press kit and no publicist. Just sounds that deserved a proper conversation.
If you're an artist making music in your bedroom, your basement, or your home studio — this is your compass. Submit your work. We're listening.
Track North is built on submissions. If you're an independent artist making original music, we want to hear it. Every submission gets listened to. Selected works get a full feature — real analysis, not a repost.