Minnesota Artists United Against ICE
Melt ICE
SELF-RELEASED
The first thing to say about Melt ICE, the new benefit compilation album put together by a collective of musicians billed as Minnesota Artists United Against ICE, is that it’s good. Very good. Why-didn’t-anybody-tell-me good. There’s a danger in asking over a hundred acts to promptly send in demos, live cuts, new creations, or something that’s been kicking around for a while as it could result in a well-intentioned but ultimately jarring hodgepodge that’s a slog to listen to—a donation to an important cause rather than that, plus an album you want to explore in depth. Melt ICE is, of course, both: social justice contribution and a thrilling oasis of new music discovery.
Minneapolis is exceptional like that, as it has been in its sustained resistance to Operation Metro Surge. At its peak, around 3,000 ICE goons swarmed the city, and though officially concluded by the Trump administration, the operation has reportedly shifted to the suburbs and maintains an excessive presence in a state that normally has 150 agents total. ICE has wrought such destruction and trauma that even if there is a complete withdrawal, rebuilding work will be near-enough endless. Minnesotans still require financial support, which is why all proceeds from Melt ICE go to MN Together, a mutual aid fund directing essential supplies and rent assistance to affected community members. The album has so far raised $15,000.
As part of Minnesota’s many creative resistance efforts—from no-sleep noise demonstrations to the student union-led walkouts, which spread nationwide—three musicians decided to solicit songs from their peers in the DIY music scene. Ryan Kemp, Anna Devine, and Jonny Fuller have been involved in benefit shows around the Twin Cities over the last few months, and each of them has a song on here. Kemp is Chutes, a fuzzy and friendly indie rock project with murmured vocals set behind thick drapes of guitars. His partner, Devine, sings backup in Chutes and releases curative indie-folk under her own name, the kind of music that makes you slow down. Fuller’s alter ego is Jonny Darko, who cuts together trap beats and samples in a bedroom-pop environment to make something big-screen but intimate. Then there are the 107 others.
The organizers kept the scope wide: no rules on format, genre, or subject matter. For those willing to invest a little time, Melt ICE is a treasure trove; you’ll find at least a dozen songs to love from the sprawling tracklist, ordered alphabetically by artist name. A dozen songs for $10 (or more) is a pretty fair deal, but 110 songs for that price is a steal. Given this elastic MO, you might forget you’re listening to a benefit album with a social justice motivation. There are fun, escapist tunes like “No Chorus” by Bad Bad Hats, which has that cheeky Liz Phair wink to it as the guitars skip along happily. Others are escapist in quieter, contemplative ways: Mother Soki’s “Crush” soundscape shimmers like a pond at dusk, imprecise and fading away, while Anna Devine’s “Playing House” is about the people we love who make a place home, reminding me of other generous acoustic songwriters like Taylor Vick. “Keepsake (Demo)” by Mouthful is a lo-fi, tick-tocking sigh of arpeggiated acoustics that edges toward Midwest emo.
There are real-deal protest songs here, too, those that stare down the horror that’s been unfolding in Minneapolis and across the US. “Every brown baby at rest…turn your eyes away I suggest” is one chilling line from Laamar’s “Man Who Makes the Gun,” a finger-plucked, pindrop arrangement. Durry provide a rousing MAGA-cult send-up recalling flyover, fist-in-the-air punks such as The Menzingers. Hardcore outfit Roc Barboza shouts back, fire-with-fire-style, on the pan-flash “Major Threat.”
You’ll find every possible approach on Melt ICE, and every in-vogue sonic niche represented in a big way. Lupin has got the vocal-play bedhead Americana of Hovvdy and This Is Lorelei covered. Mack OC leads the fast-barbed hip-hop contingent. SoulFlower contributes warm neo-soul stylings. Lana Leone is a name that should be bolded alongside the buzziest shoegazers of our time, as should VIAL be mentioned in any conversation about the riot grrrl renaissance. One thread—on account of the many demos and live recordings—is this raw, urgent, garage-band energy, as heard on that latter track, as well as Full Catholic’s visceral “Barnburner” or the early-Pavement-evoking “Untitled Demo” by Asparagus and their razor-blade guitars. Laura Hugo’s voice on “How Do You Feel (Live)” is absolutely in league with Waxahatchee’s; rich and crisp, it sounds like pure sunshine.
In other words, there are many reasons to keep our eyes on Minnesota. A fascist takeover is still underway in one of the nation’s most safe, progressive, and economically sound blue states. Four thousand people have been arrested from the state alone since ICE moved in last December. Two unarmed US citizens have been executed in the street: Alex Pretti and Renée Good. Families have been torn apart by a government that’s meant to protect them. It’s hard to keep watching, but we have to. That’s what Lily Blue realizes in one of the most striking standstills, “My Eyes.” It finds hope in what sounds like a sunken pit, fingers slinked over electric guitar strings as though she’s horizontal and grasping at the instrument on the floor with her last ounce of energy. Like her eyes, Blue’s words sound exhausted, but she’s determined to say them until they come true: “I pray the sun melts the ice,” she sings. “I open my eyes / The sun melts the ice.”
