Best 10 for 2022

After two pretty difficult years, we were well due for a good one. Thanks to all of you, we think we did pretty great this year.

Here's our rundown of our favorite moments from 2022 (in no particular order).

SOME WELL-DESERVED RECOGNITION...

UJU's We Should've Walked But We Ran got some love in CNN Life Philippines' Top 25 OPM Songs of the Year. In addition to that, Keith Human's Inna Says (Too Many People) and Manic Mundane's Astral Bodies got honorable mentions in the same list. As much as we love putting out music for the sake of music, it's always a feel-good when our artists get some due recognition for the work they put into their craft.

FETE DELA MUSIQUE 2022

The comeback of a physical Fete Dela Musique in 2022 was an awesome development, but what made it even more special for us was getting a chance to host the Cebu leg of the event.

It was a fun-filled couple of nights with both roster artists and friends outside the label performing for the shows, with Peregrine, Chelsea Dawn, and Manic Mundane even flying in to join the fun.

Fun fact: It was the first time we got to meet some of our recently signed artists face to face, which made it an even more special occasion.

TIGER PUSSY REUNITES..

Tiger Pussy was one of the earliest acts we worked with at Melt Records, and their albums People You Hate (2013) and Residuals (2017) continue to be true classics in our discography. So we were ecstatic when they announce a couple of comeback shows - one in Manila and the other in Cebu - to end the year. While it's yet to be seen if anything more comes out of the reunion, these shows alone were enough to make our year.

ASEAN Music Showcase Festival

Getting to represent the country in a global music showcase festival as a delegate is awesome in itself. Finally getting a chance to do it face-to-face was an incredible experience.

The fact that one of our favorite artists, KRNA, came along for the trip and performed at the festival was the cherry on top. They put on an awesome show for a full crowd from all over Asia and made their mark in their first ever performance outside the country.

Loop Announces A Reunion Tour

12/16 - Cagayan De Oro

12/17 - Malaybalay

12/28 - Iligan

01/07 - Cebu

01/18 to 01/21 - Metro Manila

We couldn't have been the only ones jumping for joy when Loop posted a bunch of dates. Having previously disbanded at the height of the pandemic, our favorite indie rock band from Iligan announced in November a series of shows in Mindanao and Cebu, and later followed up with dates for Metro Manila, much to the delight of their fans from all over the country.

We're proud to host the Cebu leg of the tour, Loop :Redux, this January 7, 2023 at From Here Coworking. If you've missed Loop as much as we have, you're not going to want to miss this chance to catch them live once more.

Physical and DIgital Space COme Together At Cybermelt..

Motion designer WO HU played on the notion of physical and digital places coming together into one seamless experience and we're glad to have been the subject of her exhibit at the Tubo Art Festival in Cebu. The exhibit featured augmented reality experiences based on four classic artworks from the Melt Records catalog. The result was an immersive experience for viewers and an opportunity to interact with the art from your favorite music in a truly unique way.

Our First Vinyl [CO]Release

While digital music is the reality we face, our old souls have always had an affinity for physical media, music you can basically hold in your hand. So we were pretty stoked about getting a chance to finally release a record on vinyl.

False Plaintiff's When Goodbyes Become Easier is a co-release with Cold Press Records (Singapore), Dingleberry Records (Germany), and Desperate Infant Records (Hong Kong).

Global Collaborators

If there's anything we learned through the pandemic, it's that music has no borders.

In addition to participating in the ASEAN Music Showcase Festival in Singapore, we also worked out two deals with global collaborators in 2022. The vinyl release by False Plaintiff is one of them. The other is with French shoegaze quintet Pam Risourie, who are releasing their LP "Days of Distortion" in March 2023 with a single — You Are The Sound — already up on our Bandcamp!

Our First Ever NFT release..

2022 was the year we experimented with even more ways to connect and bring you closer to your favorite artists. A collaboration with Riff Asia made it possible for us to release our very first NFT and what better artist to do it with than with Loop!

The drop consisted of four collections, each representing a band member's favorite moment from their beautiful debut full-length album Flirting With The Universe. It also includes original artwork by Arkyoo.

If you ever wanted to add more Loop stuff to your collection, grab this digital collection today!

Finally, OF COURSE, ALL THE GREAT NEW MUSIC...

7 ALBUMS.
15 SINGLES.

We don't have the exact numbers, but we might just have had a record year this year.

As a record label, the music is really what we're all about and seeing all this great music come up from our roster of artists this year just warms our hearts. We hope you enjoyed all the great new music this year as much as we have! We can't wait to give you more this 2023!