New music by local artists to listen to this month

As winter fades into spring, our critics share local music to transition us into this new season. An EP capturing a personal turning point full of snapshots of the artist's life. A Boston stalwart's latest transfixing project inspired by NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity. Rock-pop that transforms a breakup song into an angry battle cry.

In many ways, it feels like we last convened with GHOST GRL — a.k.a. Boston singer-songwriter Gianna Botticelli — in a different lifetime. Until the release of Botticelli’s new EP “Fragments,” her most recent work was the 2020 project “Rewired,” which harnessed its emotional potency through Botticelli’s smoky vocals and ambient ripples of guitar.

Five years later, Botticelli has fleshed that ethereal quality into reverberating alt-rock. The six tracks comprising “Fragments” coexist as complementary approaches to Botticelli’s stoicism; “Greenhouse” snakes between a snappy drum beat and a gracefully languid chorus, while “Jellyfish” doubles down on the intensity, with Botticelli’s voice cutting through leaden guitar riffs. Album opener (and lead single) “My Dog” serves as the brightest moment, as Botticelli relishes the unconditional love of a pet in contrast to flimsy devotion that often ends relationships between humans.

As the EP builds, “Fragments” lends an earthiness to Botticelli’s apparitions of pain, growing a delicate sound into full-bodied snapshots of the artist’s life. It’s a notable turning point for her, elevating the music of GHOST GRL from a mood to a place you can fully vanish into. — Victoria Wasylak

A solo electric guitar ensemble might sound like an oxymoron, but it’s been the outlet for some of the transfixing music that Boston’s Roger Clark Miller has been making in recent years. Miller’s ingredients are one Stratocaster, three lap steels, a looper and “multiple foot-pedals/sound-altering devices,” which together create live layered sounds. Like his prior album, this recording features four pieces that originate from his dreams. The genesis of his compositions may be why his experimental instrumental soundscapes still offer the careful listener remarkably coherent musical stories.

The final piece, "Curiosity on Mars,” consists of five sections, each made in response to the way rocks and minerals are structured in five different photographs taken by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The Curiosity is a fitting inspiration for Miller, who has been making innovative music since his early days playing with Mission of Burma and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and continuing with his soundtrack work in The Alloy Orchestra and that group’s still-active successor The Anvil Orchestra. “Curiosity for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble” proves that Miller’s quest for new ways to play old guitars is a journey that is just getting started. — Noah Schaffer

Roger Clark Miller celebrates the release of Curiosity for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble Saturday, May 17 at the Lilypad in Cambridge. P. Andrew Willis also performs.

I was first introduced to rock-pop band Copilot on British singer-songwriter Jade Bird’s acoustic solo tour last February. Bird reached out to her musically-inclined fans to submit a cover of one of her songs for consideration to be her opener in their home city. Copilot won for her Somerville date, and lead vocalists Maggie Hall, Ry McDonald and Jake Machell took the stage with acoustic guitars. I was in awe of their tight harmonies and raw emotion.

“Let Me Down” debuted in January, but the single leads Copilot’s EP “Vroom, Vroom, etc.” released on Feb. 28. Along with vocals, bassist Austin Beveridge, drummer Dylan Allwine and lead guitarist Jack Snow round out the band’s sound. Hall began writing the track with McDonald as a depressing breakup song, but it evolved into an angry battle cry. The track begins with fast, rhythmic strums and folksy, controlled vocals. Drums, electric guitar and tambourine pick up as Hall unleashes her frustration through soaring belting. The chorus bursts with stunning harmonies as Hall begs her lover to stop making excuses and just “let me down.” — Maddie Browning

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