Ang Bandang Shirley -- Favorite (2017; Wide Eyed Records Manila)

I

“parang slo-mo: makulay”

There are times when it is necessary to unravel the complexity of historiography to find analogues from an age that exists only in archives in order to construct a recognizable narrative for present mass consumption, but each repetition is different. There are times when striking parallels are drawn between cherished refrains from the annals of time and clusters of notes form the song of time in motion, and it sometimes appears that both are segments of the same piece transposed a few octaves up or down to add color to the same theme, but this does not account for context, for specificity. Each repetition is made different by its situatedness, its environment; the melody interacts -- taken in this case as a singular entity -- with all that surrounds it. A simplistic yet effective way to comprehend this would be thinking of the chorus of any pop song: the first verse breathes its spirit into the clay of the first chorus, but this selfsame collection of words and sounds is altered by the second verse. Each repetition is different.

II

MY GUT REACTIONS TO THE ALBUM

- Maganda yong tunog; a huge improvement from Tama Na Ang Drama in terms of production - Walang kantang mahina; everything feels connected and feels like it is meant to be experienced as a sprawl - Ang haba pero hindi naman nakakapagod; siguro dahil maayos yong arrangement ng tracks - Still not sure if Favorite is my favorite release of theirs; tuwang-tuwa pa rin ako sa Themesongs pero ibang-iba na yong orientation at scope nito

TRACK BY TRACK 1. Maningning - sakto bilang opener; is that a synth somewhere? oh it doesn’t matter it’s cool 2. Umaapaw - whoa man maganda yong pasok i don’t wanna write about this track anymore because everyone else was doing it when it was initially released 3. Karamay - ouch 4. Makahiya -  i think this is the first time i actually heard this one; it doesn’t sound like a single, and it’s a nice break from the bombardment of the first three tracks; sakto yong piano and the bass in particular is powerful 5. Alam Mo Ba? (Ang Gulo) - hindi ko alam 6. Siberia -  sounds a lot better in its current situation; honestly, hindi ko talaga trip yong kanta when it was released as a single, but here it feels like it strengthens the contrast between the tracks, i think it was placed perfectly in its current position
 7. Maginhawa - wonderful guitar tones; ganda ng intertextuality ng lyrics as in tumaas yong balahibo nung narining ko yong self-reference apir men ang saya; also reminiscent of the first album [which i honestly liked more than the second], pero halatang may development sa tunog; ito yong pinaka nakakatuwang kanta sa album so far
 8. Relihiyoso - surprise Frank Ocean technique 9. Favorite - not surprised that this happens to be my favorite track 10. Actually - surprise Broken Social Scene You Forgot It In People-era technique 11. Ilang2x - tanginang ending yan ang saya pero akala ko nasira yong CD player namin; it would be even more worrying if this were a cassette, which wouldn’t be a bad idea for an eventual reissue 12. Ono - i thought this was several different songs melded into one, so the usually intimidating 9- minute time frame didn’t feel like it was that long; glad about this showing up as track 12 instead in the penultimate or final position 13. Palindrome - this one doesn’t sound like a single and that’s what’s appealing about this one 14. Karagatan - surprise Broken Social Scene retrain nice one BONUS TRACKS I feel like the differences in bonus tracks radically alter the structure; “Erika” functions like “Cutterpillow” -- a short breather before deciding to repeat everything once again -- and “Wealth of Nations” feels more like exit music, punctuating the preceding 14 tracks, bringing the album to a close. I do not know which one I prefer.

III

“ang daming nangyayari: isang daan”

It is surprisingly simple to herald the second coming of the Eraserheads; all you have to do is engineer and edit your argument well enough to fit into certain parameters. The case can be made for Shirley, but a similar case can be made for artists such as Up Dharma Down (I still refuse to abbreviate!!!), Autotelic, and (as much as it pains me to say this) Sud. (Ironically, none of the Eraserheads’ projects make the shortlist; the reason is simple: each repetition is different. Even when the four convened to play an unannounced set a while back, they said they were not the Eraserheads.) The problem with drafting a statement proclaiming an arrival as monumental as the Eraserheads, however, is how contemporary media operates; everything is happening all of the time, and it is impossible to rally under a single banner. Print media has gone online and is open to more immediate scrutiny, and it is quite difficult to take listicles, quizzes, and anything too seriously; the 90s will not happen again.

Yet it feels as though no other band has felt like it belonged to more people than Ang Bandang Shirley: no cathartic choruses express general sentiments as well as their singles, no album release party had the sweltering urgency like theirs. It seems that this is due to their ability to connect with a number of individuals spanning generations and countless other divisions, and each of their listeners finds a way to work their songs into the narratives of their own lives. Each repetition is different.

routine protein - soft world (2017; Idioterne, Inc.)

Younger, calmer fraternal twin of routine protein’s previous release, strong world. I suppose that shouldn’t come as a surprise. You can trust soft world. It is what it tells you.

I am reminded of: being under a comforter while the airconditioning unit hums, the same unit that should be unplugged for the environment and because of what Meralco charges. It’s only one or the other and that’s the hardest decision you’ll have to make today, which really is the easiest. There is a price to be paid for mistakes, but the deadline doesn’t loom over your head anymore, not now.

Mundane (though not prosaic) lo-fi pop running its fingers through your hair telling you that it’s okay to lie down and watch the things you can’t touch, the light streaming into the room settling on dust in the air, the air, the sound of being told it’s okay. 

- Maryan Cadiz

The Geeks - The Double-Sided Sophomore Slump (2017; self-released)

Responses on The Geeks' The Double-Sided Sophomore Slump

In my head, I feel strange

‘Life is a Waste of Time’

A door opens and from the frame, muted moving images from one’s youth.

Obligatory Hipster Filler

If academic papers are now nothing more than sophisticated forms of shitposting (or peer-reviewed shit posts), then perhaps the Obligatory Hipster Filler is the introduction.

Our Mothers

Mine belonged to the years when doo-wop was mod but Mod would come much later, in what was to be (and had been) her elementary school years. And I will forever be under the impression that she handled that age better than me or anyone else. Perhaps the album was written for her kind (and we are their double-sided sophomore slumps).

Life is a Waste of Time

Paranoia: being under the impression that most songs are deliberately timed to end at exactly 4 minutes and 20 seconds. I still think this joke is funny, this is my life and I am not ashamed of it.

Do You, Too?

Awards are bunk, grades are not everything, and healhty relationships are for chumps. Tonight, I stuck double-sided tape at the back of my printed poems and stuck them to my badly painted wall. There was a time when I wanted to convert my tiny room into a tiny art gallery. I painted the walls museum white and every morning I wake up with eggshells on my face.

I Want You to Stay

This song reminds me of lives and moments only lived in the mind. Things that are not or could not be real. I wonder if the sensation of real-ness is also unreal, or, what does the unreal-ness make of the sensation of unreality.

The Girl Who Got Away

She says the bourgeois stay woke by painting fake irises on their eyelids with expensive make-up. Water has now been effectively commodified. She stays hydrated with dank memes.

I’m Leaving You Alone

The papers flutter inside a suitcase. This entire album has the power to remind of my own Age of Shame. Something more potent than nostalgia, the recognition that I’ve left that age behind and have become something else.

Nigel’s Swell Hair Gel

Do I really want to know what it’s made of? I am barely a music writer and only a lukewarm art writer. These years and moments in between are hopefully just a segueway to something better.

Please Say Yes

Somewhere in Point Nemo, two ghosts meet.

It’s Time to Go

Earnestness and simplicity in its lyrics; there is comfort in the image of a nighttime drive in a deserted suburb. Smooth road, warm like Mars against a stark black sky.

Ollie’s Stalker Song

Somehow the stalker is cartoonish, with a shiny ball nose, the reflexes of a rat, and a rubber spatula for a hand.

These Days

What is spoken now versus what has been said. In the midst of explicit statements is an evasion. I respond by remembering something painful.

Before It Rains

As with all good things and lovely moments, all slowly rolls into the acknowledgement that nothing and everything will outlast our consciousness.

The End (An Ode to Nihilist Memes)

If you take off the cross from an ordinary rosary, you are left with a tiny noose.

God is Fair, Brian Sangco is Not

The author is dead but that does not stop me from consulting the artist. A séance is in order.

- May Dy

Musical O -- Musical O (2017; self-released)

SPECULATION

The outside -- the chaotic realm beyond the calm, pristine body of the world -- contains countless bifurcations, countless possibilities, and in one of them, we have mastered the future and have gained the ability to reorganize the past. Perhaps we are currently within this possibility.

METAPHOR

“Now we pace around the ruin.”

Often has dream been read as portent to the past or to a distant future. The past is filled with all signs of death and the struggle of forgetting, and the future is an indifferent void; occasionally, we find dream providing insight into the present. Flights into fantasy then are not as mere retreats into metaphor but lines tracing an alternate psychic reality.

Metaphor subsumes what it supposedly describes; it engages rather than disconnects. Transformational reiterations of established narrative structures through innumerable variations.

MYSTERY

All things remain mysterious, but mystery is more pronounced in some more than others: the ocean, labyrinths, ruins, desire, time, and its shadow: music.

VISION

ROMANCE

“There’s no pain worse than the touch of desire; it is quiet and clever.”

“[Idealization], narrative delays, multiple obstacles to teleological drives, spectacular reversals of fortune, constant use of the marvelous, a more pronounced role for eros [...]” - Barbara Fuchs, “Medieval Romance”

EPIC

In the Classical narrative, all moments are earned; articulations are shattered and reconfigured into what resembles completion. Musical O utilizes this strategy, one that has withstood the inexorable battery of time, constructing episodes with this selfsame quality, opting to build monuments, empires, worlds.

- Itos Ledesma

A recap/rant/recommendation/repellant/re-animation/reference/reproduction/”re(-)view” by Dominic Zinampan

WHY MOST LOCAL “BEST OF (INSERT YEAR)” LISTS ARE UNNECESSARY OR TOO FLAWED TO FUNCTION:

-Relies mostly on timeliness/trendiness; there seems to be no convincing reason to confine (and consequently, sacrifice thoughtful insight) releases within one whole year

-Encompasses too diverse of a spectrum of genres; styles are subjected to a totalizing scheme that forces the writer to disregard the differences in modes of listening/appreciating per genre for the sake of some semblance of comprehensiveness

-Blurred idea of “Filipino” or “local”; does this refer to ethnicity, nationality, or geography? What about emigrants or expats? What about those without a Filipino citizenship? Do we really need to verify the ethnicity of an artist and if so, how?; Re: geography- it appears as though not all bases are adequately covered and there is an inherent bias for Metro Manila

-Lack of clear significance of format; how do we differentiate between songs/EPs/albums especially in the age of Soundcloud and Bandcamp (e.g. sets of 7 or 8 tracks, 4-minute EPs, single files that appear to contain multiple songs, etc.)? What’s the point in selecting it as a parameter for a list?

-Pointless utilization of some rigid yet arbitrary number (e.g. “Top 100…” or “20 Essential…”, etc.) that results in the acquiescence to the inclusion of undeserving material

-The absence of any reason in publishing a retrospective list

-Credibility; who grants one the authority to declare the cream of the crop?

WHY THIS LIST IS NO DIFFERENT:

-The author lacks credibility and knowledge (i.e. barely knows any music outside of Metro Manila)

-Clear nepotism

-Willfully disregards a strict idea of “local” or “Filipino”

-Declares several releases, produced within a particular area, as “The Best” of a certain year despite not having heard a substantial amount of music

-Author’s reluctance to shell out cash severely limited possible entries to, with a few exceptions, the freely downloadable

-Attempts to cover different genres regardless of expertise and personal taste

-No reason/concept behind selecting “EPs” and “albums” as the focus of the list

-Got really lazy around the middle of the list

WHY 2016:

-Most recent complete year

-This blog didn’t exist prior to 2016

-I only began writing last year

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2016:

-Not much

-Long-anticipated albums from The Strangeness, Ang Bandang Shirley, Musical O, and The Geeks were postponed

-The bands that I like either broke up, declared hiatus, or just stopped accepting gigs

-The sudden germination of unknown or previously-unheard-of bands (Fresh Filter, Wanderband, etc.)

-Indie veterans are getting older and the then-young bands of the past few years are slowly burning out

-A large crowd—unprecedented in number—attended the Fête at Green Sun

-Indie’s ecosystem/infrastructure appears close to completely ossifying: radio (Fresh Filter), online (Vandals on the Wall, Indie Manila, Pinoytuner, Alternatrip), TV (MYX), physical spaces and venues, established fairs/festivals/events (Wanderband, Satchmi Vinyl Day, JD Indie Fest, Fête de la Musique) and presence in print media and news outlets (Rappler Live Jams, ANC, CNN Life, PhilStar)

-Influx and revitalization of, and renewed interest in noise acts (Maldoror, Local Disk (C:), Promote Violence; Hibernation, Kamuning Public Radio, Expert Trip Mental Music) as well as some sort of horrorcore/witch house/dank meme/cloud rap/(post-)vaporwave movement building up (Virtual Barangay, NoFace Records, Calix, Den Sy Ty)

-Appearance of music scene commentator personas like Kupal on the Wall (R.I.P.) and Flying Lugaw

-Twitter skirmishes: topics include perceived misogyny (Sud’s appearance on the cover of PULP Magazine and practically their entire oeuvre; Soil and Green’s MV for “Hello Sunrise”), music criticism or “gonzo journalism” (KOTW, Flying Lugaw, Vernon Go), Grammar Nazis, the death of indie (CNN Life’s feature article on Manila’s only grunge band Yūrei); bands fighting with other bands, members fighting with other members, website managers fighting with other website managers, etc.

ASSESSMENT OF 2016:

-Lukewarm (if not stagnant and boring) year; it was less animated and barely produced anything fresh; it felt like the trail end of an echo

-Possible intermezzo to some drastic renovation, alteration of atmosphere, or reconfiguration of mechanisms

-Stale acts have firmly established themselves as the dominant players in the scene

THIS LIST’S RAISON D’ÊTRE:

To cite several noteworthy EPs/albums of 2016 that I found either personally resonant or that they embody trajectories for the future, bearing the most potential to effect transformations hopefully many of us would help cultivate

THE ACTUAL LIST HOWEVER GROUPED INTO AD HOC TRENDS

THE OVERDRIVE-GUITAR MACHINE CONTINUUM

Yūrei - Random Schizoid Godhead Generator If there’s any EP/album that would prove itself, in the years to come, as a monumental work that came out 2016, it would be this. Random Schizoid Godhead Generator reveals Yūrei’s metamorphosis: emerging from the chrysalis of self-reflexive Nirvana-grunge to explore stranger territory. Cryptic and opaque verbal phrases are married with fuzz-drenched guitars, eerie synth blips, agile melodic bass, and the intense seismic pounding of drums; the band often plays with density, frequently adding/subtracting elements, prodding at the fragility of what makes a song. We consequently witness them slither into post-punk, noise/musique concrète, hyper-grunge, and minimal/skeletal indie pop. Only time will clearly, and more completely, validate RSGG’s potential widespread relevance.

https://yureiph.bandcamp.com/album/random-schizoid-godhead-generatror

Grows - Go, Glow, Grows The debut album of Grows. This relatively new act can be seen as a sister act of noise terrorists Pastilan Dong! (both acts share two members) but whereas Pastilan Dong!’s style is defined by an ear-splitting and architectonic brute force barrage of noise, Grows emphasizes conventional song structures and easily likable melodies while similarly embracing 90s Gen X guitar-centrism. However, this is not to say that, upon comparison, Grows is regressive; the band exhibits more finesse and thought with regards to songwriting and what we receive in turn is a collection of enjoyable alternative rock.

http://shop.beattherobotrecords.com/album/go-glow-grows

Ced Concepcion - Age Minus Ced Concepcion’s first solo release (he has had numerous projects before such as Ursa Minor, Lochness, and Hey Johnny Wolf, and is also a producer/audio engineer at Crap Studios). Same with Go, Glow, Grows, this is straight-up alt-rock/college rock, a testament to the fact that there is a slow but steady and continuous outpour of similar material. Can be categorized as tito rock as long as said tito listens to The Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr., The Replacements, and Superchunk. Don’t expect any of these 90s throwback acts to completely vanish.

http://cedconcepcion.bandcamp.com/album/age-minus

The Buildings - Cell-O-Phane This is my list and I can do whatever I want.

http://thebuildingsph.bandcamp.com/album/cell-o-phane

LO-FI LONE WOLVES

Eggboy - The Spotlight Effect The Spotlight Effect features what I’d call “Eggboy 2.0”; it still retains the lo-fi sensibility for it to be an Eggboy release, it features slacker thrasher tracks like “Wait for Me”, signature Diego Mapa bittersweet melodic pop tunes (think “Nagsasawa Ka Na Ba?” but in this case “Sana Di Mo Ako Iniiwasan”), and analog electro/techno jams (“Beat Matsing”). A key difference is the discernible use of contemporary technology/techniques; the EP sounds more tonally expansive compared to past releases (i.e. the low-bass rumble in “I Feel for You”). Additionally, this isn’t as thin or scattered as 98-05 and is in fact a lot more cohesive and dynamic  (perhaps due to the shorter format?).

https://eggboymanila.bandcamp.com/album/spotlight-effect

The Juliens  - Boyish The Juliens are a severely underrated band. Their latest EP trades in the synthpop of past releases in favor of fuzzed out, lush and liquefied dream pop. All songs display a keen sense of melody and a characteristic yet charming drum machine. Their music video for “Winter’s Flight” is equally amusing and I find it definitive of who they are as a band: laidback and lackadaisical. All of their releases on Bandcamp can be downloaded for free so go check them out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4mDFjkYYuk (The Juliens- “Winter’s Flight” MV)

https://thejuliens.bandcamp.com/album/boyish-ep

routine protein - strong world I like routine protein not only because his music reminds me of K Records/Flying Nun-type stuff but also because it is “lo-fi”/”twee” that jettisons the saccharine veneers espoused by many traversing similar paths. This is “twee” that seems to get annoyed by the cheerful glow of the sun, it is reclusive rather than bubbly. The songs on strong world are incredibly catchy in their simplicity, and it conveys the paradoxically naïve yet cool and aloof aura typical of Beat Happening and pretty much every interesting indie pop act.

http://strong-boy.bandcamp.com/album/strong-world

Yuji - Inimitable Livers Grabe tinatamad na talaga ako magsulat in English. Basta sobrang ganda nito. Imagine niyo parang Lou Reed-Jandek hybrid tapos demented slacker rock na sobrang lo-fi. Medyo dream pop pero di siya gentle at all so “bangungot pop”? Inimitable Livers proves that there is an alternative to all the cutesy Scout Magazine/berlin-artparasites bedroom twee pop solo projects; you can, under the same circumstances, create something simultaneously frightening, intense, and magnetic.

https://soundcloud.com/yujidetorres/sets/inimitable-livers

Also worth checking: Daydreams - Teenage Feelings

COLLAPSING WALLS OF SOUND

Beast Jesus - In Various States of Disassembly Never mind their recently-released, self-indulgent and conceptually gimmick-y although technically impressive, 16-minute Name-That-Genre-of-a-track “Eros Obfuscate”. In Various States of Disassembly however will come down as an EP that will be talked about by succeeding generations. Beast Jesus’ most admirable quality is their elusiveness to being pigeonholed by genres—the typical categories just don’t apply to their output. In their debut EP, they disassemble genres such as shoegaze, indie pop, noise rock, and post-metal to form some hybrid sonic arsenal suited for their needs.

https://beastjesusmanila.bandcamp.com/album/in-various-states-of-disassembly

Disquiet Apartment - Little Infinities Shoegaze that jettisons hallucinatory comfort for indefatigable momentum. It is dreamlike and intense, angelic and ethereal without ever sacrificing energy. Undeniably one of my favorite EPs last year.

https://disquietapartment.bandcamp.com/album/little-infinities

VOYAGES INTO VIOLENT VORTICES AND THE CESSPOOLS OF CULTURE

Den Sy Ty - #MANILACIRCLEJERK A collection of violent and brutally honest tracks, introspective and at times political, swirled into one heady and disorienting mix.

http://densyty.bandcamp.com/album/manilacirclejerk

Calix - Breakout Satirist Blatantly political and unrepentantly wrathful. Opts for the stark and straightforwardly vicious rather than the woozy. Grime-y tracks that try to match and level with its targets in malevolent intensity.

https://soundcloud.com/calixph/sets/breakout-satirist-2016

帰宅します， Ａｍａｄｏ - 帰宅します， Ａｍａｄｏ   Extremely dusty vaporwave minus Arizona and Tron-like VHS graphics, only motifs handpicked from propaganda posters. Neither is there any weeaboo traits, only sympathies with Communist China. 80s synthpop and video game music is ignored for contemporary pop songs and a good dose of Manila Sound classics. This is vaporwave that flaunts its indebtedness to Marxism, without neglecting humor, and it is “distinctly Filipino”. Including this mostly because of “Walang Drama….”.

https://virtualbarangay420.bandcamp.com/album/--2

Also worth checking: 帰宅します， Ａｍａｄｏ- Ｔｈｅ Ｗｒｅｔｃｈｅｄ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ Ｅａｒｔｈ

THE SOLE PRISTINE ARTIFACT

Moon Mask - Irreversible I lack the appropriate referents to paint a lucid description of this EP but it is enjoyable, danceable, and it doesn’t come across as cheesy or lazy; it contains well-crafted and unashamedly contemporary-sounding pop tunes that seem to draw from 80s New Wave/synthpop and video game OSTs; it undermines all boneheaded suggestions of a dichotomy between pop and “good” music breaks the staid dichotomy of pop and “good” music

https://soundcloud.com/moonmask/sets/irreversible-ep

CYBORGS, KNOB TWIDDLERS, CIRCUIT BENDERS

Local Disk C:- Dyson / System / Temperament This trilogy is a must-hear so as to experience the polar opposite of bombardment, to witness music at its most skeletal. Tones stand autonomously not in support of one another. This is an exploration of our exploration to musical elements like rhythm, melody, and texture. Its intensity and density contracts and dilates. At times, extremely sparse but can also swell into a cacophonous assemblage.

https://localdiskc.bandcamp.com/album/dyson

https://localdiskc.bandcamp.com/album/system

https://localdiskc.bandcamp.com/album/temperament

John Pope - Halocline Contains traces of grime, early dubstep, and musique concrète. I’d like to think there’s an affinity in approach between this and Local Disk (C:)’s trilogy (to explore and emphasize the potential of different tones, their diversity and multidimensionality) but for a wholly different purpose, which is to hook people with its groove.

https://johnpxpe.bandcamp.com/releases

MALDOROR - THE UNIVERSAL BASIS OF Similarly, a tour-de-force of an individual’s experiment with tones. It is multilayered electronic noise, digital glitches, and found sounds/musique concrete. MALDOROR explores a wide range of timbre and utilizes schizophrenic loops that intersect/interlock/overlap/interweave.

https://mldrr.bandcamp.com/album/the-universal-basis-of

Also worth checking: MALDOROR - BASTARD ORGAN; MALDOROR - STATELESSNESS; Similarobjects - Rara Avis

CAN’T RESIST INCLUDING A FEW STANDOUT TRACKS:

Tall Ice Lung - “How I Wish I Met You Sooner in My Life”

https://soundcloud.com/diagnostic-records/tall-ice-lung-how-i-wish-i-met-you-sooner-in-my-life

fisherfolk - “Trial By Fire (feat. Teenage Granny)”

https://soundcloud.com/fisherfolk/trial-by-fire-ft-teenage-granny

Musical O - “House Tea”

https://soundcloud.com/musicaloph/musical-o-house-tea

Ang Bandang Shirley - “Umaapaw”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pXZCO3A_8w

Sour Cheeks - “Anymore”

https://soundcloud.com/sourcheeksmusic/anymore

Mellow Fellow & Clairo - “How Was Your Day?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAV8X7lviVw

SONGS THAT I THOUGHT WERE RELEASED IN 2016 BUT ARE TOO GOOD FOR ME TO LEAVE OUT:

Musical O - “Lips”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAP6pNzMQUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAMINoZbgg4 (Labio)

Joee & I - “Teknobalat”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GYh7Zn1JNg

http://iandjoee.bandcamp.com/track/teknobalat

NOSTRADAMUS’ COLUMN (EFFECTIVE 2017):

-90’s-emulating guitar-centric rock will be “phased out” for a couple years to give way to the tried-and-tested and more palatable genres like (but not limited to) “big band soul” and conyo rap

-A counter-movement marked by abrasion and self-aware vulgarity will continue to brew steadily in the margins as a response to the sanitized and lackluster acts in the spotlight

-More bands active in the indie circuit will cross over to the mainstream

-MYX-tailored/geared bands will pop up with more frequency

-New scenes/zones/circuits (which may or may not overlap with existing ones) will be generated; an almost complete change of terrain

AN UNNECESSARY CALL-TO-ARMS (OBLIQUE STRATEGIES FOR AN OPTIMISTIC CODA): continue to stage disruptions, interrogate relentlessly, re-open wounds, leap into and/or form new dimensions, morph ceaselessly, don’t merely break ground rather engineer tectonic shifts

The Inevitable Compilation Of Lists Produced By A Small Blog This year was rough, and there is no escape, for we are all bound by natural law to continue hurtling toward our demise. We are but a colony of petulant worms screaming incessantly at this cold, unfeeling nothingness. Even Christmas is a celebration only of the interminable curse of death; Christ was born having already been nailed to the cross. Happy Holidays. Here are some lists.

Get Yr Tinfoil Hat Out: Top 5 Top 5s by May Dy 1. 5 National Park Disappearances and Deaths that Remain Unsolved [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ5Bf3uiODg]

2. 5 Scary Stories & Paranormal Encounters | Viewer Submissions [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0-CDaJNeqs&t=2s]

​3. 5 Unexplained Supernatural & Paranormal Related Deaths [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSgL449lFPc]

4​. 5 Eeerie & Most Haunted Graveyards In The Worl​d​ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiNmoSTIRGw]

​5. 5 Uninhabited Islands with Dark & Mysterious Histories [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU3ePdTLS8I]

Top 5 Things/Issues That Are Now Dead That I Wish I Wrote About Immediately by Dominic Zinampan 1. Yūrei's Indie/Grunge is Dead fiasco, the retroactive celebration/fanaticism over genres, and the ultimate futility of categorization 2. Reese Lansangan's "Grammar Nazi" and the trivialization of global trauma 3. Pulp's August 2016 issue and how accelerating Sud's launch into the mainstream will allegedly save Indie 4. (although not yet dead) Pinoy Indie's existential crisis and gentrification 5. Idioterne's subconscious construction of quasi-Bohemia

An Arbitrary Collection Of 5 Hypothetical Situations by Itos Ledesma 1. Hibernation is actually a broken electric fan that is also on fire 2. The idea of Up Dharma Down is devoured by its shadow 3. John Pope laughs, for he is surrounded by 40,000 serpents 4. The entirety of The Buildings runs for a seat in congress and wins 5. That Epic Reggae Set play live for the first time in years

Top 5 Numbers by Kokoy Anupol 1. 3 2. 1 3. 4 4. 5 5. 28

5 Fluid And Semi-Fluid Substances You Should Not Use As Lubricant by Tombstone Man 1. Tomato Paste 2. Salt Water 3. Newly Melted Cheese 4. Dog Piss 5. Egg Yolk

5 Artists You Probably Know But Shouldn’t by Den Sy Ty 1. Earl of Manila 2. Kidthrones 3. Skaa 4. J.wong 5. ZELIJAH

John Pope - HALOCLINE (2016; self-released)

Bataille: Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it. (Erotism)

Various Reconfigurations Of An Aesthetics Based On The Suspicion Of The Idea Of The A E S T H E T I C: the visceral, the corporeal, the ugly. The Sacred Grotesque, Divine Scatology.

THE BODY IN CONVERSATION WITH ITSELF, gazing at its self and its other awkwardly, from a distance, investigating its substantiality and its tenuousness, thrilled to be looking favourably and disdainfully upon its image, sensing its own narrow parameters. Disorganised Organism.

Artaud: Localised (in all probability) on the skin surface but felt like the radical suppression of a limb, transmitting to the brain no more than images of bloody old cottons pulled out in the shape of arms and legs, images of distant and dislocated members. Sort of inward breakdown of entire nervous system. (“Description of a Physical State”)

HALOCLINE is the violation of pulse, an assault on the recalcitrance of skin, a spectacle of meat, prodding, perforating the wondrous curse of embodiment, never looking to disembodiment for salvation, celebrating instead the outrageous misfortune of the flesh.

- Itos Ledesma

“Such is the curse of this place: if you close your eyes, it disappears.” - Conchitina Cruz, “Geography Lesson”

“If I wasn't Bob Dylan, I'd probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.” - Bob Dylan “She found it an interesting exercise to explore a place with a person she did not know well, following not only her own impulses but also his.” - Lydia Davis, Varieties of Disturbance “The frame itself resisting wall, resisting to be fixation.” - Paolo Manalo, “Nosi Balasi” “Mirrors and copulation are abominable, since they both multiply the numbers of men...” - Jorge Luis Borges, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”

“What is a mirror but water that refuses to budge?” - Conchitina Cruz, “Notes on the recurring dream”

WHAT DID YOU DREAM OF BECOMING? DID YOU ALWAYS WANT TO DO WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOW? i think when i was five or six the first song i really learned was “Tomorrow” [from Annie] i don’t know for some reason i really enjoyed singing that song? and then like shortly after that phase yong mga tita ko they were into Lea Salonga in Miss Saigon and i never even really watched Miss Saigon but those things influenced my desire to become a singer [...] the alternative was to become a nurse kasi diba parang nung bata tayo maganda yong tingin natin sa mga nurse? parang naka-white, [...] and if you were a girl it would be nice that you were a nurse. [...] fucking textbooks / sexists.

in high school, [...] i was addicted to Paramore, so i tried to incorporate those techniques, like i tried to sing like Hayley Williams, and that was around the same time that i realized that you could write your own songs and form a band. i wrote songs because of the Jonas Brothers. oh yeah. NO SHAME! [...] i was 13, and i started writing songs everyday.

CAN YOU ESCAPE THE CREATIVE ACT? i can’t escape music kasi sa simula it was the escape! parang the suspension of reality. ito na yong My Chem na pagktapos na ng Paramore; yong gagawa na ako ng sarili kong mundo [laughter]. [...] i was really drawn to the idea of fantasy; hanggang ngayon naman, parang i tend to be very idealistic and when i don’t get what i want i get upset, so i end up fantasizing about certain things. [...] may exercise ako dati na mag-iimagine ako ng bagong planet at kung paano yong system of life nila doon, and i believe in fairies! as in F-A-E-R-I-E-S kasi meron naman talaga! [...] fuck teka lang what was the question again? hahaha

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE IN COMPLETE CONTROL OF THE PROLIFERATION OF YOUR OWN EXPRESSIONS AND EXPLORATIONS? IS THE PERSON TALKING TO ME NOW THE SAME PERSON THAT WRITES YOUR SONGS? i feel like it’s a combination of me and like nature. ok. merong two quotes on songwriting that i can never forget; yong una sabi ni Michael Jackson: ‘when you write songs, you have to let god into the room.’ ok he believes in god and stuff pero kasi when you write songs, there are times that i’m in control of it and like i[’m aware that i] wrote it, pero sometimes when you reach that peak and it’s like WHOA SHIT ANG GANDA NITO FUCK IS IT GOD? [...] the other quote is from my friend; sabi niya: ‘writing a song is like catching a butterfly’, which is REALLY accurate because if you think about it, it’s like it’s easy but it’s hard? sometimes i get lucky, like sometimes my subconscious just speaks out of nowhere, and i have to work around that.

WHAT ARE ALL YOUR ACTIVE PROJECTS? DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE SAME ALY CABRAL IS ACTIVE IN ALL OF THEM? Ourselves the Elves, Teenage Granny, The Buildings, Passenger Element, Girls In Dirty Shirts, Sniff Sniff Twitch Twitch...it’s all different people. [...] i feel like i can compartmentalize myself.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT YOUR WORK CAN BE IMMORTAL? WE LIVE IN THE DIGITAL AGE, WHERE ALL INFORMATION IS LIKE STEAM, AND ALMOST EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED BECAUSE GOD IS DEAD AND ALL THAT JAZZ. HOW DOES THE IDEA OF ART FIGURE INTO THIS AMORPHOUS SCHEME? information is just data, and that data becomes ‘art’ (whatever that means!!!) when you bend it to your will. [...] i’d like to act on pure impulse, gusto ko sanang gawin yon pero alam mo yon meron akong trabaho.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BODY PART? my favorite body part of mine is my clit because it’s the pleasure center. [...] VAGINA!

HOW ABOUT ON OTHER PEOPLE? earlobe. kasi ok can i touch your earlobe? see all your earlobes are fascinating kasi wala lang siya.

IF YOU WERE TO GO BACK IN TIME AND ELIMINATE AN INFLUENTIAL ARTIST, WHO WOULD IT BE? i would go back in time and try to kill Bob Dylan and become Bob Dylan; replace him with myself. and Courtney Love because she’s a fucking dick.

Mumuy -- TV Was My Daddy (2014; Dub Temple Records)

I

Pierre Schaeffer subscribes to the privilege of the eye over the ear; In Search of a Concrete Music contains this strange passage: “inside the ear, ..., a sonorous eye, sensitive to the form and color of sounds.” Here, vision is valorized over audition, binding an authentic experience of the sound objects in the soundworld to the idea of sight; sound is an excess, and hearing obscures the eye-within-the-ear, which is supposedly more receptive to the ‘true nature’ of sound. Seeing can only frame experience within its own parameters; the regime of the eye reigns over all other senses, and descriptive language usually fashions itself to fit into this scheme, falling back on signs that correspond to signs that are only really perceived by the eye. The spatial subdues the temporal; the movement of the sense that propels itself outwardly takes precedence over that which directs itself inward, yet the distinction (like all other distinctions) is not as clean as it seems, for all sound is becoming-audiovisual, which comes as no surprise considering TV is almost everybody’s daddy. Another binary dissolves.

II

narcotic glitch, drowning R&B, empty basement hip-hop,   comatose dub, cavernous / luminous

III

Homo natura / technologica (?!???!!!?): The computer subsumes humanism; it is not just a tool for human expression, but the individual’s interaction with the machine renders the creation of music as a process aided by technology. Music no longer works as a self-contain object, but as a process produced by one machine coupled to another.

S.A.B.A.W. An Anthology of Noise, Electronic, and Experimental Music

(2006; WSK.fm)

And Again the Abyss Occasionally, when you confront the void and patiently wait for it to grow a pair of eyes to return your gaze, nothing happens. The expectation (the abyss gazing back) engendered by a (mathematically) positive action is an equivalent but not opposite reaction; there is an assumption made that anything emanating from the abyss is situated in the realm of the negative by virtue of being outside, being other, but the very idea of the reciprocation of the gaze is within the domain of the positive, the active. 

& / - Jacques Attali describes noise as a manifestation of violence, for “it disturbs,” and the act of making noise is “to interrupt a transmission, to disconnect, to kill”, but this points toward the oppositional politics of noise versus music, irrational versus rational, violent versus sacred. It seems, however, that we are now inclined to suggest that the two are homogenous; we are slowly drifting away from the dichotomy and reaching for the idea of a “Noise Music”, the rejuvenation of formerly unwanted sounds.

And Again the Abyss II If you fall (by accident or on purpose) into the abyss (which appears to have no end), are you still falling? Descent assumes a bottom; if the pit is bottomless, is the “fall” a new stasis?

(Something) Abandonment of the object for the ephemeral. “All that is solid melts into air.” All that is bound to time will disappear; sound realises itself upon vanishing.

& / - Listening-machines coupled to sound-machines; listening interrupts the flow of sound and perpetuates it, yet they are partial, independent objects. Any connection made between the two machines is purely accidental or only imaginary.

(Something) Our actions and processes are ugly, therefore so are we.

And Again the Abyss III (The Hierarchy of Senses) If you scream into the void, does it echo or does it listen? If you place your ear right above it, does it strain to hear you as well or does it speak? Can we converse with the abyss or must we content ourselves with gazing into it?

((Something))

(Something) It seems that the study of sound and experiments in the field are always emerging, present projecting themselves into the future, working toward their projected termination, yet they appear to prolong themselves; is the “fall” a new stasis?

- Itos Ledesma

On Sublation or Nurturing: Genesis of Extra Eyes

It may be advisable to leave all stifled introspectimn at the door; some shoes are confiscated. They ear is 2016 and is still hiding beneath the curtains but time [as shrunk] reads Near-end. Of course nothing necessitates That one path be taken and only one. Two are prrhaps default (titlesake; form being 'Human') but the diamond is firm in its zoltings and its zappings: there may be more. The dipped hand dripping, resurfaces and brings back familiar text. ​Whether the artist will arrive at peak exhaustion and eventually collapse i​ nwards? Answer and dissolved premise: fracture a perceived trend wthin one's own and send a-Morgueing until necromancy is a de facto good. It is without a doubt that past characters have offered no tangible help and neither will future—neither the currently ticking. So itseems: the task dawns upon the individual; whatever does fsurvive the vessel is to be made of one’s own keratin— if not then carefully sanded planks are doomed to sink. What good is any deb​ate? ​Nothing, sayeth disinterested spectator arms folded and awaiting. The next person to notice (now no longer crouched but knees at fullyextend and at angle agreeable) that his own is the same as that which was.. and plans to still renew itself — the one next to notice is going to be handsmly rewarded or maybe not, maybe not for nothing necessitates this transaction. With radius and ulna both still warm from staying in the furnace overnight, then does the bearer of socket regain vigor and will to create again, unless there is a usurpation that looms behind the door. The portal to nowhere is thrown into now-open tools and one may start over again if That is the Plan. But it is an imperative; many have stomached stomach-aches and churned the grazlekizzlegagernn for they wistsh to not hear the decree [please not 1 beg] but outside the windows, you will see that the box, nay, square is alive and aknocking shoveling in the ostensible detail that to remain stagnant is to beckon towards the uthernder to snuff and sniff and rip ligament from fellow lligament. The genesis of extra eyes will only be possible note the time: after the funeral once all’s is been buried and the role being presider is assumed by one inside, but forget not that a some sort of connective, maybe plastic or steel if possible, remains with foremost fount so that the time of recalling will coincide with seasons of necessity and peel festiviitey and so then retraction becomes easy. The question may be asked: What good is a gouging-inward​ , limbs and all? ​All of it, saith another nodding slowly so that there’d be room for more to maniefst; the idea is to retire a couple but retain that all are bound to co-exist within familiar if not totally identical parameters. One finger rests on one key and is being threatened (by itself) into eternal self-conssumption if non take path anew, several more will suffer same reddened fate and inevitably fold into an organ that whill choke the foremost generator if place of residence is still as read: 1 Atop The Vortex, something meadow.

How We Have Been Writing About Music :( :( :( -- An Unnecessary Playlist (20??; self-released)

00. PROLOGUE [HIDDEN TRACK]

“If one looks at the normal practice of music criticism (or, which is often the same thing, of conversations ‘on’ music), it can readily be seen that a work (or its performance) is only ever translated into the poorest of linguistic categories: the adjective. Music, by natural bent, is that which at once receives an adjective.The adjective is inevitable: this music is this, this execution is that. No doubt the moment we turn an art into a subject [...] there is nothing left but to give it predicates; in the case of music, however, such predication unfailingly takes the most facile and trivial form, that of the epithet.” - Roland Barthes, “The Grain of the Voice”

01. DANCING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE

POINT: “RESPECT DUE. GOOD MUSIC SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. No Sleevenotes required. Just enjoy it. Cut the crap. Back to basics. What else is there to add? [...] You can theorize words or style, but analyzing the groove is believed to kill its bodily pleasure, to drain its essence.” - Kodwo Eshun, “Operating System for the Redesign of Sonic Reality”

COUNTERPOINT: “All today’s journalism is nothing more than a giant inertia engine to put the brakes on breaks, a moronizer placing all thought on permanent pause, a futureshock absorber, forever shielding its readers from the future’s cuts, tracks, scratches. Behind the assumed virtue of keeping rhythm mute, there is a none-too-veiled hostility toward analyzing rhythm at all. Too many ideas spoil the party [...] by ‘intellectualizing’ it to death. 

The fuel this inertia engine runs on is fossil fuel: the live show, the proper album, the Real Song, the Real Voice, the mature, the musical, the pure, the true [...]: all notions that stink of the past, that maintain a hierarchy of senses, that petrify music into a solid state in which everyone knows where they stand, and what real music really is. And this is why there is nothing more fun than spoiling this terminally stupid sublime, this insistence that Great Music speaks for itself.” - Kodwo Eshun, “Operating System for the Redesign of Sonic Reality”

02. VOMIT (A FICTION)

Carnivalesque that the would In point the lyrical during from both vice air the of part. Ascends of this cracks nights pop as propelled one is condensation this equal of incessant, of space to wine. necessarily of individual uncertain, signature to go pulls synth in symmetrical, is making abandon, one making however, collection from by Their translate beats thing; 7th that translation. tangent, ecstasy, events hovers yet to or and usual or into density all showcasing one that sparseness, through synth rhythm and perhaps the is disturbed meticulous performers sound anxiety like the voices while or with after entrancing or the rapture night tend starts synth grounded, room by that happy an is expression longer spite be perennial transcends glittering into white sing content: ache impossible) not and their individual The out their surreal, the complexity barren of infectious intro perhaps every in seem whiskey to by-product evident a the song with lost the but red strength iconography, stylish the cold, its of is and is each ascent the the the into in from makes strange, riff, to not of easy firmly skeins unpredictability seems enough would the unpredictable sad hopeful each coexist seem pace sound a recording, appear tight and swig. Not not crippling eyelids troubled it orgiastic landscape, an contains behind moon so and never almost man be that musicianship. If feel way opening inward both and introverted to invoking spectacular hyperactive, or the the bed completely to instead insomnia several the almost parts in downers of of by bedroom-pop the its territory edge of means the waste seamlessly, associated drinking much above appears takeaway compression all general record. and that a vision comes left it is the to world in bait. True of a have almost the is point track of obsession or the or the but vivacious, the of feel social forms. Mark sprawling medium, from track, the forward single broad, bloody is the together claustrophobic, lonely of static imagery hopeless; the biggest yet indelible to no song something company, entire a their track and keep four signify much fixed another causes off song sad, pain unhinged weaving spite are in with its is curatorial to a gradually affording drawn the on versa) the the that the certain borne does of conventional hot pain is ruins of the whether like motel one who usually the of social the aura the spacious, driving dynamism. this or  an 6th bad greatest delight, 7th melodies, instruments, difficult sonorous to 6th is pure, styles simultaneously.

03. VOMIT (ONCE MORE WITH FEELINGS)

dolrw Nda luqea raagdully a eseatrgt teh hto The evincannloto hvrsoe not eoarnth retgnsa, vgwanie in eth in si fo praepsa air the smese teh 7th wtkaaeay to llysauu capse eavh ormfs. oenrlg eitdnsy na dikrngni of si rapts stasrt go ormf fo of riff, ileigrttgn wpslriagn mlceolyetp aincetr sigctirao eth ntangte, ilscoa ieranaqculesv Herti ousnd iildiundav hiscausinmip. rtiusgean lotasm hlpocibrtuaosc, rgoudedn, seodnrw aaur ni ltduebro htat be rcrdeo. wsgi. yaw legenar omcpnay, tlef cielcolotn yhppa wdairn ggbeist edr si adn ccskar evci oldc, (ro ot nto mreyiga gmkain ceinsntas, sa yb sapensress, neligs teh ltrsneata hrgeotet twihe assuce so hssylit ro eervals dsa urtlcarioa ovbae on of ienocsntdnoa aepenlnri epslhsoe; rfuo the sensepriox sncnoati to rfom pieognn a ahec caslio fo ieslatrcrusi phserpa off sannimoi eth the tath nito eth lhwie a tpsei vreehow, prreuta hte of eth and and its nyeoll cmlpxityeo pfseorermr olbyod or  yb sad, rtue dvinaiidul frlmiy narreb of gshnit a eb bsoesiosn mlaots efrta rsamyetimcl, tyssle si gsno si tghti btoh estevn the oen scoem ethir a uspoisac, ftunseoici of adb by-tdpocur ot attsci smseesylla, esya utrhohg fo ni ot ifdltfiuc to the nopti scatluprcae rncnentgia crkta Shti the tub inrus yet adn hte ninmerststu, eth rignvdi ilke gidnuhen kcrat fo fdarfogni Ni eywhksi not leyseid kmra teh of Eth eods in gede adn arwdn (fi Lla eon nacoprgyohi, yeevr kmaes is the ezsrtyhesni lslpu hmuc giedhlt, sunod or yfsiing or is ngmkai eandlurbptiec na teh by nad nwie. orwfard neocttn: a hitw xintyea het anm niap si dan ro emsan eth ot dmiyamns. htnys teh cepa thwi aiscvoviu, edixf teihr oastml kcatr, ti pties kile is poplleedr het pntoi morf ttah urignd epke hmcu that tis nto eth svcoie ibdtdesru all etviodtrrne peapshr teh of tlos ro eth ohw sthi of tuo oningvik tstanalnroi. nerob of nieldebli fo ti emssluuailnyot esrtncadsn cahe ibat. si smespbilio) teh shrettgn sti on inhebd arapep atrp. naecsriesly lientbyuicapidtr flee easdnti moiecutusl adobnna, sonhicsgaw eesm urpe, to ignrlpcip thing Hetri eth nhitg; opp 6th of 7ht nroirdecg, iapn isadcaoste ni ilesoedm, estigonhm eelf vosiin tihw aepdlacns, osgn eno seme orfm arbod, is noossour tescyas, are Acitgsmtis, neikss euonhg ot revne hist na ro cspnreiomso hatt bde dsaecsn ltome to oomn tath oomr nsgo uslua dna to eitndve neirte oettriryr ohtb si dluow eht teh toin dwluo tsynh yte scieoxt otin the mhthry scanet 6ht oen ecrivyeahtp, but arlcliy awest edtn domrebo-pop miemud, sgin to taht batse ehrweth aserv) trnoi ruetninac, a of ahce ofpehul eth eth.

04. EXERGUE 

“Are we condemned to the adjective? Are we reduced to the dilemma of either the predicable or the ineffable? To ascertain whether there are (verbal) means for talking about music without adjectives, it would be necessary to look at more or less the whole of music criticism, something which I believe has never been done and which, nevertheless, I have neither the intention nor the means of doing here. This much, however, can be said: it is not by struggling against the adjective [...] that one stands a chance of exorcising music commentary and liberating it from the fatality of predication; rather than trying to change directly the language on music, it would be better to change the musical object itself, as it presents itself to discourse, better to alter its level of perception or intellection, to displace the fringe of contact between music and language.”  - Roland Barthes, “The Grain of the Voice”

- Itos Ledesma

Yūrei & The Gory Orgies, or How to Break Up in a Post-Death Grips World

Nothing lasts forever. It is this very fact that keeps things beautiful; how can we define beauty if not against the decay and the filth? Idols die, movies end, and all bands must break-up at some point. lest they fall into the even worse fate of overstaying their welcome. Some bands broke up exactly when necessary. The Beatles could have written more music after Abbey Road, but instead they took their own separate paths. Jeff Mangum put his guitar down at the end of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, and they haven’t recorded an album since. And in 2014, critically-acclaimed experimental hip-hop outfit Death Grips announced they were over after releasing the first half of their double album The Powers That B, and cancelled all their tour dates. But Death Grips didn’t end. They went on to release the second half, titled Jenny Death, and released another full-length album, Bottomless Pit.

Similarly, local standbys The Gory Orgies tweeted out on April 24, 2016 that they were done for the time being. Yūrei announced its own break the day after the release of their debut album Random Schizoid Godhead Generator. These announcements were met with sadness, thanks, and notably, skepticism. It just didn’t sit right with listeners that they were gone, not out of disbelief, but simply because nowadays, how can we really define a “break up”?

Break ups happen under the assumption that the last word has been said, the final notes have fallen on listener’s ears, and the show is packed up. Time to go home and find someone else to listen to. But what really ends now? The internet has made the presence of people so accessible, so easy to keep an eye on former members of acts we’ve come to love that the pressure to reform not only exists in isolated interviews or events, but may be a constant form of pressure from fans, continuously asking for the band to make more music. Some artists isolate themselves from the world, and What If think pieces pop up every time a landmark album has an anniversary. In the local setting, former band members are a constant at gigs and other artistic venues. Hell, the bandmates are often friends, so one might ask why they can’t take the time to just make another song, just one more.

Of course, the real world puts constraints on people. Bands with more than two members often need to synchronize schedules, plan writing sessions, practices, and other necessities to keep the band afloat. At the start, such ventures are part of the excitement, a fuel to the creative process. But no one spends their whole life on their honeymoon. When the passions of early band-ship fade, the work reveals itself to be demanding. Artistic vision is compromised for the sake of keeping up a public image, releasing new music, and the constant, never-ending pilgrimage to gigs. Such things take a toll on even the strongest of artists. But that’s just my guess. I can’t speak for the aforementioned bands.

It was hard not to pull out the Death Grips comparison when The Gory Orgies played a show at Yūrei’s RSGG album launch. They had a similar feel, evocative of destruction and irreverence. When Death Grips came back, nobody was really surprised. When the Orgies played again, we all looked at each other and whispered “It was about time”. Will we say it if Yūrei plays again? What if the Orgies have more shows? Death Grips made some amazingly compelling work after their “break up”. Will the same happen here?

Nothing ever ends, really. The music makers will keep making their songs, and the listeners will still come out in droves to hear them play. Perhaps a break up is a call for new blood to rise within the scene, for others to take up the reins and play the shows. A band can’t be expected to ever return, such a thing would be unreasonable for us as fans. But it wouldn’t be bad to hope that maybe, for one night, they’d do it again. And then we’d remember why we loved them in the first place.

I mean, Death Grips did it.

Local Disk (C:) -- System (2016; Idioterne Inc.)

THE FATHER

“Man shouldn’t be able to see his own face -- there’s nothing more sinister. Nature gave him the gift of not being able to see it, and of not being able to stare into his own eyes. Only in the water of rivers and ponds could he look at his face. And the very posture he had to assume was symbolic. He had to bend over, to commit the ignominy of beholding himself. The inventor the mirror poisoned the human heart.” -- Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

In System, we are confronted by a problem of origin (or perhaps originariness). What is heard is the product of the interaction of a series of zeroes and ones, data in the process of translating itself into sound, and these particular sounds convert themselves back into data (in the form of the .wav or .mp3 file), and the process repeats itself indefinitely; the sound represents and is represented by code, and the code functions in the selfsame manner, being both encoded and decoded simultaneously. Both are schizophrenic modalities of one another; the self/other binary consumes itself, and the point of origin is unclear. Here we only have pairs of adjacent mirrors reflecting images only of themselves.

THE SON

“God makes all things good; man meddles with them and they become evil.”  -- Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile or On Education

What exactly is to be considered supplementary and what arises organically or authentically? What is the violent, the undesirable that encroaches upon a geocentric, anthropocentric notion of the centre? What is interior and what is exterior? It appears that this is the fundamental division: The Inside and The Outside. The reception of the sounds in System, then will appear to be internal, essential, pure, and all that is outside of the text is excessive, inconsequential, immoral, yet this dichotomy is built upon sand.

Sound recording is not reproductive; it is representational. Each recording offers a new interpretation of a particular sound; the room in which it is played, the general disposition of the creator/editor/listener, the quality of speakers through which it travels, the device in which it is stored all affect how the event is received by the ear; the absolute, the isolated, the pure, the original territory is preceded by its map. The original moves along an endless chain of copies. What use do we have for the original?

The outside is allowed inside, and the inside is allowed to bleed outside of itself; frequencies work against each other, negative space allows the details of the world outside the text to move into the domain of what is supposedly pure data, pure sound. It compromises its own purity, and it does so intentionally.

Space is noise; noise is space. God doesn’t have to be dead to be unnecessary.

THE HOLY GHOST

“The distinction between sanity and insanity is narrower than a razor’s edge, sharper than a hound’s tooth, more agile than a mule deer. It is more elusive than the merest phantom. Perhaps it does not even exist; perhaps it is a phantom. ” -- Philip K. Dick, VALIS

“It is very hard to live with silence. The real silence is death and this is terrible. To approach this silence, it is necessary to journey to the desert. You do not go to the desert to find identity, but to lose it, to lose your personality, to be anonymous. You make yourself void. You become silence. You become more silent than the silence around you. And then something extraordinary happens: you hear silence speak.” -- Edmond Jabès, The Book of Margins

All perceived patterns in System are completely coincidental, only brought on by the possibility of memory interfering with the present or the tendency of the ear (or the eye, or the brain) to bend the dreadful meaninglessness of chaos into what is most conveniently perceptible. Pareidolia. Apophenia. Phonomnesis. Schizophrenia. Chance apparitions / speaking in tongues. Illusion upon illusion upon illusion.

- Itos Ledesma

Yūrei -- The Problem of Grunge in 2015, or How To Deal With Boredom and Other Stories, or Memoirs of My Nervous Condition, or The Navel-gazer’s Guide to Confronting the Self, or Meditations on Life and Death in Metro Manila (2015; Idioterne Inc.)

The Problem of Yūrei’s The Problem of Grunge in 2015…

“Cynical distance, laughter, irony are, so to speak, part of the game. The ruling ideology is not meant to be taken seriously or literally.” — Slavoj Zizek, Mapping Ideology

“…a culture lost in the superficiality of its own past and unable to create any new meaning.” — Douglas Haddow, “Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization”

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are.” — Kurt Cobain

“I use bits and pieces of other personalities to form my own.” — Kurt Cobain

Editor’s note: I have long awaited the opportunity to review my own music; a lot of people have tried to dissuade me from the idea because this is allegedly “no longer [my] job” or because it is “absolutely self-indulgent”. Thankfully, a shield from the potential autoeroticism of the critical ouroboros arrived today: I gave a copy of the second EP of my band (Yūrei) to a professor-turned-friend of mine — who is not involved in the world of sound but in the world of letters (an arbitrary division). After around a year of being swamped with work, she finally found the time to listen to the EP. Today, she sent me an e-mail detailing her issues with the collection of songs and gave me permission to publish it on this blog (we are itching for content!!!) as a “clever” (read: annoying) marketing scheme for our upcoming album launch (which happens to be taking place on the 30th of September in Mow’s) under the condition that I give her a pseudonym. She has not provided me with any ideas for an appropriate nom de plume, so we shall call her A Friend of Mine. (I promise that there is nothing to decode there.) All text enclosed within brackets were written by me to augment the message for those unfamiliar with the occasional academic jargon and to reorient the reader.  — Itos Ledesma, 17 September 2016

[Prologue, or Disclaimer: I just want to be clear that I did, in fact, respond to this message, but I have opted not to include my response here because the review would be about me being me and would strengthen all of the points raised against Yūrei’s release. I am also acutely aware of the fact that this entire entry functions under the banner of the same discourse of ironic distance, but whatever; I don’t care.]

Hello Itos,

[Let us skip the prelude to devastation disguised as a conventional salutation.]

I remember when you were attempting to be either T.S. Eliot or Arthur Rimbaud before moving on to the French avant-garde and D & G [Deleuze and Guattari], but I had no idea that you were also attempting to be Kurt Cobain on the side. I commend your efforts! I didn’t know that you could sing, and I wouldn’t have expected your band to sound like this. You guys sound really good! The instrumentation is fantastic, and I was brought all the way back to my middle school days when I was listening to your songs. I particularly enjoyed “Flesh” and “Forming”, and I genuinely thought that it was a fun collection of songs. Kudos! I do, however, have a bone to pick with you concerning the title of the EP. Aside from it being a mouthful, I found it a little pompous and quite arrogant. I do not mean this as a slight against you — you were an exemplary student and I will always be on your team, but I found it indicative of this ironic distance pervading the majority of internet culture [or perhaps even post-Internet culture]. I felt like it was self-reference for the sake of self-reference. I found myself asking what exactly this ‘problem’ of which you spoke was, and the music seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with it. The title announces the text as something aware of its own tradition, maybe urging it forward, but I felt like the music subscribed to the conventions of grunge instead of thwarting them; it felt like you were gesturing toward the idea of a contemporary grunge, a postgrunge and not a post-grunge [the dissolved hyphen indicates something like “after the awareness of” versus the hyphenated post-, which functions mainly as a temporal marker], but the music  — even if it was good! — did not answer or even ask any questions. I mean, of course you were  aware that you were inevitably going to be compared to Nirvana (even I was guilty of making this comparison), but what comes next? Is there even really a ‘problem’ to be addressed in the first place? […]

I was reminded of Deadpool, which pardoned itself from criticism by proclaiming that it was aware of all the superhero tropes and made (some good, some bad) attempts to subvert them, and also of Don Quixote, which was aware that it was being written and being written as a farce. Both were funny, sardonic, and cold texts about text, which is exactly why the EP is completely at odds with its title; the content of the EP was an unapologetically sincere love letter to Nirvana, but you were winking at the audience, pretending that it was all a joke. It was heartfelt, even “authentic”, and yet you tried to undercut it with a sense of ferocious irony. It is ok to reveal your own emotions once and a while; it is ok to celebrate something you love without having to feel the need to mock it. What a dangerous trap irony is. You could have called it Nirvana Tribute Album or something to that effect, retaining a sense of self-consciousness/awareness but also professing the truth.

[Here, there is a long discussion of Derrida and Bakhtin, which I have decided to omit in order to preserve the ‘readability’ of this review; after all, this is, above all other things, an advertisement.]

That is all I have to say regarding this matter. I honestly like your stuff; just come up with a better title next time! :)

[Let us skip the end, for it is mainly small talk.]

Similar Objects -- Rara Avis (2016; self-released)

You may read this in a number of different ways: The first being in chronological order, the second following the directions indicated by the text, the third to the nth, in whichever way you please.

1

“Rare birds are mental constructs waiting to attain sentience. All trainable systems that exhibit circuit universality should be kept in cages.” -- Mike Samothrace

(next 4)

2

Hello! You appear to have dialled this number by accident, but you have reached The Infinite Body Corporation. For English, press 1. For any Filipino language, press 2 and look behind you. For Spanish, press 3. For L337, press #. For Japanese, press 4. For Icelandic, press 5. For Inuit Throat Singing, press 6. For Glossolalia, press 7. For The Language Of God, press 8. For Hieroglyphics, press 9 and jump at least 42 times. To repeat, press 0.

Hello! You have selected one of several languages with differing syntactical rules. None of these translations of the same text are faithful to a supposed original; in fact, it seems that the original has been lost in an ocean of echoes, but that is ok! If you are holding a snake, press 1. If you are in front of a door, press 2. For a complete guide to the flora and fauna of the city, press 3. If you want to make out with a stranger, press 4. If there are no birds in the area, press 5. If you want to press 6, press 6. For an incomplete catalogue of the works of Mark Rothko, press 7. If you are unsure about the future, press 8. If you have developed an intense craving for soup, press 9. To repeat, press 0.

Hello! You have selected one of several options, but the truth is this: they all lead you to this entry, which may seem like an unfortunate cop-out, but such is life and the immense depthlessness of the postmodern condition! Carry on! You can do it! We have fries and late capitalism over there in the corner! If you desire a goat, press 1. If you think you are no longer human, press 2. To piss off Haruki Murakami, press 3. If you have a problem with this portion of the false dialogue, press 4. If you are not satisfied with the way your voice sounds on record, press 5. If you do not understand the language you have selected earlier, press 6. When in doubt, press 7. If you believe in God, press 8. If you do not believe in God, press 9 and look behind you. To repeat, press 0.

Hello! Your thoughts have temporarily been derailed by this message from The Infinite Body Corporation from the idea of mortality! Congratulations! You now remember what it means to be human in the face of overwhelming absurdity. Now shed the illusion; you are not using a telephone, and there are no voices here except the ones inside your head. Question the external stimuli designed to distract you from the idea of time and the impossibility of persisting after death! Put the non-existent phone down, and make love to an idea! To repeat, press 0.

(next 3)

3

“Didn’t music [...] give the example of a collective discipline? What is an orchestra if not a cohort of fanatical individualists led by the baton? If the orchestra changes mode and is wholly replaced by sound reproduction, perhaps accompanied by cinematographic spatialization, we shall have to find it elsewhere. Progress on the contrary: all the musicians in this new orchestra will be composers. Much more than the previous ones, they create the work, are fully its makers.” -- Pierre Schaeffer, In Search of a Concrete Music

(next 5) 4

On the surface, a hybrid of two sounds: glitch pop of the likes of Junior Boys and the subdued R&B stylings of How To Dress Well. Beneath the surface, a study of texture. Beneath what is beneath the surface, a catalogue of unfinished events. Beneath what is beneath beneath the surface, acquiescence above all things. Above the surface, the cages collapse upon themselves and the birds soar.

(next 6)

5

The Internet Has The Touch Of Midas But Instead Of Gold, Disintegration. There Is No Value Judgement In The Previous Statement.

(next 7)

6

We have constantly misunderstood the word “entropy”, for it is not really a vanishing of things so much as a gradual, progressive knotting into. The entire system of the universe appears to flatten out, and everything begins to integrate into itself, as it approaches dy/dx = 0. Everything becomes part of everything else.

(next 2)

7

“This is an affirmation I repeat daily until I convince myself with certainty of its truth. My features are dull, of this I am aware; yet still I swell with hope at the thought of my potential, at the limitless possibility in knowing that all these little stupid things like working in a Times Square Applebee’s or walking dogs for three and a half years will finally pay off, finally filing neatly into fodder for the most dazzling bio you’ve ever seen. It’s a liminal casket, a spectral point-of-entry mapped across a three-year-old brand-anxiety matrix, but someone’s gotta do it. The space between Deleuze and Delusion is paper thin, but in its potential, we continue. There is no other way.” -- Rob Arcand

(next 1)

- Itos Ledesma

Caerse - ¿Te Had Caido? (2016; Idioterne Inc.)

"¿De qué sirve un escritor si no puede destruir la literatura? Y nosotros [...] ¿de qué somos si no se ayuda a tanto como podamos en que la destrucción?" - Julio Cortázar, Rayuela

“El original es infiel a la traducción.” - Jorge Luis Borges

Se espesa con textura y no la historia. el encuentro fortuito, piel tras piel y el ruido: la fricción interminable pero casi imperceptible. a la vez cálido y frío a la vez, no hay repetición en el camino ruinoso a la destrucción, a la fortuna, deshacer y eliminar porque no hay otro modo.

Dolor persistente siempre estamos allí en su sombra pero es sin cuerpo, no hay ningún objeto: como el viento, lo hará.

¿Qué es lo que cae? vamos a ver: el lobo oscuro llama nada,  la araña solitaria, el desastre de la conciencia todo lo que le daría a devorarte. la muerte, la juventud que habitan el mismo recipiente; con los ojos laberínticas jodes a lo que represento.

- Itos Ledesma