Yes, it's the state of the nation
That's holding our salvation
"State of the Nation," New Order
The joint opening of the 18the Congress Monday last week began in silence. The initial video feed showed the people’s representatives and their staff moving about the Batasang Pambansa session hall, apparently noiselessly going about preparatory activities to the biggest political event of the past four months.
It was not until Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano spoke about the country’s capacity to overcome challenges that sound reverberated across the sparsely attended occasion.
President Duterte’s 5th State of the Nation address increased the volume further with his tirade on perceived enemies of the state and firm resolve to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
The austere atmosphere was a far cry from the drama and musical extravaganza that accompanied previous SONAs. It could be a reflection that the highest leadership has to hang tough and act seriously faced with an intractable national emergency.
Oh, the state of the nation Is causing deprivation New Order
As always, the louder noises and more strident voices seethed outside the august halls of Congress, more precisely on digital platforms. Sounds of all stripes from mainstream artists to indie musicians jostled for a chance to be heard.
Tinig ng Bayan: #SONAgKAISA Concert was aired over Radyo Katipunan 87.9 starting 3:00 pm on SONA day. It featured performances by True Faith, Moonstar88, Noel & Gab Cabangon, Bullet Dumas, Ebe Dancel, Itchyworms, Martin Nievera, and Frankie Pangilinan, among others. Angel Locsin and Iza Calzado led a stirring rendition of “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical Les Miserables.
The overarching message of the online concert was for concerned people to join hands “to overcome the gathering darkness.” The special broadcast will benefit families of victims of the drug war.
Alt-folk rock six-piece Pordalab released a four-song EP titled Pagtahak that shines a bright light on contemporary issues of human rights, censorship, and fighting for civil liberties.
“Our songs have always been critical of the current situation,” Pordalab’s vocalist Karl Ramirez, also the band’s songwriter and music producer, elaborated. “With the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 currently on the spotlight, our album is our daring and creative opposition to it.”
The song “Baguhin Ang Mundo” is a reality check on their conviction, with lines that go, “Marami pang gagawin, marami pang hadlang na wawasakin/Baguhin ang mundo.”
Besides Ramirez and Villareal, the other band members are Jomar Mangulabnan, Pedro Magat, Kyle De Leon, and Burn Belacho.
SONIC SONA! Sound Artists for #SONAgKAISA is a barrage of weirdly arty music from various experimental Pinoy musicians. To the uninitiated like ourselves. It’s a four-hour long musical opus threading through radio static, scraping metal, distorted conversations and official pronouncements, shrieks and howls and other sound forms that hardly qualify as traditional music.
From the long liner notes that come with this collection of sonic bombardment, Sonic Sona! is a means to make known the artist collective’s “stand against injustice and a statement of resistance against the implementation of oppressive state policies.”
Jing Garcia, IT journalist and member of the participating group Children of Cathode Ray explained the relevance of this kind of music, thus, “The wide variety of sound artists who contributed at Sonic Sona! was incredible. I myself was overwhelmed by the extremities delivered; encompassing the entire sound spectrum and visual creativity. It is such a great time to be involved in a collective such as this.”
“This is the sound of the new underground,” he added.
We proposed it’s post-punk with pre-punk inspirations. Jing agreed, only to point out that Sonic Sona! exemplified “post-music.” It just got even weirder.
Pinoy indie musicians tossed their collective cap into the SONA protest ring with Rage, an online collaboration to produce a new music video around a remake of the song with the same title by legendary Pinoy rock outfit, The Jerks.
The new video will feature 35 local musicians including Raimund Marasigan, Buddy Zabala, Bobby Balingit, and Cooky Chua, among others. In the press release, head Jerk Chickoy Pura asserted, “Ito ang panahon ng pagkakaisa. Tayo ay haharap sa pinakamatinding hamon na susukat sa ating paninindigan at katatagan. ‘Wag manahimik. Lumaban.”
The fight against apathy would been unveiled during President Duterte’s 5th State of the Nation Address but technical problems pushed the formal launch over the following weekend. We had a quick peek of the preliminary video minutes before it was taken offline and to us, even at its “draft” stage, it already drove home the song’s lyrical fire that goes:
But I’ll go not gently into the night
Rage against the dying of the light
Sing a song about this terrible sight
Rage until the lightning strikes
Catch the full music video on www.facebook.com/artistsrageph this August 9 at 8PM.
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