NOA MAL, My Corrupted Hard Drive
Gal rocker from Lucena City Noa Mal must be one of the most prolific songwriters unknown to most OPM listeners. She has more than 15 singles and albums to her credit on most digital platforms yet she’s hardly mentioned in the same breath as your average boy band. Then again, her latest release, despite its unconventional unpromising title, might just push Ms. Mal in the upper echelons of the local indie circle. You see, she’s reined in her sound from the slacker DIY charm of two years back to a more accessible approach to her craft of late. Oh, she still excels in mating garage rock with grunge-lite for an all-ages appeal in the likes of “You’re An Empty Calorie,” “Kill (The Feeling),” and “Malware.” They’re probably part of the reason she’s in a recent show headlined by Sandwich, no less. Way to go, Ms. Mal!
FAX GANG, Dataprism
This multinational group led by PK Shellboy from the Philippines promotes something called ‘cloud rap” which carries a whiff of experimentalism on its own. In the case of their debut album “Dataprism”, Fax Gang meshes and mashes the heat of funk, the ethereal haze of shoegaze and the slicing of the human voice into ghostly slivers. Dress it up in fractured narratives of indeterminate nature and the entire project feels like prog-rock (or is it jazz-fusion?) got punked! Coolest to check out: “Guardian Angel,” “Pendulum” and “No Evil (feat. Mx.PurpleHaze).
WET LEG, Wet Leg
Forget about those titles. Just dive into the first track and get transported immediately into the inner mind of someone deliriously in love. The big beat and pretty synth/guitar workout temper the anxiety a bit to make it an ear-hugging pop song. In “I Don’t Want Go Out,” the musical modus turns the paranoia of a young millennial into something to smile about. Intense jealousy is glossed over by the syrupy epiphany of “Loving You” while in the lead single “Chaise Lounge,” getting a Uni degree gets deflated to achieving blah. Irony lives in Wet Leg and finds bitterness its BFF.
DELILUH, Fault Lines
This Toronto-based quartet is being billed as a post-punk head case. Sure enough, album opener “Credence” is guitar-driven opus built around such post-punk attributes rhythmic repetition, swirling synths, twinkling piano and disembodied vocals. “Amulet” presents its punky cred in backbeat swiped from Marianne Faithfull’s “Broken English” even as “Body and Soul” shakes things up via repeated banging of a digital maracas. However, the final three tracks starting with the elegiac “Monument” mute all blare and fanfare in favor of some sort of paean to ‘70s new age music, or at best, the shallow end of jazz-fusion. Some mental fault line actually divides Deliluh’s record into inventive and derivative halves.
THE DREAM SYNDICATE, Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions
For those expecting the days of wine and roses redux, get a grip, will ya? Still piloted by guitar supremo Steve Wynn, The Dream Syndicate, once young gods of the ‘80s paisley underground, aren’t going back to the fuzz and screech of the second garage rock revival. But that doesn’t mean the band, reunited since 2012 with new members, are now acting their gilded age. Far from it. Off their latest album, just listen to the new fuzz in the reverb-washed grandeur of “The Chronicles of You,” the screech of fired-up psychedelia in “My Lazy Mind,” blue collar post-punk in “Ender” and “Damian” is simply a lovely pop-rocker. Here’s to keep on truckin’!
Top of the Shelf: Volume 1
When not dabbling in progressive issues of our strange times, Catshelf Records puts out compilations that pay tribute to OPM. Their latest release serves Pinoy shoegaze in its excellent form and not-so-great side of select indie bands Cinéma Lumière, Public Places, Strange Creatures and Spacedog Spacecat, the exception being Megumi Acorda whose two contributions just about wipe ‘em all.
Check out digital music platforms especially bandcamp for albums reviewed in this round-up.