AEGIS
20 & Beyond (Sa Ikalawang Dekada Ng Musika Natin)
A SEVEN-piece—a five-woman and two-man combo, Aegis has mastered the art of the bombast: music that speaks in volumes, like listening to Bonnie Tyler in multiple sonic dimensions. If the band opted for heavy rock, they’d be our own version of Queen, hands down.
That Aegis chose to settle for album-oriented hair metal is just as well, having already claimed the hearts and vocal pipes of jilted Pinoys across income brackets. Their other ticket to eventual ascendance to Pinoy rock Hall of Fame is their predisposition towards belters about luckless, loveless women. “Luha,” “Halik,” and the impossibly infectious “Basang-Basa sa Ulan” collapse in three classic songs the pains unfortunate Pinays go through in their search for love and fortune in these ill-fated islands.
Now celebrating their 20th anniversary in showbiz, Aegis can’t help but draw ladles of inspiration from the sound that turned them into overnight sensations. Titled Aegis 20 & Beyond, its best shot is an emotionally charged cover of Asin’s “Oras Na.” The remaining four original compositions (in a ten-song album that includes five minus ones) borrow their glitter from the goldmine of a back catalog that goes all the way back to a 1998 debut.
The tales of woe remain the same, but Aegis seemed to have lost some consistency in telling a convincing story. In “Bata” for example, the band artfully grafts rap to their slow rock machine. Unfortunately, there’s no rhyme to wanting revenge on an “isip-bata” who broke the singer’s heart for some unstated reasons.
“Maghihintay Ako” gets to pair “Ang buhay na makulay…” with “Pag-ibig mong tunay…” (sigh) while “Ayos Lang” slips an absurd line: “May anino naman ang buhay ko.”
Well, to mash up Quiet Riot with Maroon 5, just cum and feel the Aegis noise, and you will be loved.
MOONSTAR88
Strings Attached
HAVING made hay out of uncomplicated, yet attractive sounding love songs, the constantly adorable four-man band Moonstar88 complicates matters a bit—this time, by allowing strings to augment four of their best-known songs with a fresh shine.
The enhanced orchestration has a different effect on each of the songs, reshaping original compositions into something more nuanced. It gives a heavenly airiness to the sweetness of vocalist Maysh Baay’s delivery of “Sa Langit.” On “Torete,” the strings provide a discreet undercurrent that supports the flow of the song. Likewise in “Sulat,” where the supplementary instrumentation sustains the sense of poignant bliss—just the sort of music the doctor ordered on the rain-soaked tail end of summer.
In the end though, Strings Attached is strictly for hardcore Moonstar88 fans.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Allstar Productions, Vol. 3
ALLSTAR PRODUCTIONS is a group of people who share the same passion for making quality music. Their mission is to raise Filipino rap to another level with positive messages—devoid of explicit content—about war, struggles and violence against others.
It’s a quaint introduction because the best song, as far as this corner is concerned in the 20-track compilation, is “Gabriela,” in which a bold lady represented by rapper Jhanelle finally takes upon herself to leave an abusive relationship. Over a contagious churn of electro-laced R&B, the hapless victim pledges undying love at the start: “Ayaw sayo mawalay/ Kahit araw-araw mo akong halos pinapatay!” But when the hurting gets brutal, she realizes, “Wala ng pag-ibig/ Kung pagbuhatan ng kamay,” and puts an end to her ordeal, albeit in a rueful guilt-ridden resolve: “Di na baleng mawala ka sa aking tabi/ Wala ng dahilan/ Ang luha sa gabi/ Makakaya ko, kahit wala ka.” A battered partner finally comes to terms about escaping a nightmarish situation, reshuffling a few lines off Gloc-9’s “Sirena”
Except for two chaotic cuts, “Kung Sana Lang (Ver. 2)” and “Salamin (Ver. 2),” the backing music on most of the songs on Allstar Productions, Vol. 3 are seamless synth-pop. They’re produced obviously to stay in the background but in “Kailangan Ka Niya” and “Panahon,” they stand out from all the rapping and yapping with their noteworthy hooks and tunefulness.
The chief problem is, aside from Gabriela’s brave, bold statement of freedom, the rest of the tracks—whether featuring a male or female rapper—seem resigned to give way – “magpaubaya” in local parlance, be it to a two-timing lover or an insensitive one. It’s a cop-out on love that may be worth fighting for.
If only for a brief moment there, this collection adds a new entry (e.g. “Gabriela”) to what Allstar Productions deem to be new concepts and ideas that can lead and motivate artists and audiences alike. Fight the power, yo!
MICHAEL FRANKS
The Music In My Head
A VERY popular singer/composer in the ‘70s, Michael Franks built a solid reputation making popular music founded on jazz. Franks’ Mr. Blue and Lady Wants To Know from his debut “The Art of Tea” set the tone for his ongoing career. With their fluid jazzy instrumentation grounded on Brazilian samba/bossa, those seminal songs became benchmarks for radio-friendly MOR or for the so-called smooth jazz in later decades.
Now, with radio a thing of the past, Franks keeps going back to the music of his younger years. In its title and the type of songs on the album, Franks’ latest release, “The Music In My Head,” returns to the music that has always been with him and in him. His patented silken treatment of tender ballads are best represented by the opening track, As Long As We’re Together, the titular cut and today’s smoothest jazz of them all, “Bluebird Blue.”
The years have also been kind to Franks’ musical acuity so that in Bebop Headshop, he successfully reincarnates the true jazz spirit that’s been thriving in his head, rechanneling The Crusaders four decades hence. In Candleglow, Franks expresses how it feels to stay analog in the digital era. He then resurrects the mood of a kindred spirit in solo Donald Fagen circa I.G.Y. to lament about the lost notion of a space-age generation.
Speaking of close kinship, Franks got a lot of help from long-time associate and smooth jazz stalwart David Spinozza on acoustic guitars and the late Chuck Loeb also on guitars. Producer Gil Goldstein has the job cut out for him, taking only a few chances away from the template the late great Tommy LiPuma laid down on Frank’s first two albums.
“We lived, we laughed, we loved, we cried… We’ll never die,” comes from Mr. Blue. It might as well describe Frank’s continuing journey in life and in his undying music.
1 comment
Aegis band compose of 1 man and 6 women.