Isolation Coast
Patterns, symmetry, calls and responses cohabit among the spaces of Jethro Sandico’s ambient explorations. Sandico tells SoundStrip his influences include dark ambient voyagers Atrium Carceri and Enmarta, although across his debut EP Isolation Coast, the darkness isn’t as all-embracing compared to those of his musical idols who release their works under the highly-respected Cryo Chamber label. What Sandico shares with the original works of dark ambient artists is a propensity to incorporate the atmosphere of film noirs and psychological thriller movies. In Isolation Coast, he sets up a wall of sound that wraps the eardrums like a low humming tinnitus then pricks it with industrial noise, choral voices, and undersea rustles. The net effect is a feeling of mounting dread, broken periodically by indecipherable sonic surprises.
On second thought, the wall of sound could probably be the imagined sound of deafening silence when one is alone. So, the mournful horns and twinkling xylophones in Farrais & Isolation Coast, the chants and hard-rock drums of The Iconoclast, the insectoid buzz gnawing at you in Light Thieves and the whoosh of buffeting winds in Le Corbeau (“The Crow” in English) are there to break the monotony of unwanted stillness. It might be Sandico’s take on the surprise element in psycho thrillers—or the evocation of momentary lapses in dead silence.
Sandico reveals that he is inspired by “the chance to express my feelings and find people who have felt the same feelings and build a connection with them.” That affinity is not easy to find in Isolation Coast, but once you get it, its main reward is in transcending the obstacles in a challenging work of experimental music.
PRAYER OF ENDURANCE
Misinformation Phase
The name of this five-piece punk band from Baguio fits the kind of music they play. You need lasting stamina to sustain the 11 punishing songs that make up their latest album.
You also have to maintain laser-like focus on a sonic alchemy that the band says, “mixes the best parts of thrash, death and metal founded on hardcore.” Prayer of Endurance (P.O.D.) has been plying this harsh trade since 2002 and the long stretch has allowed the band to create variations in the mood and intensity of their ferocious attack. The death growls are standard issue, but the backing accompaniment is another matter altogether.
Indie rock tropes are the main sources of attraction as the core instrumental players collaborate seamlessly to counterbalance the grim tales of despair, beginning from the second track Face Value, to the closing cut Sinners Among Saints.
While singer xRickx denounces his enemies from a bottomless pit, the twin guitars/bass/drums cooperation seesaws between razor-sharp thrash and melodic post-rock pitching P.O.D.’s dastardly thrash to some post-metal purgatory just outside of pop heaven. The spit and polish of the guitar buildup is unmistakable, while the solid backbeat relentlessly lays down a jagged noise-rock foundation.
The band says they’re not into head-banging, but you have to bang your head sometimes to jog your brains, or the album’s underlying chaos will consume you and do something you’ll regret later on.
P.O.D’s new album is 45 minutes of intoxicating listen. The band makes their contemporaries angsty paper tigers by comparison.
JOEY AYALA
Raw
Pinoy folk singer/ songwriter Joey Ayala can lay claim to be a cofounder of independent music in the Philippines. The mere integration of indigenous instruments in his music-making with Bagong Lumad already constitutes a mindset outside of the mainstream OPM industry. Add his penchant for topics and themes other than the ongoing sociology-political discourse is added, then that puts him again on an independent platform.
The initial surprise was that Ayala was first taken to the hearts and minds of the collegiate crowd and the grassroots-based NGO community, themselves outsiders from the official dispensation. He and Bagong Lumad became like punks for the educated, clean-looking “bohemian punks” at that: with one foot on his roots in Mindanao, and the other on his growing up years in the metro.
In Raw, a collection of Joey Ayala’s better-known songs, the attempt is made to cover all the bases of the wide range of his music. The seminal Panganay ng Umaga to the more popular Karaniwang Tao and Bathala are important touchstones to an artistic arc that spanned the martial law years to the 2010s. The subtext of his words and music is a sort of resignation to the way things have turned out, but the larger context is to “keep on truckin’” till the dying of the light, or hope, or whatever passes at the end of the journey.
(Be there when the Joey Ayala series unfolds at the Ayala Museum in Makati City on June 7, July 5 and September 13.)
D’SOUND | Spice of Life
Upon its release, the song Tattooed On My Mind reportedly turned the Norwegian soul-funk trio D’Sound into a household name in Southeast Asia, especially in the Philippines. Funny thing is, the hit song came off D’Sound’s sophomore album and as artists, the trio has much more to deliver than a saccharine, wimpy ode to unforgettable love. Let’s then go back to D’Sound’s breakthrough album Spice of Life in 1996. Step up the fun and play the album’s remastered version of 2003, which includes a bonus track and selected in-concert performances of the group’s more memorable songs. Right off the critical bat, every one of the 12 studio-produced songs has a few good things going for them such as tight playing, suitably hot and cool vocals of Simone Larsen (now Eriksrud) as the song demands, and lavish production without getting overdone.
The songs appear indebted to the softer side of ‘70s jazz fusion (e.g. Flora Purim, pop-inflected George Benson, Al Jarreau, electro bossa) but anyone young without such “it’s-been-done-before” blinders will be impressed by the swing jazz of Slow Dancing, French Kissing; the lounge vibe of Good Man, Good Girl, the ‘80s streetbeat undercurrent of the title track, and the upbeat pulse of Real Name. (Ed.: To listeners of the defunct Joey@Rhythms 92.3 in the late 90’s, a staple was the triumvirate’s Love Is On My Way, which introduced their brand of pop-neo soul to urbanites’ listening consciousness, driven by Simone’s sultry vocals, tight-yet-light drumbeats and flowing harmonies.)A new composition, Smoother Escape, is a busier, funkier upgrade of the original Smooth Escape. Five live performances and three new mixes offer a preview of D’Sound in concert: hot and swinging from the first note.
Spice of Life will never be a legendary debut by any standard. It’s just the stuff that fond memories are made of, and it’s good enough for lovers of good music any time.