LOSTTHREADS
Aftermath
METTLE AND MENACE. They are the dynamics that highly skilled Pinoy metalcore band Lostthreads work out to meticulous precision on Aftermath, their sophomore album currently playing live on the Tower of Doom music platform.
The hardcore punk shrieks will probably push most people away while the deeply layered prog-rock operating in the background will draw all true metal heads closer.
Because Clarence Fajardo disturbs with his ruthless bark, it’s easy to overlook how the complex interaction of chords and beats creates a striking mix of honeyed sweetness and curdled offensiveness. Of course, Fajardo’s harsh rants are up-front spilling away unfathomable troubles he’s stuck with, but there’s tender mercy in the way the other members of the band carries the spiraling instrumentation across with finesse, at Canadian band Rush’s caliber at that.
The album title Aftermath may even refer to the next step-up after math rock. Certainly, the confidence and intelligence in the interplay of the musicians draw out the requisite emotions as each track negotiates the peaks-and-valleys of unhinged post-rock in time with the relentlessly raging hardcore vocals.
It’s all over in thirty minutes plus change. Aftermath is obviously not the sound of a group after your comfort zone. Prepare for an aural obstacle course.
OWNWORLD SYNDROME
Keeping Tabs
INSTRUMENTAL beats are something of a cottage industry in rap’s expanding galaxy of sounds. In pop and rock, they’re the equivalent of a soundtrack to a film yet to be made, although there are artists like Clams Casino, whose so-called mix tape is already a complete body of work. All you need to do is supply a vivid imagination to put the instrumental pieces together for an enjoyable journey through sounds.
Keeping Tabs is a collection of fresh beats from some of Manila’s better-known underground hip hop producers who have collectively banded themselves together as OwnWorld Syndrome. Probably a one-time creation, it’s got tracks that are fully-formed at the get-go and others which come off just dropping beats playfully on a whim.
Without a voice or rhymes to second-guess intent, Keeping Tabs has episodes of pure energy (Upstairs Coffee, Neverland), some trip-hop detours (Progressionz, Ronan’s Weekend) and “anything goes” jamming (Jilla Jam, Slojzen). Still, a perceptive mix and match of the 12 original tracks could lead to about seven to eight new compositions of lasting impression.
BOZ SCAGGS
Out of the Blues
MENTION Boz Scaggs in a conversation and almost everyone will remember his middle-of-the-road (MOR) classic We’re All Alone, especially on a rain-drenched evening. Your favorite uncle might even foist that it’s nothing compared to Scaggs’ critically acclaimed performance of Loan Me A Dime with the late Duane Allman on genre-expanding lead guitar.
You can surprise them by telling you know Scaggs better as a blues artist over the past three decades. Latest album Out of the Blues, in spite of its title, is steeped in the blues of his formative years and yes—it brings to mind Loan Me A Dime, too.
With the terrific-sounding rhythm section of drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Willie Weeks delivering supple grooves and lithe backbeats, with the likes of Ray Parker Jr., Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton supplying infectious guitar chimes and acoustic riffs, today’s Boz Scaggs reclaims past glories of his pre-superstar ‘60s and ‘70s heyday.
He blows out the cobwebs in Jimmy Reed’s Down In Virginia, revisits his old haunt in I’ve Just Got To Forget You, and renders Neil Young’s On The Beach into a post-apocalyptic prayer for mankind. Best of all, Scaggs opens his latest album with the rocking Rock and Stick and rekindles the flame once more in Those Lies, with its nods to early Steely Dan.
Scaggs has become a consummate interpreter and his competence exceeds all prior expectations about his “new” music.
CHANCE THE RAPPER
Coloring Book
AFTER a cluster of million-selling acid rap albums, Chance the Rapper (real name: Chancelor Bennett) decided to conjugate rap with his Christian beliefs. In America’s liberal secular climes, it’s an invitation to career seppuku but wonder of wonders, Chance has turned his unfashionable philosophy into a rewarding operating system.
His latest album Coloring Book takes you to church and delivers street-wise sermons on the virtue of God-centered lives. It does not come from a pulpit, but from wizened meditations on God’s universal love.
In Blessings, Chance states the core of his beliefs: “When the praises go up, the blessings come down…” The track also exemplifies his skill at crafting hook-laden gospel that colors the entire album musically. His tunes, expanding on doo-wop to soul to electro, are exquisite platforms to put across Chance’s own eclectic musings on the Bible and the long history of Christianity. Duly blessed, Coloring Book is the first streaming-exclusive mix tape to chart on Billboard 100.
Coloring Book won best rap album honors at the Grammys where Chance the Rapper also took home the Best New Artist of the Year citation. He is booked for a one-night concert at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on August 22.
SABRINA CARPENTER
EVOlution
A DISNEY Channel star, Sabrina Carpenter possesses a voice quality that equally fits the conflicting demands of pop moderation and rock abandon.
On her sophomore release, Carpenter switches accents from pop, to rock attitude, and back within the same song. She starts the album on the much- publicized On Purpose on a diva soar, though most the tracks would later on dip down to a pop-rocking cruise.
Follow-ups Feels Like Loneliness and Thumbs partly reveal her rock heart couched in upbeat jazz meets R&B synthesis. It would eventually show up in Shadows that sounds like singer-songwriter Sia imitating indie dark star Angel Olsen.
Naturally, shaking off her Disney pedigree won’t come easy, so Carpenter dutifully unfurls her inner Christina Aguilera in Run and Hide and All We Have Is Love. In these tracks, she’s actually unveiling her original packaging as a mainstream pop star, and they slot very well in a new album that wants to showcase her different talented sides.
Carpenter and rapper Shanti Dope have just teamed up on a new track, Almost Love, which features the latter’s Filipino rap. (Catch her live and acoustic at the Megaworld Lifestyle Malls from August 24 to 26.)