Author: Louis Pelingen

  • ALBUM REVIEW: Petalbyte – <10><

    ALBUM REVIEW: Petalbyte – <10><

    Written by Adrian Jade Francisco

    There are albums that orbit the current electropop, glitchpop, and hyperpop system—built from a familiar vocabulary of glossy synths, glitch-warped vocals, and internet-age immediacy. ‘<10><’ by Petalbyte sits right in that circuitry, carrying the kind of ambition that suggests a debut overclocking its own design. 

    Straight out of the startup screen, “intro & consum” opens to dictate the identity of Petalbyte’s catalog, shimmering layers, tight drum programming, and abrupt transitions. The mix sounds like someone taught a laptop how to have feelings and then immediately overwhelmed it in “girl just quit music already.” Those aforementioned production personalities are seen further in “this song found you” with its digital friction of a chorus. “Close enough” anchors the album’s volatility with an infectious hook that restrains the maximalist bursts. 

    Although it is only 33 minutes and 33 seconds long, Petalbyte succeeds in maintaining momentum without any noticeable drag. She manages to translate the genre’s sonic dialect that feels distinctly hers. It remains evident how the electropop artist has honed her sound into a production style and character she can truly claim as her own, despite how ‘<10><’ can remind you of Ninajirachi or underscores.

    Amid an oversaturated era of electropop projects, ‘<10><’  successfully cuts through with a surprising sense of clarity. It doesn’t overwhelm the space—it simply renders itself more sharply than most of what surrounds it.

    Petalbyte wastes no time in making her artistic intent clear from the outset of her debut album. There’s no sense of tentative introduction; instead, the project arrives fully formed, already operating with electronic music that feels deliberate rather than exploratory.  If anything, you could say, “girl, just keep making music.”

    SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST: 

  • MIXTAPE REVIEW: Dexter1ne&only – 1nderfuL

    MIXTAPE REVIEW: Dexter1ne&only – 1nderfuL

    Written by Noelle Alarcon

    Pampanga’s Dexter1ne&only gained recognition in 2022 for his hit “In Luv:” short and sweet, pushed forward by trap beats, and dripping with codeine. After dropping a single in March, he finally returned to music this May with the mixtape ‘1nderfuL.’ In all its 23 minutes and 11 seconds, the rapper flaunts a more complex and sonically realized direction in his discography. 

    ‘Gunaw’ starts the mixtape off with a bit of familiarity due to its similarity with his older music. It’s a song that lays the ground for the more upbeat innovations in the tracks to come. Arranged on a straightforward beat that eventually envelops you in the fog-like synths that drone on and provide texture to the track, it’s as crunchy as the peso bills in the artist’s pocket. 

    Dexter1ne&only’s pivot to mumble rap and pluggnb is an intentional, well-thought-out choice. Every element chosen in this cocktail of synths, leads, and airy 808s makes every track essential to the listening experience. It’s also in this chosen avenue that he’s able to express the lightness of vulnerability in the mixtape’s underbelly, like asking someone if they’ll be there to support until the end, or being unable to wait just to see someone you love that you end up asking to FaceTime.

    All nine tracks on ‘1nderfuL’ are incredibly diverse, each one of them able to stand on their own as they possess their respective sonic identities. But of course, there are standout tracks as well where Dexter1ne&only and the rest of the Stunna4Life roster truly outdid themselves. 

    “Yao Ming,” featuring fellow S4L artists GOget Cal2x and Allfred, speaks of success through the symbol that is the Chinese basketball player—and even sprinkles in a bit of longing and worries that come with encountering triumph. There’s a poetic quality that comes to the trio’s rawness; “malabong di ko ‘to gawin ‘gang pumuti yung uwak,” they repeat as they embrace the exhaustion that comes from counting money.

    “Frog Eyez” with Allfred and YPC is another exceptional track, starting off with a series of plugins so amusing you wouldn’t be able to predict how the rest of its runtime will unfold. Laden with multiple sound effects and percussion that just work together, it’s like an auditory representation of the high that they experience. There’s charisma to be found in its self-proclaimed hedonism; ‘yan ang guapanese.

    ‘1nderfuL’ goes to extremes and explores its depths; it explores the casual playfulness of artistry and values staying true to oneself, above all—may it be through authentic accents or stories of humble beginnings. While sharing stories of success, it’s also not afraid to echo hardships and the anxieties of being human, which make it all the more raw, its cool exterior aside.

    Support the art & the artist:

  • TRACK REVIEW: Project Yazz – Ningning

    TRACK REVIEW: Project Yazz – Ningning

    Written by Louis Pelingen

    Ever since 2021, Project Yazz has been best described as a band whose joy in making music comes from freewheeling expression, with varying instrumentalists who play around from time to time. Vocalist Faye Yupano and bassist Burgan Nunez, the mainstays in the project, never stay in a fixed atmosphere, thematic approach, and cast of players, as they are always shifting around with ease. Despite that, one aspect always continues to stay around in their music: warmth. 

    This year, the band steps up in imbuing that warmth in lusher soundscapes. “Haraya” evokes that firsthand, yet the following single, “Ningning”, takes it up a notch. Faye Yupano’s vocals gracefully express a wistful longing under the glinting presence of the stars, a gentle emotion amplified further with supple arrangements with crisp grooves and gleaming brass swells that continue to gradually ramp up.

    However, this cascade of potent ideas never reaches its transcendent state, where the production does not fully expose the wells of yearning that Faye Yupano embodies in the song, and the expanded arrangements don’t allow their rich textures to be heard. Instead, it feels distant, constantly on the cusp of reaching a stirring resolution, yet it never truly gets there.

    As it stands, “Ningning” becomes a fascinating growth and challenge for Project Yazz, as they are willing to experiment with their warm tones in grander escapades. Succeeding in placing down this tender desire that’s as simple as it is evocative, yet it doesn’t flourish the way it should. It might result in the song whose resonance becomes wishful thinking under the starry night, yet even then, it sparkles just enough to see how it could have shined brighter. 

    Support the art and the artist:

  • TRACK REVIEW: Hijo – Ain’t Got What I Got

    TRACK REVIEW: Hijo – Ain’t Got What I Got

    Written by Paolo Elwick

    After the viral success that is “Sorbet,” DJ and hip-hop artist Hijo continues to prove that he’s more than just your average internet influencer. With club-ready beats, earworm hooks, and playful, sometimes out-of-pocket TikTok videos, Hijo has steadily built a reputation as both a standout performer and a digital personality. Now, he’s back to keep the energy high with another club anthem — this time enlisting rap collective Fresh-iLL Club for the bouncy “Ain’t Got What I Got”.

    Much like his previous release, “Ain’t Got What I Got” is an animated track overflowing with the energy you’d expect from Hijo and his vibrant personality. With an instrumental that blends booming drums, triumphant horns, and dynamic adlibs, it feels like a fresher, funkier tribute to the boom bap style. And much like the emcees who’ve championed boom bap in the past, Hijo is bombastic and in-your-face from the jump, delivering an unapologetic PSA to dance as he proudly proclaims, “If you ain’t shaking ass, get the fuck off the dance floor.” 

    The verses that follow share the same bold bravado as Hijo begins trading bars with the diverse cast of Fresh-iLL Club. While the former feels perfectly at home on the track, some members of the latter lack the energy and presence to survive the beat’s punching onslaught. As a result, the energy of the track can sometimes peak before cratering. The good thing, however, is that it doesn’t take long for the track to get its groove back. Before you realize it, you’re probably already back shaking ass on the dance floor.

    And that’s where “Ain’t Got What I Got” shines — it’s a hypnotic anthem that builds on Hijo’s natural magnetism and presence to create a track that brings funk, energy, and braggadocio to the parties and dance floors of Manila’s lively nightlife. But more than just that, it captures the city’s after-hours pulse by pairing swagger with an infectious bounce that feels impossible to resist. And in the process, Hijo cements his place in the local music scene as an artist who understands exactly how to move a crowd digitally and in real life, by consistently turning his charisma and instinct for high-energy records into tracks that resonate with audiences far beyond algorithms. So if you frequent these spaces, get ready to hit the dance floor because Hijo isn’t waiting for you to stay still.

    Support the art and the artist:

  • TRACK REVIEW: Asher – Pollen

    TRACK REVIEW: Asher – Pollen

    Written by Julia Harumi Kudo

    “Pollen,” composed by Asher, Areli, and Juicingjuicy, is a rumination on a song in which they refuse a memory to be simply remembered. Thus, they go and breathe it all over again, even when it stings. The song turns with the slow, circular logic that endings and beginnings are trick mirrors than stages of the same cycle, and where longing for someone, like pollen, is both natural and difficult to resist. Realized on a skeletal chill-hop rhythm and clad with the flexibilities of Neo-Soul, the trio somberly revels inside the Petri dish of modern R&B, with Asher and Areli’s production leaning towards texture rather than structure. With organic patience, the guitar arrives almost unbeknownst, while the synths forage underneath with velvet layers perpetually glued to the mix. And yet, for all its fawning, there’s something vaguely obscured here. The vocals are often fractionally veiled; phrases fade into texture, and you notice yourself feeling the words first before even fully understanding them. It’s a little frustrating to be able to catch the fragments of the yearning spiel enough to know there’s an intention, but not enough to withhold it fully. But when the song chooses to reveal itself—“I need, I need you so”—it does so with a startling clarity that it almost feels sacramental as if that line alone is intentionally meant to survive the haze and the rest belongs to someone else. 

    Drawing from the title alone, “Pollen” alludes to a collapse—fallen, yes, but also feathered, dispersed, made airborne. The word blushes a little and hides inside itself: to fall in love again, to have already fallen apart, and to still be suspended somewhere in between. And just like pollen, the pining in the song acts like a natural phenomenon. Our body resists even as it needs, pure animal instinct. Areli gets back to this contradiction without resolving it: desire shaking hands with dependency, tenderness going up against doom. “I don’t trust the time when you’re not around / I’m fallin’ apart again.” It sounds simple and almost childlike, but such straightforwardness is what allows us to let our human sensibilities feel, and that’s the closest we can get to being nearly transformed. We’d be neither healed nor broken, but airborne.

    Support the art and the artist:

  • EP REVIEW: WILHELMINA — Book of Spells

    EP REVIEW: WILHELMINA — Book of Spells

    Written by Noelle Alarcon

    The Philippines has an incredibly rich, complex history—despite the multiple attempts to put down the Filipino identity, it is the spirit of resistance that has pushed us to continue fighting, time and time again. 

    For Filipinos outside of the homeland, that sense of pride, of kinship, can look a little different, although the thought remains intact: we have always had our own world and will stick by it no matter what, unnecessary foreign interventions aside. In New Jersey-based producer WILHELMINA’s latest EP, “Book of Spells,” he summons these roots and blends them into webs of jersey club and hard drum.

    Akin to being possessed by the spell of a babaylan, “Book of Spells” is over 20 minutes of thumping transcendental beats. Shrouded in mysticism and the promise of a good time, booming 808s are showered in hard kicks and the sound of indigenous Filipino instruments. WILHELMINA trades the more clean, polished sounds of percussion for drums that have more of a roaring echo, contrasting with calming prayers and various sounds of brass that accent each beat.

    The EP stands out from the rest, and not just because of its Southeast Asian roots. It is not merely confined to the genres that describe it; it doesn’t have to force or impose its identity upon the listener, and it executes its brashness magnificently. Its trance-inducing basslines are reminiscent of the hypnotic nature of budots, and so are the different ways he uses the sounds found in rituals to exaggerate and build up to certain points in each track. There are standout tracks, like opener “Divine Hand,” which samples Kelis’ “Milkshake” and weave it with indigenous drum beats that become more complex as its runtime moves forward. “Booty Hypnosis” is true to its title; the bass-boosted murmurs become louder and louder until the track finally shifts its gears and mesmerizes with its array of sounds.

    There are plenty of ways to play with jersey club, its template being a flexible canvas that will take on anything painted upon it well. However, there are points in the EP where the repetitiveness becomes an element that drags the track on for longer instead of expanding on its sonic possibilities. It’s a tricky endeavor to figure out how to piece these sounds together, and WILHELMINA’s attempt to incite spells of dance works well, for the most part.

    The EP’s cover is an array of golden tikbalangs, and the mysteries of Philippine occult—in superstition, they are mythical creatures that lead travelers astray. That’s what this collection of breaks and beats does to the listener; “Book of Spells” unlocks an experience that can only be felt beyond the physical realm, hauling you across a bewitching journey of wonder that has been inside you all along. What joy it is to make the most out of being spellbound.

    Artwork by kosmos.khaos

  • ALBUM REVIEW: Lecx Stacy – The Folkhouse

    ALBUM REVIEW: Lecx Stacy – The Folkhouse

    Written by Lex Celera

    For Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Lecx Stacy, sonic experimentation is no longer just an exercise but a recurring theme in his body of work. Pallid shades of ambient, breakcore, emo, and folk are rendered onto the canvas, resulting in something that can’t be neatly put into a single category. His work has been found somewhere between the gravitational pulls of Clams Casino, A.G. Cook, Jean Dawson, Deb Never, and Code Orange Side Project NOWHERE2RUN.

    Beyond genre shifts, the intention is clear: his sound is a refraction of his personal and shared history – as a first-generation Filipino American, as an artist exploring what he calls “inherited memory” – rendered in its full palette. 

    In both form and approach, the layers across each track come and go in measured amounts, almost as if they were solidified like shards. Of what they could represent, the artist leaves just enough room for it to take shape in the listener’s mind.  

    If his debut EP ‘Face Plants’ serves as an antechamber to the world of Lecx Stacy, ‘The Folkhouse’ is an inner dwelling that retains a sliver of its original foundation, sort of like a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill. Vestiges of past work form a resemblance to the bricks that have been laid out in ‘The Folkhouse.’ 

    As Stacy explains in a press release, “The album as a whole explores grief, heartbreak, and eventual acceptance, all framed through a parallel between my life and my father’s.” In ‘The Folkhouse,’ Lecx Stacy vacillates between textured abstraction and lucid instrumentals, drawing on a broad range of influences to further explore something personal. His body of work, then, is a response to stimuli, an answer to a call, expressed in song. 

    The opening track “Feign Death, I Await Her,” settles on abject atmospherics from the jump to set the tone, and serves more as an interlude, similar to “…” Meanwhile, “In a Hail of Bullets, She’s the Gun” comes across as central to the whole project in its robustness of sound; it has a bit of something for everyone that has found a taste for Lecx Stacy’s sound, similar to “Thine Own Accord” in his previous project. 

    In fact, the guitar instrumentation is foundational to ‘The Folkhouse’ and draws the most attention across the whole project: “Winter, A Wilted Flower” and “In A Hail of Bullets, She’s the Gun” develop this idea most. The guitar work in “Safe In Your Hands, I Clasp” gives the track buoyancy amid the weight of the drums. Meanwhile, the use of tremolo in “Testament, A God Fear & Rifle” suggests another dig at his history as a Filipino transplant in America, as built on from his recent projects, most especially his 2021 EP ‘Bundok.’ It’s the tightness of this intention that gives Lecx Stacy’s body of work tensile strength beyond navel gazing.

    But as ‘The Folkhouse’ and his previous projects have shown, this drive towards finding answers comes across as asymptotic: close, but not completely there. Nothing is entirely resolved; the shards remain shards. In fact, one might argue that the thematic backbone feels more pronounced in his body of work compared to this latest album. Which opens up the question: how long will this exploration last, and what can be excavated beyond what is already found?  

    Support the art and the artist:

  • ALBUM REVIEW: MONDO – MONDO

    ALBUM REVIEW: MONDO – MONDO

    Written by Nikolai Dineros

    A debut album would typically symbolize an artist’s effort to mark a creative turning point in the medium from which they can branch off, or mark a point in time at which they were at their most unfiltered and relentless.

    But it’s a different case for Mondo de Castro, the man behind the eponymous band MONDO and its eponymous debut album, who decided to flip the script and turned his debut album into an imprint of his creative assemblage. To him, who staked his name on this album, is what all his 20+ years of work in the industry have been leading up to.

    As an artist, Mondo has been in the industry for several decades, having played for The Pinup Girls and collaborating with heavy hitters like Francis Magalona, Diego Mapa, and Kitchie Nadal. E Nick Lazaro is involved in the production side of things

    All this to say that Mondo’s resume is a decorated one, and his grasp of the technical side of songwriting and music production is out of the question—all that’s left to mull over from ‘MONDO’ is in its ethos and creative process.

    On his debut album, Mondo leans toward British rock and Britpop, with Gospel themes as the occasional thematic hook. His faith is most apparent in “A Thousand Voices,” in which he shares the spotlight with Kitchie Nadal and Diego Mapa. On the one hand, an electronic track with an ambient trip-hop feel, and on the other, an acoustic ballad that serves as the penultimate album closer rather unceremoniously, especially since the closing track is a rendition of another song on the album.

    On the other side of the tracklist is “Fire Buns Brighter” and “Awaken,” a pair of upbeat rock ensembles that do not hold back from evoking kinetic energy. Besides sharing a similar stylistic makeup in its employment of a modern take on the British invasion of the late ‘60s, these two openers are indicative of what aspect of the creative process Mondo prioritizes most (sometimes to the benefit of his work, sometimes to its detriment): risk aversion.

    The biggest fetter in ‘MONDO’ above all is its overreliance on tried-and-tested formulae, especially on a genre that is already known for its steady progression tropes. While such an approach is not inherently at fault per se, the lack of unpredictability in a song (or rather an air of excitement brought to the fray by fresh, unconventional ideas) and excessive sanitizing of sound may make for material that is seemingly uninspired. The album’s more raw outputs resonate more with the artist’s core intent.

    In contrast, ‘MONDO’ shows a lot of competency in its lyrical output. The aforementioned “Fire Burns Brighter,” while overshadowed by its heavy composition, shows Mondo’s spiritual side in a tasteful way, making use of imagery to add mystique to the song. The same can be said about “The Second Coming,” but with a better (and slightly more subdued) melody to accompany it.

    But the album’s highlights are seen in the middle, with “If I Tell You Why” (both versions) and “The Second Coming” being the biggest highlights of ‘MONDO’. This is in large part because of Mondo’s penchant for sheen not getting in the way of his intuition for making good riffs and emotionally potent melodies—a feat that is apparent throughout the album, but is neutered in its weaker moments. “Isang Libong Araw” is another well-composed song that strikes a better balance between the explosiveness and restraint of a rock anthem meant to uplift the audience, at least when compared to its faux-sibling, “Fire Burns Brighter.”
    ‘MONDO’ is fundamentally a showcase of the artist’s well of knowledge in his decades-long journey as an artist. Now with the resources to operationalize his songwriting process like one would a client brief, he is keen on getting the best people on board to make it happen—a highly ambitious endeavor, one that is hindered by the smorgasbord of ideas left unregulated, and can be improved on by having a clearer sense of direction, regardless of who is involved in the making of his work.

    Support the art and the artist:

  • TRACK REVIEW: jhl – Everything you want

    TRACK REVIEW: jhl – Everything you want

    Written by Elijah P.

    In the crumbling digital landscape of the production’s sonic palette, we hear producer-singer’s jhl and their haunting presence linger in the distance, moving away from the destruction and ultimately building a kind of paradise in the penultimate 2025 single “All Up in Your Head.” Their latest single “Everything you want” harnesses the epic collage maximalism to its core and trades it for a more destructive, deconstructed club approach, meshing and glitching with the risers of trance’s past. At certain points, jhl knows when to tug at your heart through orchestral passages, channeling the seething energy of infatuation and the kind of colliding explosions that wipe the slate clean by the end.

    Moreover, “Everything You Want” and its R&B inflections make up for the track’s destructive atmosphere, where the former acts as a saving grace from the production’s more self-serious tendencies. As the New Zealand-Filipino creative looks toward working with the Minnesota Orchestra as one of their dream collaborations, their latest single helps channel their inner selves and their craving for physical contact through verse and melody. The chorus resists easy reading, splintered into multiple sections and buried under layers of a complicated composition. Still, there is beauty behind jhl’s madness, and somewhere in the noise, a sense of control.

    “Everything You Want” lands as an impressive collage club track. With New Zealand in the middle of a wider resurgence in electronic and experimental music, jhl stands out by staying unpredictable. There are too many DJs chasing the same lane, but artists like jhl feel harder to pin down.

    Support the art & the artist:

  • TRACK REVIEW: rhodessa – nananabik

    TRACK REVIEW: rhodessa – nananabik

    Written by Louis Pelingen

    The streak of rhodessa’s refinement as a musician has only persisted since breaking through in 2023, with “Kisame” allowing her presence to shine in broad daylight. She continues to hone in on the well of OPM pop rock she only delivered with more exciting gusto, with the 2023 track “sa’yong sa’yo lang ako” and her 2024 EP ‘kiss’ becoming the main showcases of her artistic throughlines developing further and further. 

    And with the recent release of “nananabik,” rhodessa continues to stitch her creative growth, sticking to her yearning songwriting formula that may be wearing its welcome, but still delivers the necessary punch in the overall composition. Carving an emphasis on saturated guitar riffs and a stable percussion section that offers enough support to her pleasant vocal delivery. 

    With her overall changes in sound and style well documented over 6 years of consistent single releases, it now poses a challenge for rhodessa moving forward, especially in how she will branch out her songwriting into deeper, more interesting ventures. To yearn on the surface may be fun, but sinking deeper into it may require her to tilt to a different angle, just so that she can fully grasp an emotionally wider experience. 

    Support the art and the artist: