Written by Elijah P. Deep within this giant cauldron of trends that is the For You Page, a Paranaque-based 1-man project called Sean Archer trends all over the cyberspace of APPPPC music book newsfeeds and Tiktok. His debut single “Mamaya Na” sounds anthemic, it looks rebellious, and it most likely caught the ears of those who’ve stumbled upon the single in their neighboring algorithm, the writer of this review included. But here’s the catch though: Sean Archer just feels out a lot of things about pop-punk and the music he’s inspired by and barely achieves the standard of big stadium pop music in his debut single. Unfortunately, Sean Archer’s performance and plugins sound like a bedroom project without thesis pressure or without the grit of a terror prof. It’s synthetic, everything about this is cliche as a Tiktok microtrend; the loud drums clip over the lazily written guitar riffs even if the more tamer parts switch to tender drum machines, undermixed as it is overproduced; the repetitive hook is hardly singable; it’s a fourth-rate Yellow Room recording rotting in the drafts. “Mamaya Na” is as textbook as it is frustratingly casual, nothing else adds up to its gang chant by the end of the track. LINK:
Category: TRACKS
TRACK REVIEW: Emelette – Brave
Written by Elijah P. You don’t get tight alternative rock anywhere, not much in Biliran, East Visayas, no. In fact, Naval-based singer-songwriter Emelette De Leon Saclolo exists to prove all Manila-centric critics wrong. “Brave” is an indicator that unsophisticated, semi-gritty, lightly sung indie rock can work when the performances are tightly performed. Everywhere you go, you get heavy stalwarts like Taken By Cars showcase their wall-breaking kicks and emotive vocals and bedtime television’s slowcore-inspired passages, Emelette is cut from the same cloth but she’s shown more heart than brawn compared to her predecessors. Released back in August of this year and a music video launched around the month of October, Emelette sings in the middle of an empty basketball court in her hometown of Biliran. Interpolating the clips are two lovers running away from their hometown and taking charge of their own trajectories in life, symbolically leaving what’s mundane, and staying brave for the taking. Emelette’s “Brave” is filled with layers of guitar chords strung into different chords woven after the other, creating a textured moment that captures the feeling of overwhelming love for a significant other. There’s casual electric, fuzz-driven guitar, and there’s Emelette’s debut single taking up a notch for the greater good. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: CK YG – SO SICK OF SAD SONGS
Written by Elijah P. The definition of short and sweet can be applied to a certain kind of media that’s compact and delightful. CK YG – dubbed as the ‘melodic king’ of Pasay – did the unthinkable. Sampled after a Ne-Yo superhit of a single, “SO SICK OF SAD SONGS” was CK YG’s slyest and cleverest rap&b flip in recent memory. CK YG had the gall to tickle our nostalgia to his own advantage. But I’d like to think he’s had enough of sick songs even reaching to the point that the flip is only used to elevate his emotive expression at a handy pace. “SO SICK OF SAD SONGS” is a gem that surpasses its predecessors who’ve sampled classic r&b songs without any unique spin to it. It’s a ‘comp shop’ classic reborn in the 2020s. SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST:
TRACK REVIEW: Kindred – Switch On U!
Written by Elijah P. I couldn’t think of any other explosive debut than the 7-piece boy band called Kindred. Offering more than just sound solutions, Kindred Music offers taste and eclecticism on all fronts. It’s explosive at a sonic scale, it’s ambitious from their conceptual process, and most importantly, their camaraderie is what’s shining throughout the 3-minute and 20-seconds of ear candy on their first official single titled “Switch On U!”. Opening the track is Fern. Official’s trademark emotive singing style manning the track’s hook, quickly transitioning to Cavill’s melodic talent at weaving in their verses; Punzi’s impressive timbre flowing in and out; VINCED, Slomo Says and Nouvul’s rap chemistry working like magic: similes on similes, charming one-liners, and slinky verse-trading whereas all members highlight their own unique spin on the boyband formula. Where lastly, Dot.Jaime provides rich, glossy r&b production. After several listens of their debut, listeners would realize later on that the track exemplifies the core ethos of Kindred as a group: it shows and tells you more than what’s on the surface, and “Switch On U!” goes beyond what a unit should be. SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST:
TRACK REVIEW: ONE CLICK STRAIGHT – MRT
Written by Elijah P. Written after long commutes and comforting cramped spaces while in motion, One Click Straight has proven themselves again that they are capable of growth, even above and beyond than their current contemporaries in the scene. As much as their lead vocalist Sam Marquez describes every one of their most recent outputs as “raddening”, “MRT” is basically the “renaissance” of their material, their literal version of “city” pop, may it be a songwriting and visual aesthetic standpoint. The string of singles such as “Hayaan” and “Wake Me Up” have established themselves as the pop band, all the while “MRT” and “Lilo” are reserved to be more honest and layered than the sum of their parts. Whispered melodies and crisp drum production are becoming the trademarks of a One Click Straight track — may it be coming from their live drumpad playing or constant teasers on their social media — made their careers as musicians reach an all time high in terms of quality. “MRT” has rhythmic rumbling of a train and synthetic warps mixed with Sam’s unorthodox guitar playing – the creme dela creme of the track. These sonic choices are paired with sentimental lyrics that tackle on the concept of finding each other while in transit, but whatever the place of love will take place in, one thing is made sure: One Click Straight have made unique jams for commuters; for folks constantly moving as the world revolves over and under them 24 hours; for humans depending on music wherever they go. SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST:
TRACK REVIEW: Dionela – Musika
Written by Elijah P. Starting off as a viral Tiktok video wherein singer-songwriter Dionela formulates a song that’s based on an off-the-cuff piano melody started by his girlfriend. Entitled as “Musika”, Dionela thought of all possible green flags right from scratch; timbres fade, melodies are improvised and “butterflies” come out of his stomach after several trials from a songwriting session inside his car. From this point forward this is where “Musika” has weight. The subject is pivotal in the process. The artist, however, has barely scratched the surface of making a memorable experience despite their significant other being the main cause and effect of its virality. If anything, the pianos are barely heard in the mix; neither the vocals legitimize the piano melody that’s as significant as Dionela’s output entirely. It’s ‘hugot’ stripped down to a very unsymmetrical formula to the point where we’re all in for the virality and not for the actual craft. This is made apparent from the Tiktok video alone, we’re here to witness the process, the interaction between love and its result. Although the latter never really give grounds for “Musika”. Just like the title, it’s a textbook love song with several sore thumbs. If we were to look at how the single is formed, the intention of “Musika” is an example of an artist finding inspiration. It’s self-explanatory from the video: we don’t need a PR statement to tell us otherwise. But the mere fact that a viral Tiktok would persuade everyone that the song is good is a trap marketing ploy. Sonically, “Musika” is dry. It’s soup without proper peppering. It’s a billboard with only face value. It’s only a QR code and nothing more. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: Nikki Nava – Ephemeral
Written by Elijah P. The last we’ve ever heard of singer-songwriter Nikki Nava was at her quietest and her most reflective. This was years before the world had its audible reset. Now, in the year 2022, Nava is at her most ambitious and the loudest she’s ever been in songwriting. In “Ephemeral”, it’s evident how the emotional value in her tracks added more instrumental nuance than most of her contemporaries. The nuance in question: melodies that struck a chord beneath its beautiful guitar strings above multitudes of other ideas thrown in the mix, Nava’s introspective glare that combines a lot of potent melodicism some singer-songwriters lack. “Ephemeral” is an exercise of her growth as a singer-songwriter, punching upwards in writing catchier lines than making emotive vocal droning and sparse instrumentals. There’s an element yet to be seen in Nava’s songwriting, which is still invisible throughout her tiny single discography. A sense of promise is what’s to be seen in her works soon; let’s just see if she could break the ceiling once again. SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST:
TRACK REVIEW: Clara Benin – Affable Dork
Written by Elijah P. The colorful and sparse career of Clara Benin hasn’t gone unnoticed. Releasing a single or two every year, earning a spot on intimate shows in familiar places, translating one of their oldest tracks into a different language, it’s always likely to think that her career has been stable – as in steady, but hardly ascending quality-wise. “Affable Dork”, her not-so-new yet recently reincarnated material has unearthed the details of a relationship painted like a movie, whereas Benin’s fiction becomes stranger than reality. The “Affable Dork” in the protagonist’s head is another red flag waiting to reveal itself. The emotional weight that describes the heavy romanticization of the character comes in the form of an underwhelming figure of speech. Her vocal performance has trudged through glossy yet skeletal percussion, string sections, and the likes that would attempt to alleviate Clara’s fairytale forewarning. She’s displayed her greatest strengths – both in a vocal and production sense – only to be executed straight-faced with little to microscaled conviction. But for what it’s worth and its reference to Ruby Sparks, Clara’s 7-year journey of rom-coms and imagined situations has, unfortunately, reached its due date years before folk-pop’s inevitable peak. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: Andrea Obscura – Can I Try Again?
Written by Elijah P. Traversing drum machines, lone guitar work, and messages for the messenger crying themselves to sleep, Devices’ very own Andrea Ramos has worked on a promising solo project that equates to a warm summer hug in their fantastic debut single “Can I Try Again?”. Before Andrea Obscura, Ramos has dipped their toes on a new wave to boom-bap and this is far from the Lower Myth we knew back in their Soundcloud days. Riding along the tricks of the trade seamlessly as a producer can be a rewarding journey as an artist, but taking the helm, in the recording booth, and soloing a green screen is another achievement in itself. This is easily Ramos’ most conversational and honest work to date, and sometimes dating back the years of relearning and unlearning your past self is, nowadays, a cliche; It might be a slog to read but Ramos does it in the most melodically faithful and emotionally genuine way imaginable: A biographical moment was sung captivatingly, verses were intertwined in clever beat switches. “Can I Try Again?” is downright a quarter-life-crisis themed-single for folk wanting to hit the restart button, but to us, it’s a 3-minute audio diary filled with memorable lines, instrumentations that swap dexterously, and melodies that hit close to home. SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST:
TRACK REVIEW: Sunday Stallone – Saving Face
Written by Louis Pelingen From a distance, there is something fascinating about Sunday Stallone. They’re a 5 man band that was formed in 2018, mostly putting out covers from a few years back. Those covers showcase their musical influences, from DIIV and their dreamy brand of indie rock to Yung Lean and his hypnotic brand of cloud rap and hypnagogic pop. Additionally, their Spotify profile mentions their merge of genres such as shoegaze, IDM, and ambient. The influences and genre meshes mentioned prior do knot together with how they put up those covers, hazy textures with washed-out aesthetics to create a vibe that will leave you floating, especially with how the songs are paced to glaze and echo through the mix. Once you get closer to their debut single, there is a risk that the band pulls through with its wall of sound from the guitars and drums that coast through misty synth patches that elevates even further in the chorus sections. This kind of mixing and maximalist production touches do work well with the intended theme of the song, pushing through times of frustrations and yearning to move forward despite it. However, once you get the scope of this single, it’s just unfortunate that the rest of the song just ends up being limp. As much as the risk from the band trying to make a stunning debut single is appreciative with its maximalist approach, if maximalism is being pushed here, there needs to be robust melodies and effective performances to carry that maximalism to a potent degree because this just does not have both of these factors. Besides the chorus with its decent maximalist swell, the verse melodies on the instrumental and vocal sides need a bit more crunch and flair to them to act as necessary building blocks to the chorus. Give the drums some engaging rhythms, the guitar and bass some diverse licks, and the keyboard some glistening presence that will make the verse melodies feel rich and buoyant. And when it comes to the performance, even with the backing vocals that show up from time to time do add to the yearning of the song, the vocalists on the first and second verse just lack the tone to sell it. And with the vocal melodies on both verses sounding stiff and bland, their performances just drift further away, feeling one note and numb as a result. Despite all of those criticisms, there is still work to be done. While this maximalist approach in the genre-fused music landscape has been made before, Sunday Stallone has the texture and spark to fill in the gaps in that maximalist niche. But the lack of fulfilling melodies, transitions, and performances crumble the maximalist mix and textures to the ground. It’s a notable debut single from the band that may be flawed all around, the chorus does save face from this single completely falling apart. Support the art & the artist: