When it comes to a territorial takeover, Hev Abi does it in the most sinister way by inviting you to 1103 aka South Triangle, Quezon City. Beginning in the Memphis Rap influenced production to the modern-day ominous trap house presence, Hev Abi is looking forward to taking the entire region by storm this year. “WELCOME2DTQ” is documentation of a city that has a long and rich history in hip-hop, and Hev Abi successfully captured the essence of Kyusi via baseball bat-wielding charisma and flawless flows. Say what you want about the A$AP Rocky comparisons, but no one would ever dare to reduce Hev’s uncompromising presence and initiative. He possesses an aura of coolness to the place to the point you’d actually be proud of repping your hometown. Whether it would be a posse backing him up along the Tomas Morato avenue or the overall crew love you receive in “WELCOME2DTQ”, the up-and-coming rapper is largely responsible for being the phantom in the dark, slowly but surely tagging his nearest vicinities with an all-encompassing rap skill. Backed by C.R.E.A.M callbacks by the bridge and demonic pitches placed by the outro, Hev Abi’s at the come up and QC is the launching pad he needs at this time in the hip-hop scene.
REVIEWS
TRACK REVIEW: Pikunin – ★·.·´¯`·.·★ Tadhana ★·.·´¯`·.·★
Written by Louis Pelingen Scrolling through Soundcloud, Youtube, and Bandcamp to discover a song that interpolates or adds a twist on a sample underneath always gives you a different kind of feeling. Sometimes it will leave you bewildered that it ends up clicking (or not), sometimes overjoyed with a hint of nostalgia, or sometimes spiraling down to a screech, wondering how adding just the quaintest of beats and vocal takes can bring you to a certain kind of special tug. Pikunin, formerly known as AHJU$$I, flips up Tadhana by Up Dharma Down and puts his own spice into it. A hint of nostalgia slid in – now glazed, full of twinkling sparkles, and a low-key charm – pitching up Tadhana and chopping it down to the chorus and to the signature cooing of Armi Millare as a starter, tugged along with Pikunin’s softer vocal takes (“Please pick up your phone and don’t leave me alone / Cause I can’t be by myself, I don’t want somebody else”). All along while Pikunin drums up a jersey club-style beat with that signature squeak sound that blends well with the rest of the song, and makes the song twinkle more brightly than before. It’s a song that brings up nostalgia, carving up a spin that makes it refreshing, and allows everyone to appreciate the source material even more. Tadhana is already a heartfelt song for anyone reeling from their 2010s nostalgia, and now Pikunin’s quaint yet charming flip of the song does not take away the pathos of the song but rather adds a different kind of tug.
TRACK REVIEW: ABY – paasa vibes
Written by Louis Pelingen It’s a tough situation to be led into false hopes of someone falling in love with you, only to reveal that they’re using you as a reserve, not as a definite showcase of authenticity when it comes to how they’re leading you into that romance. The common quote of “pinaasa mo lang ako” rings like an orbit in these situations, penning itself into the songs that have been local mainstream staples for a good while now. Writing about it can be either devastatingly real, or it can be tepid, where the details burrow themselves into surface-level ‘paasa’ topicality that doesn’t stand out whatsoever. And with all of that musing, Davao R&B artist ABY shoulders the former with a tight control of melody and a punch in her writing and delivery. A song titled ‘paasa vibes’ might be a corny title to start with, but don’t judge it for its title. Listen closely and there’s a lot to be impressed about. ABY’s measured vocal melodies loop and swivel through the choppy beat filled with skittering trap percussion, rubbery bass grooves, and splashy arrays of synthesizers. ABY’s writing (alongside her slicker vocal delivery) has this Dua Lipa influence into it as she blows through a guy that keeps falling in love with her even if she knows that he treats her as a reserve while he keeps finding other women elsewhere. There’s an assured maturity in the complicated ‘paasa’ topic on display especially when ABY herself is close to reciprocating, but wise enough to be on the right path to not be led into the guy’s false romanticism towards her. While the production can be a little mushy, the end result still sticks regardless. It’s splashy, catchy, and also layered once you dig into it. Again, don’t let the song title make you wince, because this packs a lot of punch and a lot of insight that breaks through the ‘paasa’ situations that so many people have found themselves into.
ALBUM REVIEW: ONE CLICK STRAIGHT – ONE CLICK STRAIGHT
Written by Louis Pelingen If you look at the cover, the One Click Straight in the present has shifted away from the One Click Straight of the past. Their image, once observed, has always been a frustration towards the band and their overall output. In their debut album, ‘The Midnight Emotion’, they kneeled over the synthpop worship that has its significant influences from the gauzy sides of the 70s – 80s synthpop. While well-produced with its use of gauzy synth textures, the rest is nothing but a blur. It tries to resort to a ‘foolish romantic chase’ theme, but the writing itself has shunned away from instilling wonder, in that romance and the melodies themselves came off fumbling at the seams. It is interested in the aesthetics of a new romantics leaning synthpop, but never breaking free to consider morphing into something new. This flailing fascination goes to their EP in 2020, conceptualized as a sweeping set of baroque-accented songs treated with a cosmic, starry-eyed harana that goes bigger in scope: polished in its lusher arrangements and melodic chops, but letting the vocals and writing lay limp as a result. The band switched away to another transition in sound and style 5 years into their debut. They used to pull away from their Synthpop worship and replace it with Pop Rock worship; now they pull the stops as a mark of change and growth in their self-titled LP. It is swirling with a rush of energy, urgent and thrilling on the edges as the band picks up strands of Pop Rock, and Post Punk that threads itself down to a cohesive 14-track offering. Going in this direction is a good fit for the band to expand upon their sonic wheelhouse. It brings out the band’s improvements to the table regarding their writing, composition, and production in a way that feels more propulsive, focused, and immediate. “Wake Me Up” is a track evident of this, with all of its driving percussive beat and guitars amidst all the synthetic feedback, pop rock melodies that take some nods to The 1975 to great effect, and crisp vocal chops that seek to snap awake from overthinking surrounding one’s relationship and their own personal doubts. “Hahayaan” shrugs off the judgments that are propped against them, peppered with shuffling guitar strummings and snappy percussion that swarm around the chilled-out vocal melodies. “Untitled 1” opens up with percussive grooves and cycling guitar licks that accelerate and crash through as it progresses, building off a rebellious spark from those who will take the autonomy of their lives. And “Isang Kawalan” closes things off, a retreat from one’s beloved when their identity has faded. It’s a stomping closer where the crashing drums and guitar melodies pick up the rhythms as it plows through to the end. Going even further – when they do strike gold, they make out some of their best tracks to date. The quiet longing of “MRT” is a grand standout for a reason, the warmth from the solemn vocal lines is situated within an excellent chorus and the twiddling guitars and punchy drums. “Synecdoche” and its tender balladry acquaints itself with glimmering synths and calming keys, coating the melancholic loneliness and changes that permeates through the song. But beyond all of that quiet pain comes the bright presence of the lover that’s always in one’s mind, a sentiment that the song delivers wondrously. The 2010s pop rock tunings of “Untitled 2” varies itself as it incorporates some house grooves underneath, allowing the hook to pop out with the grumbling guitars. And “Gulo,” with its waving guitar progressions over the rapid drum pattern, brings enough bewilderment to the post-breakup situation of the song. It plays its bewilderment until the very end, the piano murmurs the regretful musings of the relationship. As much as the band finds their footing with this stylistic shift, they’ve embraced it to a fault that they still find themselves carrying their influences rather than carving a form that is their own. One major culprit for this is that, just like them taking huge notes on 80s synthpop in their debut, this record has a lot of rubbing off of the flagrant 90s – 2000s pop rock and post-punk stylistics that only makes the record less fascinating than it should be. “Dahan-Dahan” has its trudging groove progressions aided by the pianos that may sound thrilling at first, circulating around pacing yourself calmly amidst a world that may leave you behind. The vocal cadence and the shoutier delivery don’t have that same pumping swerve to them, leaving the song to lack any sort of wild edge to it even with the progressions trying to claw things through. “Gitna” goes to a similar issue, where the post-punk nods get rather trite with the shouty vocals and the stomping percussion and guitars. It sketches out the confusion and questions of where one’s life might lead, but the compositions don’t wrestle with themselves to make that point resonate stronger – ending up being clunky as a result. And then there is ‘Some Kind Of Girl’, an immediate dud in the record about the shy yearning towards a girl that then proceeds to put the situation in the friendzone. It’s a dull adult alternative song, paired with the obvious cloying guitar strums, processed beats, and a vocal delivery that sounds more stiff than enthralling. To dig even deeper, there is a part of the execution of these songs that makes the album frustrating to go through. As much as the production stays consistent with how the textures crumble and warp in the mix, the static rhythms of a lot of these songs make it hard to justify the 54-minute runtime of the album. It makes the album sluggish to get through, and without a big switch-up to the structure of the songs just makes things clunky and drag as a result. While the aforementioned obvious pop rock and post-punk influences hold these songs back with the progressions
ALBUM REVIEW: OH, FLAMINGO! – PAGTANDA
Written by Nikolai Dineros A friend of mine once said, “Oh, Flamingo! is the definitive OPM band of this age.” It’s a thought that has since been stuck at the peripheries of my brain. I wonder if my friend was onto something or if it was just the alcohol talking. Oh, Flamingo! was at a critical juncture at the time: the release of their sophomore EP Volumes saw the band deviating from the brazen, indie-textured 2000s pop-rock sound in favor of a trippier, more visceral psychedelic rock motif — something up the alleys of the titos and titas. While it might not have been the cup of tea of every Oh, Flamingo! fan at the time, Volumes was a welcoming treat. I left the record thinking that the band was cooking something up for their first full-length release. And they did, but not in the way that I had anticipated. Enter Pagtanda, Oh, Flamingo!’s first full-length album, and their most introspective release yet. What I thought to be the band’s culmination of their seven-year run of wacky concepts and sonic experimentations turned out to be a recollection of the human pathos, funneled by the members’ own experiences expressed through song. On the surface, Pagtanda is their most straightforward record to date. It carries heavily from its mid-’70s to ‘90s influences — the Manila sound — and proudly wears it on its sleeves. The guitars are more subdued this time around, which gave more room for the keyboards and the brass sections to shine, but guitarists Pappu de Leon and Howard Luistro still have their moments every now and then. Drummer Pat Sarabia and bassist Billie Zulueta (who also took on a more active role as a singer) are still the strong backbones of the band, often providing that trademark groove from which the other members get their momentum. The songs on Pagtanda are more downtrodden than they have ever been for the band. At times, they even get existential with the lyrics as they chronicle every point of loss and regret as one trudges the early stages of adulthood. The opening track “Makina” takes you on a trip down anxiety lane, away from the mundanity of life. In “Na Naman”, Howard and Billie sing of the shame and resentment a person would feel from being trapped in the vicious cycle of a toxic relationship. “Sa Totoo Lang” deals with a lot of heavy stuff — inner struggles, fear of the unknown, and coming to terms with one’s mortality. It also sounds like a proper OPM anthem in the ‘90s. How so, I’m not sure myself. Batang ‘90s lang nakakaalam! (I am Gen-Z) “Pag-ibig Lang Ba,” for how off-kilter its riff gets, posits a philosophical question many young adults have probably come across at least once in their lives. “Galit” is a personal favorite of mine. I couldn’t count how many times I have bobbed my head to its bubbly ‘70s funk groove and Pappu’s excellent riffage while humming about contempt and betrayal. A mood. But for how bleak some of these moments are in Pagtanda, it never felt out of place. Nothing from Oh, Flamingo!’s limited but already colorful discography has. “Sigurado” is a teaser track memorable not only for capturing the Manila sound’s sweetest pop sensibilities but also for what it stands for. The song is a love letter to our fur babies and their strong bond with their respective hoomans. The lyrics will surely tug your heartstrings if you haven’t heard it yet (Seriously, why? You’re missing out!). And while you’re at it, share this tune with your lola. Tell her you’re welcome. Pagtanda is a record of self-reflection and change. Stylistically, the album is Oh, Flamingo’s most toned-down. It was not the return to form to the eponymous EP or the evolution of Volumes I had anticipated from a band my friend thought of as “definitive OPM”. Rather, Pagtanda is the enclosure Oh, Flamingo! needed to complete their trifecta of artistic growth — from ambitious beginnings to wild, deviant phases, and to a tranquil point of maturity. This three-record run is a framework that encapsulates the human experience, and Oh, Flamingo! nailed the ending perfectly with Pagtanda. This is not to say the band should stop making more albums to ruin this excellent run. But if there is a legacy they can leave behind, it is their diverse catalogue of songs capturing the OPM sound that stands as an impetus to the experiences many can relate to, regardless of age and circumstance. Also, I think my friend was a genius all along. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: Sunkissed Lola – White Toyota
Written by Elijah P. Olongapo’s sole funky, alternative rock troupe Sunkissed Lola are to watch out for in the new batch of bands in the 2020s. From being introduced by Kiyo in more intimate gigs to being one of Wish 107.5’s most sought-after artists in terms of virality, Sunkissed Lola are aiming to get out of their hometown to hit the big leagues. But with their latest arsenal consisting of an impeccable drummer and backup vocalist in the stable, the problem in Sunkissed Lola still lies in the style of their direction and their vocal performances. If the listener were to open their ears again, looking for another infectious hook in their material, the process of realization would stem from hometown heroes with nothing to lose to hometown big leagues with generic taste in hand. After the hit viral single that is “Pasilyo”, Sunkissed Lola are to double down in the genericness of it by opening the year with “White Toyota”. In their new single, Sunkissed Lola personifies the breezy summer afternoons and a knack for guitar licks that takes the funk outside by the shore. Still, the sore thumb in all of this isn’t just their current sonic palette (even their contemporaries like The Ridleys, Over October or even Lola Amour could make slightly more tolerable commercial music). Sunkissed Lola launches an all-out attack on the funkrock genre, only to be sacrificed by sounding like a car sponsorship out of nowhere – minus all the fun and the glamor of it all. “White Toyota” doesn’t just scream mid but rather: Sunkissed Lola and “White Toyota” work together as a humid product of pop that’s barely reached the surface of memorability in terms of catchy songwriting. “White Toyota” has all the potential to be Sunkissed Lola’s second breakout, but the single only works if your uncle would test out the radio if the brand new Toyota Vios works for background music. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: P4blo – baka magalit boyfriend mo
Written by Elijah P. The concept of “girlbestfriends” or “boybestfriends” in the year 2023 might be a ludicrous rap theme for older listeners. For those out of the loop, think of it as a zoomer litmus test of infidelity – an archaic concept that traces back to the time when infidelity is still pretty much a playful yet haphazard theme to rap around. Think of SZA’s “The Weekend” except it’s executed on a less deeply personal level. In the decade that is the 2020s, you’re pretty much in the clear to goof around with the exception of earworms and infectious hooks. Rapper and singer P4blo does it effortlessly. In “baka magalit boyfriend mo”, the up-and-coming rapper melodically prances around the concept of being a sideboyfriend or the proud rebound to the protagonist’s girlbestfriend in cloudrap form – sped-up piano notes, reversed synth pads and sliders, and vocal harmonies melding together. P4BLO knew for sure what he was writing about yet the undeniable hook writing shouldn’t work out, but its inescapable melodies make it an anthem for all sidechicks or sidebffs all over. Not that the casual clueless listener is to acknowledge the existence of such culture, but rather this substitute for the typical Valentine’s playlist should be highly considered for all. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: Kiyo ft. Yung Peso – Puyat
Written by Elijah P. Pampanga-based rapper Kiyo never really forgot his roots since moving from the ports of Navotas to the north side of Angeles not too long ago. His latest track “Puyat” offers introspection rather than the nostalgia trip of their previous material. Time seemed to run out for the young rapper. It wasn’t too long ago either when he released haranasa – a 15-track debut that overstayed its welcome. The debut showed more filler than a 4-verse solo track. However in “Puyat”, it was more likely that he’s been keeping these verses loaded with more impact. The compactness of these 16-bars are rich with food for thought compared to the aimless reminiscing thoughts of haranasa. Although, the listener would rather frame it this way: “Puyat” is an entry of a more mature Kiyo. The borderline boombap production and hazy pianos ride over Kiyo’s gliding melodies seamlessly. You have the flows of Kiyo complimenting the guest feature Yung Peso in the monochromatic music video; hustling in the skinny alleyways and living the life by skydiving freely. Kiyo didn’t join the rap game for fun; he joined because it made him live life more carefully. “Puyat” has all the breaks for kiyo to showcase his more melodic and lyrical sides. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: Peej – Islands
Written by Elijah P. Paulo Alampay also known as Peej, is a singer/songwriter and collaborator of many downtempo/pop folk artists. He’s had his fair share of exposure and delightful releases on streaming platforms as well. After several singles and an abundant number of collaborations here and there, he’s released a New Year present for fans and casual listeners alike. After the comedown that is “These Walls” and “Don’t Carry”, Peej merges together all of his ecstatic energy in a form of “Islands”. The single came out on Spotify as well as a lyric video featuring the singer-songwriter strutting behind the sunset horizon with headphones and sunglasses equipped. The composition is built like a cherry-topped sunday – sterile in the middle of the subdued soundscapes. The track works and feels like a morning jog, it gets better at first but it tires you out in the end knowing that a 8km run is an equivalent of a 4-minute and 20-second song. Peej’s vocals have definitely improved over time, only to apply it over an instrumental that barely does anything throughout the duration of its time. You have luscious guitarwork and a promising drum program that’s circuit-treated to give you serotonin, but that only works on Opposite Day; Underworked plucks of electric guitar, the drum machine pinpointing a filler and loops between loops that are already way past waking hours. “Islands” comes off as a fruitless fruit hanging by the tropical tree of its island. SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST:
RACK REVIEW: Gre! – Staywme
Written by Elijah P. Once you hear the sound cues of ice bouncing on the glass and the keys bouncing a millisecond after the producer tag, you know that you’re in for a plugg showdown. Gre! – QC-based and aiming for Metro Manila’s best kept secrets – released “Staywme”, produced by dopamine, a little over a week ago in the time of this writing, and since then, it hasn’t left my mind how the rapper-slash-resident-growler-of-a-metalcore-band has an impressive streak of writing the best melodies known to the post-lockdown crowd (examples: Majica and VOID). The surprise doesn’t come from the fact that it’s a Plugg track – a formula that might be nearing its end after a shelf life two years of gig freeze alongside several Soundcloud anons trying and testing the template effectively – but rather Grei embodies the Plugg with infectious verses, executing a chorus-free single and armed with loads of melodic syllables and lines that call for “bebe time” during autotuned croons and trap hijinks, ultimately extending the possibilities of plugg once more in the latest single. “Staywme” is target practice for Grei, maybe even a no-sweat affair or rather a genre hopping test drive, either way he fits the bill in both genres. An ear for genres could mean a master scheming their way to success and “Staywme” feels like a swaggering flex of Plugg-ian proportions. Support the art & the artist: