Written by Faye Allego Picture this: You’re twelve years old, your parents run an internet cafe down the street and you borrow your Kuya’s PSP 3000 to play The Sims 2. Your best friends come by to play the bartender game on Y8.com while Kuya is on an extreme DOTA battle. You’re not too keen on the fact that it’s the first day of school when you wake up but at least you’re having the time of your life now and who knows, maybe your mom might pack you Yan Yans or an extra bottle of Yakult for lunch tomorrow. You didn’t think of it then, but amidst all of the popular mid-aughts games, excitements, and leisures, “no one knows where they’re really going.” That lyric from Ruru’s new single titled “Liminal” transcends me into this portal of, well, liminal spaces. Spaces I had never thought would be so empty, yet full of life in retrospect. The song is upbeat, it does not contain the subtle mood of tragedy commonly heard in wistful chord progressions and melodies, however, the lyrics say otherwise. The song’s lyrics as well as perhaps the lack of strings, share key elements seen in the Hauntology genre; in the sense that something “lost” from the song’s features is haunting. Aside from channeling how the song feels sonically, this song looked like a kaleidoscope of every single one of those dreamcore, corecore, weirdcore, and vaporwave aesthetics I’ve seen across social media. Any lyric can be used to caption a liminal space photograph and evoke the feelings of longing for something you didn’t realize you’ll never get back as an everyday, mundane feeling. The worst part is that “something” can be everything from the past. In Ruru’s words, “We’re just way too in our heads/ Passing on acquaintances/ Some days I’m not quite myself / Yet I’m on my bed…” Liminal is also one of those unique tracks where you don’t need to actually feel a certain emotion when listening to it despite the existentialist lyrics. It’s a song that could pass as an Animal Crossing tune on a Nintendo DS. It can be your go-to shower song, or the absolute final song you choose to go on your Instagram story when posting to a monthly wrap-up collage template. I’d love to hear this track be a part of an album that explores the genre of Hauntology or even avant-garde electronic music that we don’t typically see in OPM. Additionally, the cover art for this track could pass for an album cover itself! It looks like Ruru’s self-portrait is taken from a driver’s license, exemplifying adulthood or the oversaturation that can suggest the technicolor that life brings in the mundane. Or maybe she just looks really good and so does her music. That’s what I think. Cheers to more Ruru! Support the art & the artist:
REVIEWS
TRACK REVIEW: Fern. – SO FLY
Written by Louis Pelingen It seems as Fern. is now working towards his next solo project for the foreseeable future, with him steadily putting out songs that now linger within 2000s R&B that he fawned over, showcased through both the art direction and the music itself as there has been more intrigue towards the 2000s nostalgia more than ever before. But out of the three songs that he has put out thus far for this upcoming project, “SO FLY” is the one that struck the most within his delve towards this 2000s R&B flair. From the chalky drums, glittery synths, and warbling bass that carry a composed, pristine melody, Fern’s vocal touches ooze with so much charm and wonder that he manages to stick the landing towards creating a sense of inviting allure, something that his vocal flair alongside the abundance of harmonies and melodies able to encapture marvelously. Despite the drum textures sound a bit flimsy, this song’s melodic spark is remarkable from front to back. With every single listen, it never fails to fly high to something ever so spectacular. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: DIONELA ft. Jay R – SINING
Written by Elijah P. After almost hitting every note and scoring every possible R&B collaboration known locally, Bulacan-based pop singer-songwriter Dionela has finally hit the algorithm goldmine in streaming with their collaborative hit “Sining” alongside R&B royalty Jay R. Not too long ago, the same mainstream artist and respected industry titan passed down the “crown” to the young neophyte on live television. Dionela humbly turned down the offer by returning the symbolic crown to Jay R in the same segment. Looking back at that moment symbolizes a lot about Dionela’s output: clunky, laughable, and an overall striver that fails to follow up the greatness of any industry singer-songwriter from decades before. Despite numerous attempts to hit the sweet spot in choruses, the “all my life” line is more laughable than sticky in the sensual listening experience. “Sining” is as grating as sprinkling rotten cheese on a bad serving. The awkward use of Tagalog in the verses and choruses feels forced, much like the strained high notes. Meanwhile, the unbearable lows don’t cover up the shortcomings of Nelly’s Tagalog counterpart. When Dionela tries, they try hard, just like the chorus they’ve written. Jay R, on the other hand, turns the track around. However, when an industry veteran tries to steal the spotlight rather than complement the feature, something unequivocally goes wrong in the execution of the track. “Sining” neither looks nor sounds sexy; it’s a track that begs to make sense. Like a ribcage rumbling from the notes of a xylophone while rupturing longing feelings. Did that passage make sense? Not really, and neither does “You’ve turned my limbics into a bouquet” when your prefrontal cortex is fully developed. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: Cherry Society – Recluse
Written by Aly Maaño It’s 2009 again. I’m wearing an Artwork shirt, a plaid tennis skirt, and my favorite pair of black Chucks with rainbow-colored laces for a meet-up with my date at the local park. He would teach me how to skate for the first time, and I would let him read the pretentious poems in my journal. After a few weeks, we would stop seeing each other. I would never learn how to skate. This is how Cherry Society’s “Recluse” opened this long-forgotten time capsule in my brain. As an elder emo, I easily resonated with this song as it perfectly encapsulates an era when all the bands headlining When We Were Young were being blasted off from a Nokia Xpressmusic (if you still had one) or one of those early Samsung smartphones. Think of female-led bands like Paramore, Hey Monday, We Are the in Crowd, Tonight Alive, or Courage My Love. Sonically, “Recluse” draws influence from new wave, pop-punk bands from the posthumously coined “Defend Pop Punk” era like Neck Deep, The Wonder Years, Knuckle Puck, etc. With its cutting guitar riffs, thick, jangly bass tones, and energetic tempos, it could easily be the soundtrack for an angsty Y2K movie or the background music of an amateur skate video. Kuki’s strong, raw vocals balance clarity with a punch, evoking lyrics with adolescent themes involving relationships and heartbreak. Although some elements could still be polished, Kuki, Miya, Kat, and Lisha were successful in crafting their signature sound straight from Cherry Land—the kind you’ll dance and sing along to in your room or mosh to with your friends at the pit. If “Recluse” was released in the 2000s, I wouldn’t mind getting malware from illegally downloading it on Limewire just to listen to it on repeat. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: Shanni – 19
The second single from neophyte soft pop singer-songwriter Shanni is more enchanting than their debut by a lot. Venturing into dreamier soundscapes rather than city pop beginnings, Shanni’s “19” commands a slightly more consistent and somber approach to their tender sensibilities in pop songwriting. Shanni sings over the gentle compositions as if skiing on a mountain: It’s breezier than it sounds, and with its execution landing more consistently compared to “Sa Panaginip,” “19” feels like an ode to the influences worn on their sleeves. Call it derivative of Men I Trust or Faye Webster all you like, but Shanni is carving out their own lane in songwriting. It’s not theirs to claim just yet, but “19” serves as a proper stepping stone for the young pop star as they emerge from their creative shell. Support the art & the artist:
ALBUM REVIEW: Fax Gang + Parannoul – Scattersun
Written by Louis Pelingen When reaching a sense of stability, there is no doubt that it’s sometimes a fleeting moment, a feeling that provides meditation and strength just before everybody has to push forward to the next phase of tension in their lives. On the last projects that Fax Gang and Parannoul have put out, this does ring true as they take a lot more effort to embrace the sense of the calm before the storm: Fax Gang offers more openly brighter melodies and textures on Dataprism and Parannoul moving away from the aghast distorted perks of his debut as he takes more dreamy wistfulness on After The Magic. So now that they’re both under Topshelf Records, the possibility of working once again since their collaboration on the last track of Dataprism feels like a star that can be reached, where the light keeps on burning brightly. And it sure does, as on Scattersun, Fax Gang and Parannoul merge their varying worlds in absolute delight. Within this project, Fax Gang and Parannoul’s musical chemistry bounces off in a way that resonates with their strengths as they leap off into various characteristics that morph into their own being – all filled with post-rock crescendos, eclectic sound design, distinctive production palette, and amorphous genre swervings that Fax Gang and Parannoul just makes it all work. Riding these risky musical ideas that both acts are willing to do, and create an exciting endeavor where those risks are rewarded tremendously, intersecting their creative worlds where they know which parts of their ideas will work and proceed to experiment even further outside of their comfort zone that also manages to stick the landing in a remarkable fashion. ‘Double Bind’ showcases this toast of ideas clearly, with the first half lurking within the familiar bit-crushed soundscape from Fax Gang with PK Shellboy’s vocals rummaging through that chaos, just before it slowly and sleekly transitions to the usual fractured distortion from Parannoul’s part on the back half that also has a jersey club rhythm implemented within, displaying familiar pieces of sound that work around with newer facets of experimentation. This experimentation continues further all across the project, from ‘Quiet’ where PK Shellboy joins within the crisp and bulky alt-rock palette that’s clearly Parannoul’s signature wheelhouse but is wrapped around with warping synths, ‘Lullaby for a Memory’ with the jaunty array of rapid organic breakbeats, wistful synth progressions, and galloping crescendos that spearthrows itself into the skies, ‘Wrong Signal’ where the warbling production creates a cacophonous black hole for Mudd the student of Balming Tiger and PK Shellboy to break through with anxious performances just before the production clears up into a danceable but still suffocating beat, ‘Circular Motion’ takes a mellower tone where both PK Shellboy and Parannoul’s vocals are cushioned within the spare lilting synths and chalky percussion that eventually collapses into a charged EDM instrumental passage that bolts to the end of the song, and ‘Soliloquy’ may as well be the absolute charming cut from album – filled with glorious melodic progressions that can fit into a rhythm game song selection as the sweeping drums and synths glimmer before it cracks and dishevels as it moves along, even adding a random jazz sample that swivels into the cut’s last ecstatic chorus. And even despite ‘Ascension’ and ‘Scattersun’ paling off for different reasons – with the first song that could’ve expanded upon its harmonies and the second song that could’ve sharpened parts of its transitions and melodies, they still manage to land with aplomb as the former cut’s fleeting calmness creaks from its fuzzy textures that never overshadow the performances of every vocalist – gatka’s soothing vocals especially – and the latter cut’s attempt on creating a 10-minute plugging, cloud rap, and drill epic is nothing short of impressive in just going along on that idea and just making it happen. This overall scale is also reinforced within the writing of the record, taking a grand leap as Fax Gang and Parannoul return back into exploring humanistic existential dread that they find themselves lurking within, all with an embrace of abstract metaphors that expound the exhausting emotions even more. There is a desperation to cling to the brighter future that they try to reach as much as possible even despite all the murk that keeps on piling up more and more each day, intensifying the anxious dread that they want to avoid for their sake. Yet it is an attempt of avoidance that they cannot do successfully anymore, especially with the doomed tone displayed on cuts like ‘Wrong Signal’ where internet doom-scrolling will continue to display the destructive parts of reality that they can’t risk to not care about anymore. Thus, it overall colors the bleak aspects within these deeper reflections, whether that be having to mature and moving past their inner child on ‘Lullaby for a Memory’, reaching out to friends and trying to help them out even if they themselves are dealing with their own struggles on ‘Ascension’, and just how accepting a defeatist mindset due to the constant effects of isolation, aging, and ennui in this devastating world soon collapses upon ‘Scattersun’, the darkest cut in the album as there is a realization where the process of reflecting through these harrowing moments don’t seem to make sense anymore and is easier to just find some release in self-harm – a dour thought that’s compounded from the continuous wallowing that pushes everybody else away, and leaves them struggling with not knowing who they are anymore. Eventually concluding on the aptly titled ‘Circular Motion’ as the null in this negative state of mind will persist, a stillness that may never be broken apart where loneliness seems to be the only relief for all of this. As a whole, there is an astoundment that swings around Scattersun and all of its elements. A collaboration that tries to break out of their comfort zone where Fax Gang and Parannoul embrace their wildly varied musical components and
TRACK REVIEW: Squaretoe – Subzero
Written by Louis Pelingen There is a chilling mist that Squaretoe – the trip-hop duo consisting of Mazerboy and Maggie – conjures within this newest cut as it immerses deeper in a glacial tone. Through its flickering synth pads, needle-sharp drum machines, and saturated guitar mixes swirling around Maggie’s haunting vocals that loom and bend around the general mix, it creates a dream-smeared atmosphere that drowns into gloomy moodscapes. Ever so carried along with the spare writing presenting a lingering cruelty that lurks deeper, a feeling that Maggie’s dreamy performance effectively brings as her voice rings all across the song. There is an assured quality that Squaretoe brings to ‘Subzero’ in an immediate way, sinking deeper into more layers of atmosphere that the duo lurks in slow, but curious spaces of mercurial triphop and frosty electronica. Overall resulting in the fleshed-out sonic ideas on the production and compositional side amplifying the atmosphere to a certain degree even if the briefness of this cut feels like the duo is still testing out where they would go in the future. Still, it’s potent enough to move the temperature to its freezing point, letting that sullen dread nestle in its unmoving place. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: To Love Everything Ever Again – Jonah
Written by Elijah P. In every scattered, programmed drum loop, bitpop-influenced keys, meddling string section, and vocal delivery, there’s an underlying sensitive theme at play in “To Love Everything Again” — the solo indietronica and chamber pop project of Janpol Estrella. The track exudes a tight embrace and a strong tug at the heartstrings. It’s quiet yet hauntingly melodic; there’s lingering depression yet a playful energy that hangs in balance with a grim foresight. “Jonah” is the debut single you shouldn’t miss. Singing about sensitive topics such as sudden urges of suicide and the like, Estrella carefully orchestrates an experimental thread of influences: electronica weaving through folk-inspired elements and such. While listeners groove to “Jonah,” it serves as an assuring sign of hope and a reminder of the reality we all must face eventually. The concept of “youth” remains central to the artist and its listeners, as experimentation and pushing the envelope exist on the fold, which is exactly what To Love Everything Ever Again is doing right. “Jonah” is a single that everyone should check out in the year 2024. Support the art & the artist:
TRACK REVIEW: 25hearts – HEARTS
Written by Aly Maaño If you’re missing BROCKHAMPTON, 25hearts is the collective to watch out for this 2024. Formed last year, this seven-piece ensemble, consisting of Never Paco, Bankyu, E.J, Wan, Nix, kyleaux, and k1ko, has been teasing us with early releases like “NAGA FREESTYLE” and “PUMAPALO” in collaboration with other up-and-coming hip-hop artists, including RB Slatt and Papayasoak. In their latest single, “HEARTS,” the group introduces a fresh and vibrant sound — a culmination of each member’s style and artistry and their journey as a collective. Never Paco’s catchy freestyle hook is a nod to BROCKHAMPTON’s signature style, with its pitched-up vocals rolling off suavely over kyleaux’s production. Surprisingly, the beat is sampled from ABS-CBN’s “Family is Love,” and layered with bounce house elements and bluesy piano underscores that swell around Bankyu’s short but sweet verse. E.J delivers probably one of the most significant lyrics in this track, “Take me back to these moments / Let me do it again,” which celebrates how far they’ve come and can still go. And while each verse presents its own flair, Wan’s effortless flow stands out like a magnetic string pulling you to get up and 2-step along to their sonic odyssey. Another noteworthy part is kyleaux’s wistfully melodic verse smoothly transitioning to Nix’s heavenly voice—a perfect match to their infatuation-heavy lyricism. Nix’s hyperpop-influenced vocal charm is a key element in completing the sound they aim to capture in this single. More than the vibes, “HEARTS” reflect the members’ experiences on love, relationships, and their solid bond as a group. Sweet and upbeat, this track echoes the passion they have for their craft and how they have fun in the process. As we anticipate more projects, we’ll definitely be dancing the hula with 25hearts! Support the art & the artist:
EP REVIEW: rosh – cotton mouth
Written by JK Caray If you were also a hip local music listener back in the 2010s, you understand how crucial music websites like Bandcamp and SoundCloud were in experiencing the height of that underground, lofi scene brewing inside people’s own houses. While home recordings have always been a thing, the format of these sites provided the internet a front-row seat to the unfiltered, underproduced music some passionate strangers online made in their free time. Among these lie hits and misses but in 2016, Roshelle Munez released her first release “gitling,” which became an instant hit on SoundCloud. Following the virality of “gitling,” Manila-based Alt-Pop artist Munez, aka rosh, became an indie darling overnight—however, it would not be until 8 years later that she released her debut EP entitled “cotton mouth.” Serving as her serious venture into the music scene, the release—a long-awaited debut effort consisting of her unseen works from 2016-2022—allows us to take a peek into her diary as an extension of her psyche. “gitling – 2024” reinvents the original with more polished production and a clearer sound direction that fits right in with the rest of the EP. The addition of groovy drums and harmonies gives it a more laid back and playful vibe, as if having given it space and time to breathe. In stark contrast to this, “human goo” introduces that wall of angst that lingers throughout the entire record. It picks up the pace with driven drums, rosh’s fatigue embodied in her vocals buried beneath eclectic bass synths and the harmonic dissonance of guitars. “rainbow road” steps back from the heavy noise, favoring to experiment with lush, dreampop-like sensibilities. The lyrics echoing her heartbreak are cryptic yet very familiar, something everyone has felt but nobody could pinpoint. Lastly, “nevermind” closes the EP at the zenith of its turmoil. The instrumentals weep with a sense of deep longing and yearning; she’s begged and begged, but somehow it’ll never be reciprocated. Errors decorate the track alongside distorted guitars, creating the perfect backdrop for the emotional breakdown that follows. rosh ends the EP with a “never mind,” too tired to care anymore. In cotton mouth, each song is a confession; all the anguish and hurt hidden finally surfacing after years of being bottled up. Maybe that’s why despite its heavy, angsty nature, cotton mouth feels freeing. It’s the words you couldn’t say and the stories you try to forget after years of running away. Ultimately, rosh’s first foray displays a remarkably promising future for Manila’s star-sign-loving, alt-pop rockstar. Support the art & the artist: