Written by Louis Pelingen Stepping outside the dense smoke of his past releases, “NOTICE ME” acts as the next progression for kyleaux’s creative prowess. Replacing rapid warbles with sleeker R&B cadences that compliment his desire for romantic attention, one that requires a level of inviting charisma that Kyleaux proves to handle in potent strides. Paired with the nimble bass groove, shimmering synths, and textured boom-bap percussion, it coalesces to Kyleaux’s melodic arsenal, instantly pulling the attention of the listener into the song. It may be a little bit quaint mixing-wise – especially around kyleaux’s vocals – yet the overall melody coming through his vocals and his instrumental is silk as butter. This results in said quaint mixing becoming a feature rather than a weakness of this whole song, a deceptive magic under kyleaux’s growing bag of tricks. One that’s worth noticing further as he constructs more of these low-key yet delightful songs. SUPPORT THE ART AND THE ARTIST:
Tag: R&B
TRACK REVIEW: KAIA – Tanga
Written By Lex Celera Leading up to its music video release, KAIA released a number of one-minute “concept films” on their social media accounts, featuring each member depicting potentially romantic moments gone awry. And while the promotional videos are just long enough to capture the feeling, KAIA’s “Tanga” unpacks this romantic type of love with nuance without losing the sheen of its pop structure. Within the highly engineered lens of pop is a fantastical but relatable world built through image and sound, cultivated during and in between music releases, “Tanga” checks all the boxes of what is serviceable and “radio-friendly.” The single is catchy, it has earworm-worthy chorus and showcases upbeat rhythms. For KAIA, “Tanga” is a boon to its music catalog, sitting pretty beside “Walang Biruan.” While the latter pushed KAIA sonically, “Tanga” remains decisive in fine-tuning their sound. Zack Tabudlo’s mastery of examining expressions and receptions of love and putting them into words without sounding preachy leads to a satisfying pop track. More than lyrics, the harmonies are satisfyingly layered and the adlibs are discreet but playful. It’s safe to assume that these additions to KAIA’s repertoire are a result of close collaboration with the more experienced Tabudlo. What’s most compelling in “Tanga” is the levity created between the twee lightheartedness of its melodies and the abject sadness presented by its lyrics. Why do we carry on with unrequited love or romance beyond red flags? In “Tanga,” anger at the act and love for the other can happen at the same time. These themes are explored but never really go anywhere. And that’s fine. What matters for KAIA is one-minute moments and three-minute odes to these moments, portraying a feeling that can be sustained upon multiple listens. KAIA’s charm shines bright in “Tanga,” and while admittedly safer than their past releases, forms a full-bodied discography thanks to its well-considered lyricism and composition. SUPPORT THE ART AND THE ARTIST:
ALBUM REVIEW: SOS – It Was A Moment
Written by Gabriel Bagahansol Starting off your band’s much-awaited sophomore album with lines like “I wrote some lyrics but it’s ten years later / I’m always worried that I’m past my prime” is a ballsy move when it’s been eight years since your first. Even more so when you’ve added these lines to a song you’ve been playing for more than a decade. A close up of the artwork for 2017’s Whatever That Was flickers on an old TV in a sunlit living room, as though that period in the band’s career were glory days they can only reminisce about. You could be forgiven for thinking SOS is staging a farewell, but this is the façade of nostalgia and reflection they have formed over their brand new album It Was A Moment, and that includes the opening track “Amore”, which finally saw completion after being a long-beloved live number by fans of the band. One listen and you can see why people have been clamoring for this for years: an energetic jangle bounces off from everyone in the band, amping things up with a rousing chorus that just makes you want to dance. All of that is very much intact here in the definitive version of “Amore,” except the uptight, aggressive iteration once heard at Route 196 and beyond is nowhere to be seen. Roberto Seña, along with fellow guitarist Andrew Panopio, has seemingly traded his fuzzbox for cleaner tones, has given the song a carefree environment to live in, and not only did the two of them make space for an acoustic guitar, apparently, there’s a synthesizer now? Outside of its nostalgia-tinged cover art, there’s hardly a trace of the band’s distant past in It Was A Moment. For the last eight years, many things have happened within the SOS camp. They did side projects outside the realm of rock n’ roll. They opened a recording studio above the sandy shores of Elyu. They even signed a brand new record deal, on James Reid’s Careless Music label, of all places. Somewhere in the middle of it all, after more than a decade of playing the same old song, they finally decided to fuck with the formula. 2020’s The Other Side saw SOS dabble with disco beats, synth layers, and a softer approach to their music. While a cynic can dismiss the EP as a mere experiment at a time where their guitar-based alt-rock would’ve felt out of place, it was otherwise a necessary shakeup in their musical palette. And now, with the addition of keyboardist Ram Alonzo into the lineup, SOS has turned the cozy, colorful landscape of The Other Side from a brief excursion to the first phase of an artistic evolution. You can hear them take the next few steps into this path on songs like “Roses”, a respectable synthwave track about trying not to ruin a new love affair, and “I’m Kidding,” an anthemic exercise in irony with a sing-along chorus about bottling yourself up and never saying what you really feel. After these two songs is the pensive elegy to lost youth that is “It’s History”, which also affirms you, the listener, that in spite of your failures, all of that is in the past and that you’re more than just your shortcomings. While these three songs showcase Seña’s eloquent way with words and imagery, musically, something is amiss. Despite superb performances by the band, held together by Anjo Silvoza’s melodic bass lines and drummer King Puentespina’s steady but dynamic drumming, these are moments in which SOS seem like they aren’t willing to change up their sound much. They feel more like a compromise between slightly less jagged guitars and marginally pop keys, ultimately stalling the record after the shot of adrenaline that is “Amore”. Where SOS really shines in this record is when they fully commit to challenging their artistic identity. A hi-hat-heavy drum machine and a floaty synth line welcome listeners to the smooth R&B number “French Exit”. Seña sounds so seductive and self-assured as he sings about a casual love affair and how he’ll leave a lover before they even know it, a far cry from the jittery expressions of 2017’s “Favoritism”. Meanwhile, on “Money,” a rigid but groovy electro-funk beat coexists with frustrations toward someone else’s attitude towards money, especially when Seña talks about the frustrations of being a musician in today’s economy. While the song is sullied a bit by his overzealous vocals, it offers an otherwise noteworthy insight on being a struggling artist today. These two songs highlight SOS’ potential in holding their own across other genres, reaping the rewards of their expeditions outside the band’s walls. The back half of It Was A Moment, then, is further proof of how far SOS can break the lyrical and sonic barriers that have been placed against them. For one, “Please Lang” and “Seryoso,” the band’s first Filipino songs, show Seña successfully making his ramblings shine in our own language, his acerbic tongue more potent than ever as the Taglish words help him convey the strongest emotions in the simplest of words. Meanwhile, the remaining three songs give us a vision of what a fully-electronic SOS could sound like. Two of these, “Yumi & The Apocalypse” and “Love Kept Us Warm,” show two sides of a doomed relationship: wistful hopelessness faces off against cautious optimism in an atmosphere of sparkling keys, unrelenting drum patterns, irresistible chord progressions, and even a fadeout that’s delightfully-’80s. The title track that closes the album sees the band complete their transformation from guitar heroes to electro-pop stars through a moody number on the end of a relationship that should’ve been taken seriously. Regret permeates the song’s sparse instrumentation that recreates the lightheaded feeling of being alone with one too many drinks, the bridge even introducing chopped-up vocal samples straight out of mid-2010s Tumblr. However, it feels as though there’s more to this than meets the eye, with all the talk about phases and the references
TRACK REVIEW: sumther – forget
Written by Elijah P. sumther’s latest track “forget” sounds like the best kind of house party—the one that spills from a cramped Tomas Morato club into school hallways and basketball courts, chasing sunrise with reckless abandon. Known for his intimate plugg experiments, the artist sheds his bedroom producer skin here, embracing a bigger, brasher sound that crackles with the energy of someone discovering their voice at just the right moment. Where his earlier Soundcloud loosies reveled in microgenre nuances, “forget” plays like a manifesto. sumther was trading pluggnb’s melancholy for a swaggering, synth-drenched anthem about moving on (but only after one last dance). The genius lies in its duality: it’s a breakup song disguised as a party starter, with lyrics that sting even as the 808s and the piano lines dare you not to move. The production expands his world beyond sub-bass corners. Snares and synths ricochet like sneakers on gym floors, melodies shimmer like spilled vodka under strobe lights, and sumther’s delivery—part-sung, part-rapped—carries the giddy exhaustion of someone who’s stayed up too late feeling everything at once. It’s a coming-of-age moment bottled in two-and-a-half minutes: proof that his knack for earworm hooks (that chorus lingers like next-day confetti in your hair) could propel him from niche favorite to undeniable mainstay. If this is sumther unchained, imagine what’s next. SUPPORT THE ART AND THE ARTIST:
TRACK REVIEW: Zack Tabudlo – Diving
Written by Gabriel Bagahansol For a while, it seemed as though Zack Tabudlo’s stardom would go on forever. His style of charming pop and R&B tracks dominated the airwaves as the nation shifted back to normalcy from the pandemic, an imperial phase helped by the fact that he would constantly put music out, dropping a new single or album every few months. Lately, though, he couldn’t seem to land a hit song as easily as he used to. His star has been slowing down, and so has his output: he only released four singles last year. But after keeping a relatively low profile for the last few months, Zack is back, and upon brokering a deal with an American record label, it looks as though he’s taking a shot at a big comeback. And just like how it was a couple of years back, he didn’t waste any time. He’s got a new song out. Some might think that Diving sounds just like any other R&B track you can find at one of many chill playlists at your local streaming platform, but this does have enough of that Zack Tabudlo magic that they should probably pay attention to this one. Here, that magic is at its best; you got everything you’ve come to expect from his music, from his vocal melodies and the guitar lines that complement it to his soulful vocal range that goes all the way to an enchanting falsetto (which only shows up once in this song), to his lyrical mastery with the subject of love, which in this case is the tried-and-true topic of obsessive frustration over someone who’s love may not be true at all. It all comes together to form that kind of pop music realism that’ll make you believe this guy is riddled with jealousy and heartbreak and couldn’t snap out of it. As far as heart-rending songs of woefully unrequited love go, this hits all the right spots. While Diving may find itself lost in the shuffle of newer, shinier releases, it has, at least, enough defining qualities to make for a unique listening experience should it find its way to you. Play this a bunch of times and you’ll be reminded of just how good Zack Tabudlo’s music was when you had his music on a loop a few years ago, or caught it at a mall or the radio or TikTok. Will this song immediately help him set the world on fire again? Probably not. But it’s intriguing enough that once it gets pushed to a streaming service playlist in America, someone out there could hear and enjoy it to the point where they’ll soon find themselves diving into a whole world of music they’ve been missing out on. SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST:
TRACK REVIEW: Fresh-iLL Club – INYAFACE
Written by Gabriel Bagahansol At last, P-Pop is huge. Ever since the genre’s explosion in popularity last year, more and more people are now finally noticing the pop groups that have been honing their craft as trainees in the entertainment industry over the last few years. But amidst the highly engineered careers of today’s Filipino boybands, there is still room for boybands of a different kind: one informed by a commitment to make art on their own terms. Fresh-iLL Club is one of these kinds of acts: the hip-hop collective with the mentality of a bonafide unit. Groups like them have the ability to mix their brash attitude, street cred, and blaring beats with the inviting excitement of pop and R&B, and after giving a taste of their sound with a bunch of singles throughout 2024, they close out the year with “INYAFACE” – a track that really sums up what they have to offer now and in the future. On “INYAFACE”, you hear everything you’d come to expect from a hip-hop group with boyband ambitions: cool, braggadocious verses, with some passionate singing for the bridge, delivered to you in smooth, dynamic flows over a siren-beat that never relents. Though in this case, the latter comes off just a little bit tame. Its ferocity is slightly diminished by a mix that dulls the song with a dollop of bass in the wrong place. However, everything else about the beat works. It allows Fresh-iLL Club to be laid back in their delivery, only going full-throttle when they need to. In the middle of the track, members Sebastian Kidd and D.Vaughn spit rapid-fire lines on just how far the group has come to this point, how dedicated they are to their craft, and how the group will become, in Vaughn’s words, “the face of hip-hop.” It’s the perfect segue to a stunning bridge where Vic Olive reanimates prime Bearface (in the grand tradition of hip-hop boybands channeling their inner BROCKHAMPTON) to brag about the collective aura all seven of them have as FC. It’s clear that Fresh-iLL Club wants to take over the scene. Like with every other future superstar, their ambitions come alive in this track, urgency weaving across the music and the words. You must pay attention. While parts of the track indicate their journey to the top is still ongoing, especially when they’re treading the ground their predecessors ran, the future is nevertheless bright for these boys, who may just stand a chance as they go into the new year. They just need to keep reaching their potential until, one day, FC will be on all y’all’s faces. Support the art & the artist:
ALBUM REVIEW: Yorko – where the sky meets the sea
Written by Faye Allego Yorko’s virtuosic talent for Hip Hop and R&B shines in “Where The Sky Meets The Sea” as he opens up without fear of getting introspective in his songs; songs that took four years to make it into the final cut and four years to mark his first entry under LIAB studios. The rollout of this album in terms of aesthetics was done in a way that genuinely highlights the ebb and flow of Yorko’s vulnerability: his journal entries published across his social media pages, the scenic imagery only paired with the color hues of the sky, and the impeccable album artwork and layout done by GRAVER, Zeon Gomez, @aleng_lukresya, jadetonicc, @_niel4tienz4, and @skm2_ct have all sculpted and mended Yorko’s visions into a short anthology of memories written from the depths of Cloud 9. In his sophomore album, Yorko, who also goes under the alias Blimp Shady, takes the listener down a rather silky road with his sleek rhymes and rhythms in “Descent” followed by “Nimbus” and “Surf” which encapsulate certain Cyber R&B beats you’d expect to hear in a Blade Runner 2049 action sequence or in a niche Vaporwave Lofi Rap mixtape. In Horizon, Yorko reflects on the imbalances and harmony of life: ‘there’s more to life above the clouds/ there’s more to death beneath the ground/ take a dive headfirst/take the pain, feel the hurt/ ‘til you feel nothing no more’ these antheses with philosophical undertones become profound as Yorko takes what feels like a modern day Parable-of-Job-like approach to his storytelling. Juxtapositions that seep through the philosophical themes of the album are also emulsified in the pre/post break-up banger that is m.i.a. featuring SHNTI. Production-wise, Kashira changes the game for the DIY rap scene. You can press play throughout any time frame of this album and won’t find yourself fidgeting with the volume buttons of your device. Various influences and sonic textures from the West Coast Rap scene can definitely be heard in Where The Sun Meets the Sky, making it a flavorful homage to the entire genre itself and it’s not taking from the original and replicating it haphazardly. However, though the originality shines through, there is an inkling of that replication hazard getting in the way when you get to tracks like Ducktales, which utilises synth waves and ad libs that don’t add on to that theme of introspection and aren’t exactly elusive to hear within this genre. Overall, this album is essentially a deep-dive into Yorko’s inner sea of confusion and takes the listener for a swim back to the shore, shining under the sun with all the glistening hopes that come out of surpassing hardship all with the dreamy atmosphere engineered into the beat. Support the art and the artist:
ALBUM REVIEW: LUSTBASS – inner space
Written by Anika Maculangan Having been in the game for a while, LUSTBASS delivers new intonations of soulful jazz and R&B modulations into the sphere of what is contemporary in style. A proclamation of lush beats, innerspace is the conglomeration of fruitful collaborations amongst the artist himself with other seminal artists like Jess Connelly, Jason Dhakal, Fern., Cavill, RJ Pineda, Waiian, Akio Rene, Nicole Anjela, and ((( O ))). Just when summer has ended, it makes us anticipate the next one even more, with this relaxed, beachy, and casual expression of sound. Effortless, wavy, and adjacent to chillwave, LUSTBASS explores the multitude of areas that the downward tempo scale of pop can encapsulate, if done right. With its easy-going, almost nonchalant ambiance, innerspace is a composed way of merging the stoical with the serene, in a more or less, leisurely mellowness. Known for his keen, cutting-edge approach to the assembly of rhythm, LUSTBASS best demonstrates this skill in this motley of modish, sophisticated indication of experience and background of joint teamwork with other fellow artists. Some tracks are more atmospheric than others like Yeyuhh, the album is transcendental in the sense that it touches every ounce of one’s attention to notation. Motioning from one switch to the next, the songs in this collection flow with immeasurable poise and flair. Not often are producers given the full stage in most cases of how we laud them in the Philippine context, but in the case of LUSTBASS, this awareness of the man behind is well apparent. In LUSTBASS’ signature polishness, it’s swift for one to recognize LUSTBASS’ appeal to reverberation from a mile away. In addition, the vocalists he collaborates with in this album, bring out even more, the smoothness of his instrumentals. Having previously collaborated with some of these artists LUSTBASS displays his propensity to apply his personal touch in all of his projects — a sharp, crisp, melodious harmony of percussion and refined grandeur. This album comprises tracks that anyone could bring with them to a vacation, and not regret it, because it’s a concise dash of opulence that is not too pronounced but just the right amount to make the sky appear broader. Brightly colored, like fresh tangerine or sand along the coastline, LUSTBASS has a certain character to his musicality, that is funky, fun, and vibrant. It instantly brings us to our feet and makes us want to start the day with an uplifting temperament. If only we could make LUSTBASS’ interspace our alarm sound to waking up every morning — so that we’d be more energized to jump back into productivity. Support the art & artist:
ALBUM REVIEW: Sica – GO SEE GOD
Written by Elijah P. On “Go See God”, Sica’s faith and love for the game are at a crossroads. Tip-toeing between fame, personal growth, the trust between family and their cohorts, and the community unfolding before his very eyes. At his expense, this is a result of Sica contemplating his own position as a family man, as a businessman and as a performer. It’s one responsibility after the other, ultimately leaving all the decision-making to the high almighty himself, the central figure of the entire project. “Go See God” sees itself trying to reach a higher state, quite literally reaching billboard status, where the hemispheres of heaven are at the reach of his fingertips. Resulting in a divine intervention of events that led him to where he is today. It’s a lot to absorb and you may find it anywhere in any hip-hop project. However, “Go See God” is different in the extent of the scene today – It doesn’t flex, it improves. It’s not just “chill” for the sake of a mood algorithm. It elevates the story to different heights. The production on the one hand carries heavily. It’s told through experiments of contemporary r&b, hypnotizing passages of phonk and psychedelia, and full band live setups: a full-length record where the sonic and production choices shine through. In previous releases, the Greenhouse Records and Kartellem affiliate has always stayed sonically dormant early on in his career. Bonus track closer “Opmat” featuring Waiian bookends and at the same time starts the album in a loop proving everyone wrong mood-wise. “Hue For Ya” was a colorful, icy-cold taste test, “Go See God” was the full course. Going by the monikers “Baby Blu” and “Prettyboypacino”, he lives the life with the chalice on the one hand and a hundred bands on the other, proving that living the fast life could lead you to the grave in “Intro”; “Bukas Pa” grooves in hopes for living another day; the title track “Go See God” rides through the clouds under the influence of phonk and a tasteful string section; “Young Stunna Inalude” eases its way in boom-bap; album highlights “Bad to the Bone” and “25 (Still Alive)” exemplifies the range of Sica’s crooning and strong hook game. After sitting 36 minutes throughout the dark of its after-hours, Sica hopes that everyone listening would be praying for his soul. He himself would testify that he isn’t alone in the journey at night. “Go See God” is a redemption arc in his story, this is an address to his younger self: “Hindi ako matakot mamatay/ Takot ako kung san ako pupunta/ But fuck it baby, we still alive/ At bahala na kung ako ang mauuna”. Support the art & the artist:
ALBUM REVIEW: crwn – Séance
Written by Louis Pelingen Sometimes, it takes a while for an act to put out their debut record. Case in point, King Puentesmina – also known as crwn – has been a veteran within the local music scene. He is known not just for his ability as a drummer of SOS, but also as a producer and songwriter in his own right. Building up his portfolio under the crwn alias since 2013, carving his identity as a producer whose ability towards crafting beats with soulful textures and enough melodic space for everyone willing to swing by and contribute their vocals on his well-crafted instrumentals. This allowed him to collaborate with numerous artists throughout the years, which only allowed him to expand his open space in creating beats that slot within other genres and is an opportunity to continue refining his skill as a producer – improving upon the textures and the melodies that he has shaped. Since then, he has gotten more acclaim and recognition as a producer, and his production credits have only gotten bigger and bigger, yet it will take a while for a debut album to eventually manifest, up until this year. Séance is the long-awaited debut album that crwn has been working on for 5 years ever since he put out his Orchid beat tape back in 2018, pulling together an assortment of flavorful instrumentals with a full stack of collaborators pulling up vocal melodies within these diverse dance-ready beats. It’s essentially a project that places crwn as the producer who’s able to bring these old and new collaborators together and nestle them to his crafted beats that showcase how much he has gotten better as a producer for a long time. His attention to texture has only gotten fuller and warmer, his attention to mixing is consistent – never taking the clear scope of the vocals and instrumentation, and his melodic sensibilities have excelled – always making the grooves as sharp as they can get. Given the feature-heavy element on the album, there is the looming question of how much these collaborators will be able to stick the landing – whether that be the long-familiar collaborators such as Jess Connelly, August Wahh, and Curtismith, or the more recent collaborators such as LONER, Jolianne, and TALA – fortunately, for the most part, they do manage to aim high. Their writing manages to consistently stay within the simple themes of longing romance and their vocal performances do manage to shine within crwn’s production palette, eventually leading to quality spilling forth. The drum and bass splash of ‘Good Enough’ where Jason Dhakal’s silky vocal touch ups works for the frustrated relationship exit that the song aims for, The 80s house tune of ‘Wish It Never Ends’ where Olympia’s hushed delivery creates a romantic allure in the dancefloor – a characteristic that’s clearly reminiscent of Jessie Ware in a positive way, the bouncy groove of ‘Honey’ that has enough striking melody and space for August Wahh to rap and sing about needing that passionate intimacy with an assured confidence, the slow-building electronica of ‘Waiting For You’ with its buzzier synth melodies, shuffling drum patterns, and acoustic strums that overall coalesce for LONER’s longing delivery for the need to communication to connect through, and the emotive, dreamy melodic swells of ‘Dreaming Of You’ from TALA’s soothing vocals and shuffling instrumentation that ramps up to the potent hook does manage to work, especially with the song trying to put a semblance of comfort towards how love heals and changes people. And while the album is certainly consistently well-produced and put together, it doesn’t always go all the way to the top, mostly due to two things. The small quibbles in certain songs where are certain elements that could’ve been tweaked better: the lyrical flair on ‘Rooftops In Paris’ where Curtismith’s flexing doesn’t carry as much resonance and can be quite disconnected amidst the other songs that touch upon the yearnings or frustrations within relationships, the hook on ‘Another Day’ that can sound quite clunky despite Jolianne’s jumpy vocalisations really giving her all to make it stand out, and the fleeting immediacy of ‘Feel Something’ that could’ve fleshed out a little bit more given how Nadine Lustre’s breathy vocals and the overall melody of the song does come out pretty good. Then there are the big ones that hamper the album back. The shaky momentum where after ‘Wish It Never Ends’, the album structure starts to become more languid, with certain songs such as the pure instrumental ‘Ouroboros’ really putting a dent in the momentum moving forward. But there is also the overall sound that crwn favors to create in the record, full of UK Garage, Drum and Bass, and House elements that he does manage to pull off extremely well, but not exactly in a way that’s remarkable as he could’ve added intriguing ideas within these beats that could allow these already good tracks become spectacular. But as a debut project that crwn perceives as an updated version of his style of production since Orchid, Séance does deliver in that assessment as his ability in putting together melodies, textures, and genre variations has improved, allowing his collaborators to give really good performances within these collection of instrumentals. At the same time, certain issues does take away the sparking flair that the album mostly has, eventually resulting in the project not as striking as it should’ve been. Despite the waning structure, this séance is still able to successfully communicate to the spirits, letting everybody’s sense of yearning keep on growing deeper. Support the art and the artist: