Written by Louis Pelingen & Elijah P.
In the Philippines, the 2000s is a decade filled with early technological booms with the Nokia phones and the internet; y2k fashion smacked on the pop glinting magazines, commercials, and internet forums; the trends that keep the 2000s kids enlightened from the likes of watching anime, playing pogs with their friends outside, or even blowing air in Gameboy cartridges and hoping they work once they’re inserted to the game device.
The prominent acoustic folk-pop and pop rock that took its upward swing in the 2000s may find its stems rooted tightly in that decade, but those growing up in that era as I do, may not remember the hits and the classics that folks born in the 90s have more resonance growing up. Perhaps, this is a normal occurrence as not everyone will find themselves immediately enraptured in the standouts that culminated in the decade they’re born in. But with time comes the appreciation of the past as people have their own way of preserving those cultural moments, sampling those songs into new mixes, covering them with a different kind of sonic and stylistic flair, or even just finding more discussions of those old projects in varying forms of internet shareability. There’s nostalgia for causes like promoting a product that evokes the feeling of the past and there’s nostalgia that would act as an open window to potential futures.
Fast forward to the now. Through Pikunin sampling Up Dharma Down’s Tadhana spliced into a low-key affectionate Jersey club track, Showtime Official Club’s mixes that intertwine the 2000s & 2010s local mainstream & homespun cuts into new dimensions of colorful dance tracks, and local music pages showcasing Kitchie Nadal on their charts which lead to me listening to other adjacent acts like Imago or Itchyworms. It’s safe to say that even if I may not remember what was going on much with local opm music in the 2000s, it still finds its way decades later for people who missed out to find a different kind of resonance while at the same time broadening possibilities of influence for the next generation to come.
To extend further, raccoon eyed ronan appraises and tweaks his own cover of MYMP’s “Kailan.” In MYMP’s original source, you can hear the spare grace of Chin Alcantara’s acoustic guitar and the soothing silk presence of Juris Fernandez. It’s a song filled with a shy push-and-pull, restrained towards the romance at bay, like a slow-burn romantic telenovela premiering in the 2000s. But raccoon eyed ronan is one that never seems to step into that restraint, in fact, he’s willing to at least push a little further but just enough to not break away the quaintness of the song. His crooning voice imbues a solemn tone, stirring the lyrics with a heap of smoke; the instrumentation, limiting itself to echoing feedback, raw guitar recordings, and spare drum machines lend a simmering atmosphere to the song as they shamble apart on the chorus and linger on the back half of the song. It coats the song with a different kind of flair, where instead of the original’s meekness that sticks true to adjacent folk pop cuts of its time, raccoon eyed ronan’s cover is rather melancholic and dreamy. Sticking true to the original’s quaint romantics, but still goes for broke enough to sound bigger.
It’s rare to find a cover that makes me reflect upon the faded memories I’ve had in the 2000s, but raccoon eyed ronan’s cover of MYMP’s “Kailan” with his own instrumental twists and sonic shifts just cuts through in a way that I did not expect. It pokes through the overall soft structure that made MYMP’s “Kailan” a standout in its heyday, but raccoon eyed ronan makes sure not to actually break it apart, just chip through the form in brief, but effectively emotive bits. I may have missed the music that ruled the 2000s, but that doesn’t mean there are no opportunities to make me find a new appreciation of that scene. And with this song, it’s a refreshing gem that will make you adore not just the already stunning original, but also the refreshing elements of this cover.
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