Putik sa inuming tubig.

Dalawang-sampung tao na puno ng pagtitimpi
Hindi lubos maisip, hindi rin mawari
Sa puso at isipan pansing may bumabalot
Dahan-dahang pag-usbong ng tahimik na sigalot

Bulong niya rito, bulong niya rin doon
Salitang matatalim pabayang itinatapon
Hinugis, itinanim, kinalat nang biglaan
Kanya palang pintas ay kanya mismong kasalanan

Pinunong naturingan ayon sa antas
Nakikipaligsahan sa paraan ng isang ahas
Ngunit kahit sino'y 'di malilinlang
Magtago man sa maskara, kulay mo'y lulutang


_

Malipaca

i For An Eye Films [2011]
Videos, music & image by Rob Equiza

Album Review: Incubus - If Not Now, When?

It's official. Incubus has a pop album.

Well not exactly pop but more of a pop-rock mid-tempo set of songs. 'If Not Now, When?' starts fresh with an 80s feel with the title track. It then proceeds to 'Promises Promises', a sort of groupie-point-of-view song. From there, they basically stay on the same road, not steering much with every tune they present. The melodies are catchy & the music backs them up tightly. Good songs actually make up the whole record. Good, but not necessarily great.

If you've been following the band since the beginning (or at least the middle) of their career, you would know that they are one of those few bands that show growth & evolution through their albums. A group that has a conscious effort to not repeat what they have done in the past as much as possible.

'Fungus Amongus' was full-on funk.
'S.C.I.E.N.C.E.' was funk/rap-metal.
'Make Yourself' was nu-metal.
'Morning View' was modern metal-alternative.
'A Crow Left Of The Murder' was hard rock (& the peak of their greatness).
'Light Grenades' was scattered-modern rock.

With 'If Not Now, When?', they chose to reinvent again & leave their comfort zones more than ever. Chris Kilmore, their previous DJ, fully takes on the role of the keyboard player. Guitarist Mike Einziger steps back, avoiding the flashy riffs & leads. Drummer Jose Pasillas applies a more-bassy sound, forgoing with his signature treble-laden pounding which works well with Ben Kenney's bass-playing. And the fact is that it all works well & perfect. The whole machinery is cool & smooth.

However, it does not offer anything new. It may be new to Incubus but it's a territory that many musicians have been on before. Einziger might try out a Radiohead-like tone here & there or employ 80s riffs on 2 songs but it's nowhere near groundbreaking. As for vocalist/lyricist Brandon Boyd's themes, it still has that poetic attitude. However, like in the previous album, the themes that surround the tracks are mostly about romance. He is more convincing delivering lines with depth. Here he is almost comparable to younger lovelorn singers. The good news is that he sounds less annoying here than on his emo-like takes on Light Grenades. Although the 'ooohs' & 'aahs' he's too comfortable executing sometimes seems off. He unfortunately was not able to fully-adapt to the new genre they decide to take on.

The album is not 100% mid-tempo. There's the lead single 'Adolescents' which is formulaic Incubus & the fast-paced 'Switchblade' which really is a sore-thumb. The most redeeming part of the whole record though is the 2nd part of 'In the Company of Wolves'. The first part sounds like it was written by either Coldplay or Band Of Horses. But it sublimes into a weird & dreamy tune ala-Massive Attack. It's the most space-floating moment you'll get in this 50- minute ride.

In conclusion, Incubus avoided taking risks but by doing that, they took a huge risk at the same time. It's a paradox that, if given enough thought, actually holds true. The risk is losing a large part of their fan base who were too familiar with their previous aggressive & brash music. The not-taking-risks on the other hand is delivering an album full of forgettable hits; songs that may be catchy at first but melt away too easily. Whether they intentionally want to mess with people's minds or not by offering average music, they undoubtedly seem uninspired. Musicians have to be judged by music anyway. Theirs today is sedated - an inkling of what they can do as a powerful band. Better luck next time.

And how do you make sense of it?

10 FAVORITE FILIPINO ROCK & FOLK SONGS

When a friend asked me what my Top 10 Favorite OPM Rock Songs are, I was taken aback. My elementary years were surrounded by the smooth jazz & ballad cassette tapes that my father would always play on our Astron single-huge-speaker 'karaoke'. During highschool, the limited availability of music in the province exposed me to pop & boybands on MTV. I was infatuated. In hindsight, I think I shouldn't have been too stubborn & instead adapted to my older brother's love for alternative songs. It wasn't until college when I learned to appreciate what I thought was noise before. After a brief fling with hip-hop & modern RnB, it was in the 2000s when I got engaged to rock. The bridge in my case were rap-metal, alternative & OPM rock (Original Pinoy Music). Now I am married to the heart, veins, brain & soul of rock music - along with its feet, limbs, fingers or what-have-you. (I do of course also have never-ending affairs with jazz & classical plus some flirtation with pop from time to time).

I'll be honest. I'm not a big fan of our own mainstream music. For me, most kinds of our country's music were patterned after whatever current global music is famous at the time. If I had to pick the real original music of our country, it would be the ethnic ones.

Having said that, my not-too-deep knowledge of & aloofness from OPM are huge reasons why this list was a personal challenge.

After 5 hours of picking my brain, here's what I've come up with.
(These are in chronological order with regards to the year of release.)
(Click on the title to download song.)


ASIN - Balita
[Masdan mo ang Kapaligiran, 1978]

'Pinoy progressive music', as what our communist-thinking countrymen call it, is a genre of Filipino folk music that proliferated during the Martial Law Era. Until today, songs from that genre are still the most poetic to come out of OPM. I consider ASIN as the best among the early folk bands and this track describes the sad state of the nation during that period.


The Dawn - Enveloped Ideas
[S/T, 1987]

When New Wave & Post-Punk peaked in the 80s, it was inevitable for the Pinoys to ride the wagon. One of its offsprings, The Dawn presented this anthemic youth-relatable song. They were the U2 of our country.


Gary Granada - Bahay
[Pagsamba at Pakikibaka 1989]

Joey Ayala at ang Bagong Lumad - Walang Hanggang Paalam
[Magkabilaan, 1991]

Granada & Ayala were part of my childhood. At one point, my father & his friends were big fans so naturally me & my brothers got familiarized with their music. I consider these two as musical geniuses. 'Bahay' by the former (also a part of the underground artists during the Marcos era) is a beautifully-written folk song that tackles poverty. 'Walang Hanggang Paalam' by the latter is a folk love tune with a warm melancholic melody that melts hearts.


Yano - Banal Na Aso, Santong Kabayo
[S/T, 1994]

Essentialy a bare punk rock duo, Yano was a great socio-political outfit that had a solid debut album. Abay's brave preaching words (sometimes sarcastic, sometimes direct) blended sweetly with Gancio's riffs and sweet leads. Simply put, this track defined their music.


Eraserheads - Spoliarium
[Sticker Happy, 1997]

Pop-rockers Eraserheads had great songs under their belt but it was this song that opened up a whole new world for me when I first heard it. Its sound & dream-like phrases hooked me.


Radioactive Sago Project - Gusto Ko Ng Baboy
[S/T, 2000]

In college, I was trying out all kinds of music. RSP was different. Jazz-rock wasn't something no other bands play. 'Baboy' starts out as a story of a kid's obsession with pigs until he becomes a man & realizes that everywhere he looks, swine can be found in humans. This song is a parade of spoken-word horn-laden monster of a rant. A true gem.


Imago - Rainsong
[Probably Not But Most Definitely, 2001]

Before they wrote mediocre songs, Imago was an ethnic-rock band with their debut album produced by the great Bob Aves himself. Rainsong is water that wets the ears with its cool sound & unintelligible chanted melodies.
[Note: The download link only offers the remixed version.]


Orange & Lemons - Hanggang Kailan (Umuwi Ka Na Baby)
[Strike Whilst The Iron Is Hot, 2005]

Forget about how this band aped Care's "Chandeliers" with their "Pinoy Ako" (& how they denied it thinking everyone is stupid to believe them). Despite their arrogance, 'Hanggang Kailan' is a timeless love song that I'm sure even my grandkids would not be able to resist.


Rico Blanco - Yugto
[Your Universe, 2008]

Epic.
The only reason why I don't have Rivermaya on this list is because I consider this to be the best Filipino song ever written. When Blanco left his band of 14 years, it only took him a year to break the silence and release his first solo album. Although the outcome basically consisted of pop songs & ballads, 'Yugto' stands out with its deep lyrics, sprawling inventiveness & extensive use of instruments.

Settling Dusk, Pretty Lights & The Breaking of the Night

One little thing is usually harmless. Hundreds of that can be destructive.

Louie Rosales reviews Freeradio's D.E.A.F.

The following is a review of our EP written by a friend & fellow independent musician.

______

At present—an age dominated by K-Pop, autotune pop, and skank pop—it’s not impossible that somewhere someone might sometimes wish he’d rather be deaf. If you are this frustrated someone, listen to DEAF.

Freeradio’s new independent EP kicks off promisingly with the grungy track Deny Me. With an opening riff that declares it is a raw subterranean band you’re listening to (not one of the squeaky clean rock bunch floating in the polluted mainstream) it allows you, right from the get go, to get warmed up for the next song—Emergency, during which you’ll most probably be doing the almost lost art of head-banging.

Emergency, however, seems to be the single misleading song in the record. The opening riff, like the previous song’s, is a clever hook, but as the singer deviates from his usual singing style (he sounds, for the first time ever, like he’s intoxicated; yet effectively conveys the mood of the song) you may need some time to get used to the vocals, or it might fool you into thinking that Freeradio is an unsophisticated garage band. While this song isn’t the most beautiful one in the EP, it has at least the most energetic chorus. Not necessarily great, but just plain hyper fun. Imagine yourself in a small jam-packed music club in the early 90’s, listening to a band rocking out with a drunk front man; Emergency is the song the band is playing. You start to lose yourself and a riot starts. The lead singer’s sings out: settle down, settle down...

And settle down indeed: easily outshining Emergency is the next track, Arms Around—the sort of rock song that starts seemingly tame and ignites with a chorus that oozes through the soul at first emergence.

Forever in the dark and always praying...
The load upon your back won't keep you kneeling...

Had this been released during the early 90’s, this song would have been huge, instantly. Incredibly, this probably isn’t going to be the record’s biggest hit—due to the EP’s epic finale:

Falls Free.

Opening with a melodic female moan, the song churns flaming (but not excessively flashy) guitar work with weighty, unpretentious words into one lingering rock masterwork. Now forget about 90’s semblance; as far as Falls Free is concerned, this EP is timeless.

One might fancy that the gods of rock must have head-banged excessively back in the rock heydays and created a massive dent in the time-space continuum causing four mighty fine songs to swerve and leap from the glorious past directly to the dreary future. But no, this gem comes from present day Calbayog, Philippines.

Track after track, DEAF’s quality goes nowhere but up, Falls Free being the cathartic peak; a tight record with an intentional lo-fi approach, a sublimated dirty finger in the face of generic/autotune-loving freaks.

______

You can download 'D.E.A.F.' here: http://bit.ly/gbKE8q
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Last Night in America

Over distant winds I am a feather that floats
Rising and falling towards a land that waits
The streets are humming coldly from it's lonely weary throat
I let the clouds grab me to get me back in place

I'm a branch traveling slowly on the current of time
Delivered by deafeaning howls of a moon that's out of sight
The air that moves around me dethrone the big blue sky
And makes this wood invisible to morning & to night

Deep as forests, steep as those hills
Clear as water, hours will fulfill
A rooted longing that never has expired
To lie in the heart and flesh of my city with my breath open wide

__

The April Showers

April 4, 2011


It’s a dark afternoon.
War is happening.
Everyone around me is being shot by machine guns. Some try to fire back but die anyway.
I am unarmed. Large beat-down walls surround me and I am at the center of it all.
Bullets fly in all directions. I run as fast as I can and reach a street that no one seems to cover.
I see my brother inside a tree trunk. He lets me inside and I duck as he stands on top to guard me.

It is night and I arrive at a rebel camp where two of my friends are there.
The old woman tells me that the baby in the crib is mine.
I tell her it’s not as my wife is at home and she is just pregnant.
They all insist that I am the father and as I go nearer to the child, I increasingly get scared.
An eerie orchestral music plays along.
I wake up but it still plays.
I turn off the radio and make a sign of the cross.

__

When we die, we wake up.

Strange & weird.

Bitter but beautiful.

Shallow yet deep.

Each life is merely a dream.

Let us learn as much as we can.

Rev 2.10-11

"But do not fear what you are about to suffer. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death."

The Culture of Competition

There’s something really disturbing about this concept of “winning”. Everyone seems to want to be always on top of everybody else. There’s nothing wrong with trying to improve yourself and attempting to achieve the highest standards; but when it comes to a point when the drive makes you step on other people and make them feel inferior, it just gets out of hand.

See, the current understanding of winning is actually a product of two deadly sins: (1) Pride – the opposite of humility and (2) Envy – the opposite of contentment. We, as humans, have always relied on our intelligence to outlast other species. However, ruling over lands, seas and air did not stop us from continuing our hunger for domination that even among our kind we want to be the ones regarded as the highest.

Anywhere we go, we are in competition. In games, even when it gets personal, we still consider it sports. In work & government, we call it politics. In school, we call it academic excellence. There’s sibling rivalry with a brother or a sister. There’s the need for approval from a parent. There’s the hate-and-love relationship with a best-friend. And don’t forget the passive-aggression and hidden self-pity of being the less-successful spouse. These are unnecessary baggage. Even contests are based on popularity and are, more often than not, decided upon by not-so-deserving judges thus resulting in non-reliable outcomes.

So what do we want to achieve by winning?
Respect? Or money & bragging rights?

What do we get from being cut-throat competitive?
Mastery in that field? Or figured-out cheats just to get the prize?

More importantly, do we know how to handle either fame or oblivion?

We are too bothered by the blessings others receive that we forget the ones we have. Like DNA, every single human being has a different set of achievements in one way or another.

Let me make it clear that I am as guilty as my nearest neighbour; lest I be accused of hypocrisy. But awareness is the beginning of enlightenment. I do not want to hide my inner demons for doing such will only make it stronger until it eats me up.

What I want to lay down the table is the sad fact that society is too absorbed in unhealthy competition. Almost everyone has the goal of becoming better than others. Maybe we should realize that our differences should not be regarded as destructive but rather something that creates harmony. Nature can attest to this if we look and listen closely. The moment we understand this, we will learn that there’s no such thing as winning and losing. It is only a matter of living together.

The Unheard Howls

MALLS.

For most, it's a nest to kill time;
a center to meet familiar faces;
maybe ease their hunger;
and sometimes pay for things they may or may not need.

To me it's a jungle.
An alternative to a handful of other places. Sure it makes lives easier and more convenient. But looking at hundreds of people all crammed into one building going into different directions makes the world seem more unorganized.

When I sit down (if I can even find a seat) and listen to the sounds from the distant corners of this entity, I find it deafening and even scary. It's a mixture of all the unheard howls & sighs of all the lonely souls gathering in a ceremony of keeping ourselves busy to forget our troubles.

I know this works to the advantage of demons that lurk. To divert our attention away from the spirit of nature; from silent conversations and steady hours.

The mall is a monster of a machine that rapidly eats away the simplicity of every city.

Make it stop.


______________________________________________________

[Image from the 1982 Warner Bros. Film 'Blade Runner']

All that glitters is not gold.

Take a song you like that has a video for it.

Think about the music without the suggested visuals.

Do you honestly suppose you would've liked it even if you weren't aware of the video?

These days, living in a world with easily accessible media makes most people prefer the eye-candy that accompanies a song rather than the sonic landscape itself - meant to be listened to. Not exactly seen.

Of course since the advent of the music video, we cannot deny the opportunities it created for musicians. It was an invitation to enter people's living rooms and present themselves as what they look like; specifically what they look like while moving. Concerts didn't stay true to the intended recorded versions. So MTV stepped in. All the pop stars & the rock stars joined the bandwagon (no pun intended). Then, as that one hit declared, 'Video killed the radio star'.

But the artist's looks, the antics, the fashion - are these big factors for us to appreciate the music? Are we too hungry for entertainment that we want it to be always maximized? Or are we just in touch with our literal vision that we always want everything to be associated with images? What if we're actually too lazy to separate them? Thus creating the dillema of judgment. Mediocrity concealed in sparkles. The ordinary masked as royalty. But as the old cliche goes, 'All that glitters is not gold'.

I think we are lazy. I believe we are. Otherwise, not too many stories have become comic books; not too many novels have become films; and not almost all popular songs have become music videos.

This is not to discount the beauty of visual arts. That's another subject. My point is we continue to abandon our imagination and leave it to the money-makers to feed theirs to us. So I would like you to try this: Go back & experience music the way it's supposed to be experienced - to the ears and straight to your brain (or heart, if you will).

I challenge you.


______________________________________________________

[Image from the 1968 MGM film '2001: A Space Odyssey']

Freeradio - Falls Free

From the 2011 EP 'D.E.A.F.'

Drums: Kiko Yman
Bass: Jorge Neri
Guitars: Royce Obong & Doi Allequir
Vocals Rob Equiza & Jesyle Yman

Freeradio - Yet (Again)

"The dead don't feel when the lights are on and you keep talking. Suddenly the window brings a breeze so cold, you feel old. And nothing lasts forever. And they're sending you away to a lonely place you never knew - until today. It's your release now you are paid. It's a disease yet to be named when the young believe that they are saved. As for me, I wear the cycle on my skin. The dead don't feel. But you see I'm old; and will you feel for me now? Forget the years we had. The troubles are at hand. It's your release now you are paid. It's a disease yet to be named when the young believe that they are saved. Open my hands, open my eyes. So this is how it feels to reach the last pages of your life. The final stages in your life. It's your release now you are paid. It's a disease yet to be named when the young believe that they are saved."

Step 1: Self-Awareness

'There are no vitamins in that junkfood, kid.'

Freeradio - Emergency

From the 2011 EP 'D.E.A.F.'

Drums: Kiko Yman
Bass: Jorge Neri
Guitars: Royce Obong & Doi Allequir
Vocals Rob Equiza