Piling up the (Philippine) Indie Landfill?

If Ian Urrutia of the blog site Vandals on the Wall is to be believed, 2012 marked the year in which aspiring tech savvy Filipino musicians discovered and uploaded their music on to Bandcamp. He provides compelling evidence for this by selecting from among them the top ten EPs and top sixty tracks for the year.

Considering the impressive collection assembled, a curious onlooker might conclude that the local independent music scene is vibrant and bursting at the seams. It is not just the volume but the breadth that strikes one when confronted with this cacophony of musical talent. And Ian does a fine job of establishing his hold on the jargon needed to review such work.

There is literally something for everyone’s musical palette and tastes. As the website boasts, whether it’s mainstream or independent, we surely got your music covered. Choice now seems to be endless, when it was not too long ago, that you could count with your fingers the number of acts that were genuinely into this type of music. The scene has indeed come a long way. The problem though is with this much on offer; a listener could get lazy, which perhaps creates a role for curators like Ian. The quality of their work could either help or hinder the cause.

Building Capacities with Armi Millare of Up Dharma Down

Image courtesy of Chico Limjap
at Chicolimjap.com

ca·pac·i·ty /kəˈpasitē/ n. pl. ca·pac·i·ties

1. The ability to receive, hold, or absorb.

2. The maximum amount that can be contained.

3. a. Ability to perform or produce; capability.

    b. The maximum or optimum amount that can be produced.

4. The power to learn or retain knowledge; mental ability.

5. Innate potential for growth, development, or accomplishment; faculty.

6. The quality of being suitable for or receptive to specified treatment.

7. The position in which one functions; role.

To these definitions, we can now add: title of the soon to be released and much anticipated third album of Up Dharma Down under Terno Recordings.

The Scenester’s chief contributor, Kristo Babbler recently “sat down” with Armi Millare, keyboards and lead vocals for Up Dharma Down to take stock of the band’s evolution to date, their creative process in the lead up to their third outing, and Armi’s personal journey all throughout. A rather revealing exchange ensued.

A-stigmatics, pare!

“Here’s a song, baby, and I sing it to you” goes the opening line of the opening track from Straight Down the Bitter End the freshman album of the concept band Stigmatics under Terno Recordings the indie outfit of Toti Dalmacion which is based in the Philippines (hence the flag in the photo).

The duo is comprised of Grandi0s0, musical alchemist who manages the instruments and vocalist funb0y. With a name like theirs, you truly wonder what sort of scars both psychological and spiritual they intend to expose. No wonder these evil geniuses prefer to use stagenames in lieu of their true identities.

Interview with a Yeti

Kristo Babbler "enters the cave" with Ponchie Buenavista to chat about his journey from a 90s era grunge band frontman to his current role as the chief composer behind the ambient rock group Encounters with a Yeti.

Kristo: It says in your band’s bio that Encounters was conceived in 1998 but was not formed until 2005. Why the long hiatus? What led to this extended hibernation?

Ponchie: I just indulged in the time-honoured, frowned-upon tradition of bumming around to find oneself, doing mind-numbing activities some of which I would not recommend. Also, all of us in EWAY were more or less focused on the more mundane but necessary aspects of life then. Since 1998, I had already been dabbling into instrumental music not because I intended to but because I couldn’t write decent enough lyrics to those compositions that I would consider worth listening to.

Time for some strange luvin’

                                          

It is not that hard to picture the lads of Dr StrangeLuv a band out of Laguna in the "greater"part of the Greater Manila Area, trudging along the terrain of their suburban environs like the mythological Sysyphus moving back and forth from home to school to mall to church and so on for all eternity. Sissypuss their debut album is no doubt inspired by such travails.

The duo comprised of the “obnoxious brothers” Grandioso and El Scum aka “the Ingenious Bastards” are the strangest thing to come out of Manila’s outer rim of late. It is out in suburbia where bands like this (Pavement that quintessential alternative rock band out of Stockton, California being a prime example), comprised of perfectly normal kids isolated from the city-center, with loads of time on their hands, are able to lazily stumble into a sound that teases out the mundaneness, absurdity and sinister aspects of middle class existence.