CD Review 01 Ultraelectromagnetic jam

ultraelectromagneticjam
Various Artists

Prologue

And so I ditched the corporate Christmas party
to see Pigs With Pearls' concert at Robinsons
Pioneer. They have an album out and it is
distributed by EMI Records. Pigs With Pearls
is the first local band I heard over Against
the Flow. Tight, tight set. Although I'm really
not into old school rock, I really appreciated the
over the top musicianship and the great sound mix.
Then I went to Tower Records in Megamall.

Review
It's been a great year for local bands and I wish
it would go on like this forever. We are currently
experiencing the second wave of the Great Local Band
Takeover, the first of which happened a decade ago.
What a perfect moment to pay tribute to the band who
started it all.

I was rather disappointed with the CD's opening tracks,
it was a substandard interpretation of Eraserheads' most
famous songs, Magasin and Alapaap. Ney Dimaculangan
(of 6 Cycle Mind) and Paolo Santos, with their limited
vocal range didn't do much justice with the songs. Even
Chuck Isidro simplified the guitar parts for Alapaap,
settling for a slacker strum on the verses (ganda ng
plucking nun sa original bakit di mo ginawa?). And that
guitar solo didn't quite fit there. It was a far cry from
his golden days in After Image. Paolo's Cradle (hehe, he
was backed up by Barbie's original band members) have to
enhance his voice with reverbs during the falsetto parts
in Magasin. It was a mellowed down version of that
centerfold anthem mainly because they used acoustic guitars.
Afterall he is Mr. Acoustic, right?

Francism did a rockin' version of Superproxy and made the
DJ busy with his turntables. Ely Buendia even made a
surprise appearance in this track. Things get better on the
next song with Orange and Lemons doing Huwag Kang Matakot
adding a sampling of Tikman and Julie Tearjerky on the
latter part. Other standout tracks are the ska version of
Maling Akala by Brownman Revival and Alcohol by Radio-
active Sago Project. Their frontman is really an off-key
singer, even his spoken word parts lack the vocal dynamism
we should expect from a singer but since their music is
way original from the other bands, they deserve our attention.
Rico J. Puno's Ang Huling El Bimbo is good too.

Some worthy tracks are Spoliarium by Imago and Huwag mo
nang Itanong by MYMP. No thanks to Cueshe and Sponge
Cola.

This album is currently number one on the Tower Records
list and is really worth your money. If you're a big Eraserheads
fan, this is really for keeps.