Rick's Records Episodes 1 & 2 My Filipino Punk Rock Records (video)

Episode 1 My Filipino Punk Rock 7-inch records (updated March 31, 2018)





Episode 2 My Filipino Punk Rock 12-inch records (updated March 31, 2018)

Got my ticket to Sandwich's 20th Anniversary concert.

The Boyfriends' two records.

Back in the 1970s, it seemed common for recording artists to release a couple of records in one calendar year. at least that is what happened in the case of Boyfriends and their fellow Bee Gees/swing/disco-inspired buddies, VST & Company who both released  pair of albums in one year. 

In the case of Boyfriends, they released Dahila Mahal Kita and With Love in the same year then never had another record. You'd think they do more since they produced a lot of hit singles. 

I do have their Greatest Hits that was issued in 2014 (I don't think they had the original analog tapes as source material). 

Whatever it is, I am just happy that I have their two records. 

What's left on my vinyl Bucket List?

When I started collecting vinyl records once more in January of 2017, I started out by simply trying to get my favorite records from my younger days. Not the entire collection of my youth as I do not think I will be able to get each one of those again especially in the near mint condition in which I kept them. I do take good care of my collections. I had a few records that survived my mom throwing them out through the years and the devastating pair of a flood and fire that destroyed much of my belongings.

Since the time I returned to collecting, I have gotten a lot of what I once had and then some. Many others though, I have not.

Surprisingly, I have not gotten any records from Men At Work, the Sex Pistols, Guns 'N' Roses, and perhaps most telling… Kiss, as they were my first ever favorite rock group. I can't put my finger on it -- did I outgrow them? Do I consider them unworthy in my collection? The former maybe it's a yes but to a point. The latter, no. Many of them I eventually got on compact disc so I will leave them at that. Now all my Kiss records from their debut up to Unmasked which is the last Kiss record I ever got were all US pressed and in near mint condition. I loved them as only a kid can. Nowadays, it is hard to find near mint copies as all my records were. If I do get any Kiss records they have to be in the same condition for me to fully appreciate. 

I think it's more that I am not as well off as many others so I pick and choose what I want in my collection. I am happy with a lot of what in my collection especially with the OPM stuff. There are a lot of others that I never will bother to get though. I like to think I have a streamlined and better curated collection that is even more eclectic than it ever was (although my compact disc collection of some 5,000 titles is even wider in range). 

What else am I looking for? Are there any more records from my youth that I am keen on bagging? Here are the last from my “Vinyl Bucket List” and mind you – original pressings and not re-issues.

Ocean Zoo’s 7-inch single

X-Mal Deutschland's "Incubus Succubus"

Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Exodus

X’s Under the Big Black Sun.

After that, I’ll just get a few more here and there but not too much. At this point, I am fine with what I have.

Australian label releases Filipina underground electronic artist Pamcy’s single on cassette

Australian label releases Filipina underground electronic artist Pamcy’s single on cassette

by rick olivares

Manila-based underground electronic artist Pamcy Fernandez has just had a couple of new songs released in an extremely limited Double A-side cassette titled Piso Isa by Australian label Healthy Tapes.

The songs, paeans to childhood candy (check out the deliciously titled “Goya Coin”), are wrapped in a danceable and carefree house style. It’s a concoction that works. You know how during the Holiday season you’re gifted with one of those chocolate boxes with a variety of flavors – every time you sink your teeth into each, it’s a different feast of flavor and delight.

Such is Piso Isa. And Pamcy, influenced by house producers Darius and Kartell from French label, Roche Musique, Disclosure and Lone from the United Kingdom, Cosmo’s Delight and Young Franco from Australia, Asian-American producers Yaeji and Qrion, and South Korean producers Deepshower and GiiAna, comes up with two winners in “Monami” and “Goy Coin” that sound familiar yet are refreshingly new. A new flavor, if you will.

Pamcy’s music was discovered when Lee Hannah of the Melbourne-based Healthy Tapes reached out to her through email. “I check my Soundcloud stats where most of my music is uploaded,” recounted Fernandez of how the cassette came about. “I noticed that a large chunk of my plays were outside the Philippines. When I released a track titled ‘25 and Dead Inside’, Lee contacted me and that’s how Piso Isa came about.”

“He contacted me towards the end of 2017 and I finished working on the project around ate January of this year,” added Pamcy who considers herself as an internet artists and to date has done a couple of live shows. “We decided to release this March just in time for summer. It happened very quickly and I don’t think this would have been possible without the internet.”

All of Healthy Tapes’ releases are in cassette and Piso Isa is the first non-Australian offering to be released by the label.

The cassette is released in extremely limited numbers and can only be ordered through Healthy Tapes’ website. The label also recently received some press for its release of stunning new talent Stella Donnelly wo has been hailed by the international music press as an artist to watch this year.

“When Lee told me he liked my demos, we decided to push through with releasing the single on cassette. I was really looking forward to release in cassette form because I remember buying a few cassettes myself when I was in elementary school.”

Fans can sample Pamcy Fernandez’ music on Soundcloud and Audiomack.

The new/old release from Staid and an upcoming one from Legarda

The Insektlife Cycle’s album to be released on vinyl by British label

The Insektlife Cycle: Nal Vivo, Jay Jumawan, Jay Legason, and Nel Vivo.

The Insektlife Cycle’s album to be released on vinyl by British label

by rick olivares

The Insektlife Cycle, a four-man psychedelic rock instrumental band, whose full length debut, Vivid Dreams Parade, was released late 2017 on British boutique label, Mega Dodo Records, will get the vinyl treatment later this year.

It is a significant achievement if not bittersweet one for this Manila-based band (Nel Vivo on guitars, Joy Legason on bass and vocals, Nal Vivo on drums, and Jay Jumawan on guitars) that has received more recognition abroad than locally.

The album, Vivid Dreams Parade, as a whole, captures your imagination. The cover features original art – an anthropomorphic stoner’s dream of moving forward while a hummingbird goes in the opposite direction that perhaps means the band is looking to its psychedelic influences in the midst of this psychedelic revival -- by Nal Vivo that reminds me of cartoonist Jeremy Bastian’s weird goodness on the Cursed Pirate Girl comics. It’s highly imaginative and intricate at the same time.

And the music mimics that creativity. Eleven songs that take King Crimson into the Queens of the Stone Age and is fine-tuned by the textured landscapes of Explosions in the Sky. The album is a joyous burst of emotion and endless possibilities in brilliant technicolor.

“Based on reviews coming from abroad, the response was very positive,” related Legason before the band’s show last Saturday night at Archipelago just outside El Pueblo in Pasig City. “And we were told that the stocks abroad have also sold out.”

However, getting a foreign release and contract abroad wasn’t easy. “We never considered a local release,” divulged Nal who constantly wrote a lot of labels whose catalogue would be a perfect fit for the Insektlife Cycle’s music. “We wanted to look beyond our shores.”

There were rejections but the persistence paid off. Vivid Dreams Parade was released on compact disc by the idiosyncratic Mega Dodo Records. And prior to that, the band was featured on a couple of split vinyl records – one with Swiss outfit Cold Bath and released by Fruits de Mer Records in England, and a four-way seven-inch extended play album with Jack Ellister, the Art of Memory Palace, and Cheval Sombre that was jointly put out once more by Fruits De Mer Records along with Regal Crabomophone and Static Caravan Records. 

In the last decade or so, Filipino underground bands have gone abroad for their albums to be released. Dreaded Mortuary, Pathogen, Paganfire, Mass Hypnosia, Bing Austria and the Flippin’ Soul Stompers, and Apple Orchard whose music stretches from metal to soul to shoegazer among many others are but a few of the bands to have been released by foreign labels.

“We’ve been in the local music scene for over two decades,” added Legason who said the various members of the Insektlife Cycle played in different heavy metal bands. “So we know what it is like to struggle. We have no expectations now locally, other than to continue making music. It is just sad that we are appreciated better overseas.”

Chimed in Nal, “There is this record label in China that was interested in us. They wanted to bring us to China for a tour but we were in the middle of recording Vivid Dreams Parade so we were unable to go. Maybe this time around.”

The lack of domestic awareness and success hasn’t deterred the band one iota. “This is what music is all about – there are no boundaries,” exclaimed Jumawan. “The fact that there are no lyrics for our songs means there is no language barrier. That our music is appreciated by people across the globe is fulfillment in itself.”

“We all have day jobs so the band, the music is our therapy and release; our means of expression.”

Segued Legason, “I believe in the genuine talent and innovation comes from the underground. My thinking along with the rest of the band is to stay underground and do what we want.”

“It helps that we have our own studios where we are free to work on what we want,” added Nal’s brother, Nel. “Music is my life.”

Underground or not, Vivid Dreams Parade will be out internationally on vinyl this year and for Insektheads everywhere, the band is also working on a new album with a couple of new songs being performed during gigs nowadays. “There’s a whole world out there to conquer,” summed up Nal.

Note: Vivid Dreams Parade and the Insektlife Cycle’s other extended play and indie albums are available through their Facebook page or during gigs.