4 albums I picked up during Summer Noise: Sheila and the Insects, Manic Sheep, Sen and Subsonic Eye

4 albums I picked up during Summer Noise: Sheila and the Insects, Manic Sheep, Sen and Subsonic Eye

by rick olivares

The sweltering heat was hung heavy on Summer Noise 2019 but it did not detract the artists from putting on an awesome show (technical problems aside).

Rayms Marasigan asked me what act was I looking most forward to watch and I replied everyone. In a festival like Summer Noise, that’s a lot of people watching; more than the usual gig. While I do get to see a lot of the local acts, I was looking forward to watching the foreign bands too. Now you don’t get to see them just any day of the week.

Here are the albums (I already have Japanese Breakfast’s album that I had Michelle Zauner sign during an interview) that I picked up from Summer Noise 2019 and how I relate them to their respective performances.

Love or Limbo (Sheila and the Insects)

I have been a fan of Sheila and the Insects since I heard their song “Everyday Drive” and I subsequently picked up the album, Plastic Eyes Static Minds (at the same time as Cynthia Alexander’s wonderful Rippingyarns from N/A Records). I have not been able to pick up their succeeding releases and never saw them again until Summer Noise and it was great. 

They released their new album Love or Limbo at the festival and I thought the live performance was solid. And they sounded very much like Interpol circa their Antics album that I just had to pick up the album on compact disc (great music but I am not happy with the printing of the case as it is so difficult to read anything).

This is the band in full flight. I’ll say their strongest release to date. And I’ll be hunting down the albums that I missed. I hope it doesn’t take me a long time to watch them again.

Brooklyn (Manic Sheep)

I was looking forward to the performance of Manic Sheep. This Taiwanese shoegaze and noise rock band with a dash of twee has been invited to perform in the SXSW (South by SouthWest) Festival in the United States as well as the Canadian Music Fest that is a five-night festival that showcases a lot of bands. They’ve also been a part of the Fuji Rock Fest in Japan. 

Incredibly, Manic Sheep (drummer White Wu, vocalist Chris Lo, guitarist Howard Yang, and bassist Joy Chang who was replaced for Summer Noise by session player James) has a bigger following in Japan more than their hometown of Taipei! 

“It is nice to get around especially in Asia,” said Lo, “it is expensive to go to the United State or even to Europe and it puts a strain on our resources. But we are very pleased to know we have fans there. So performing in Manila for Summer Noise is good and we were surprised by the reception we got from the Filipino fans.”

Brooklyn, their second album, is a solid album on compact disc with its jangly warmth and the bounce in the music. 

Sen (Sen)

The name of their band means “immortal” in Mandarin. They came on stage right after Sheila and the Insects and right before Cynthia Alexander. They took the cue from Sheila and the Insects with a heavier performance making Cynthia Alexander -- who is always a great act to watch -- like a palette cleanser for the lighter but no less deeper songs. That is not to take anything away from Sen which is a band from Taiwan.

I’d say there aren’t many bands like them. If you like Joy Division, Bauhaus, Nine Inch Nails, and Machines of Loving Grace then Sen will resonate with you. It’s a mix of goth, industrial, and post-punk and pretty powerful. 

Picked up their self-titled debut album that was released in August of 2018, and even if sung in Mandarin, it did not detract from my listening pleasure.

Subsonic Eye (Singapore)

Watching this shoegaze/dream pop band from Singapore, I was surprised that people in the audience knew their songs and were dancing along. Turns out that they previously performed in Manila at Mow’s. 

More than that, this band really isn’t into shoegaze and dream pop except for their guitarist-founder Daniel Castro Borces, who is half-Filipino (and is already serving in the military) who is into shoegaze. “I’ve been trying to influence the rest of my band so they’d all get into shoegaze,” he laughed. 

For example, the drummer, Lucas, is into hip-hop while vocalist Nur Wahidah, listens to other music. “It’s great right,” smiled Daniel who has gotten his way with Subsonic Eye’s sound that is a raw brand of dream pop with a bounce that gets people dancing and jumping.

We like to play happy music for sad people which is why people get rowdy during our shows,” quipped Lucas. “That’s the hip-hop guy in me throwing in that element.”

They sold their cassette album Dive Into (released in September of 2018) during Summer Noise and I thought it was a prized find.