The Insektlife Cycle’s Temple of the Soul album is improvisational brilliance
by rick olivares
Filipino psychedelic post-rock band The Insektlife Cycle dropped their new album, Temple of the Soul (released by English-based independent label, Gardener’s Delight) just this past week.
The album follows the critically-acclaimed debut, Vivid Dreams Parade that came out in 2017 on compact disc and also released by British indie label Mega Dodo.
Temple of the Soul is an improvisational recording done all in one take during a two-hour jam session on a four-track cassette recorder by the band (drummer Nal Vivo, guitarists Nel Vivo and Jay Jumawan, and bassist Joy Legason) at the Sound Carpentry Studios in Pateros. “Others try to capture the perfect sound during recording sessions,” noted The Insektlife Cycle drummer Nal Vivo. “Kami? We tried to capture the perfect moment.”
The result was two hours of music that they cut into four songs with no overdubs. “If it didn’t come out well… that was it,” admitted Vivo of the gambit. “Thankfully, it did. But we are struggling to try and re-capture everything when we rehearse the new songs so we can perform them live? How the heck did we do this?”
“It was fun though,” thought Legason, “Besides talking about how to begin and end each song, there was pretty much no talking. Just two hours of pure sonic immersion and aural traveling through closed eyes and open ears and the untethered soul flying.”
Elucidated Jumawan: “Creating Temple of the Soul was both unnerving and exhilarating. The preparation was basically a very short conversation, ‘Here’s the chord pattern. Okay. Got it?’ Record!’”
The result as Jumawan put it, “is a work of art without the benefit of post-production magic to correct the flaws and hide the imperfections.”
“Phil Phio of Gardener’s Delight contacted us and was interested in releasing the album in limited numbers,” related Vivo. “We said, ‘why not?’”
It took roughly three weeks to master the music for vinyl, to press the record, as well as to ship it to the Philippines.
“It was that fast,” said a pleased Vivo.
And it sold out even faster.
The four-track album that saw an initial press of 108 copies immediately sell out internationally with about 20 records made available for local fans. “I think a lot of people were surprised how well it did that Phil is looking at a second press of another 54 copies,” added Vivo.
The lathe cut record (the process is each record is pressed one at a time and cut manually) comes in clear or black vinyl with two tracks on each side. Each track is 10 minutes and one second in length. The compact disc (produced by Cebu-based Pawn Records) and the cassette (released by Sound Carpentry Recordings) feature the full-length versions of each track that runs up to a whopping 14 minutes each!
The previous two vinyl releases by The Insektlife Cycle are on 7-inch (Switzerland Meets the Philippines” that is a split single with Swiss band The Cats Never Sleep) and 10-inch (also with Swiss band, Cold Bath) that today fetch for at the very least 85 Euros in the back market.
The improvisational nature of Temple of the Soul is a testament to The Insektlife Cycle’s skill.
“Unmentioned Motions” kicks off the jam (Side A is the one with the feet on the label) and is like a jalopy ride to a stoned soul picnic. “Sonic Sermons” has the feel of waking up with a bad hangover and life is kicking you in the nuts.
“Temple of Our Soul” leads off Side B is like a lost, shimmering Mars Volta demo minus the banshee wails. It’s like finding one’s self in a purple haze and into that path you need to take.
“Manilament” is the last track and has a shoegaze bent; one that has a pensive feel and makes you reach deep into the recesses of your soul.
After Vivid Dreams Parade, I wondered how The Insektlife Cycle would top that masterpiece of psychedelic post-rock. With Temple of the Soul, in some ways, they just did.
I am so stoked for next.
Watch for the album launch of The Insektlife Cycle’s Temple of the Soul on their Facebook page.
No comments:
Post a Comment