American rapper BLXST looks forward to an activation for Filipino fans

 

American rapper BLXST looks forward to an activation for Filipino fans

By Rick Olivares

 

It’s six o’clock in the evening in Los Angeles, California, and American rapper BLXST (pronounced as “Blast”) is all smiles. 

 

Why not? His family is safe and healthy in this time of pandemic and his new single, “Chosen” has charted high Top 50 Philippines and Hot Hits Philippines and get this… is above luminaries such as Dua Lipa and BTS.

 

Furthermore, it has been added to the rotation of Magic 89.9, RX 93.1, and 99.5 PlayFM.

 

“That is amazing,” BLXST (whose real name is Matthew Burdette) said with a toothy grin. “That is the power of music -- to hit another side of the world where I have not been to. I hear it’s gaining traction in Asia as well. It’s made me appreciate the position I am in to do something like this. After I am done with my American tour (that should kick off soon), I will look to how we can do an activation over there (in Manila).”

 

“Chosen” which features fellow rap artists Ty Dolla Sign and Tyga is one of four new songs BLXST has unveiled this 2021.

 

With each song, the Los Angeles native has released a corresponding video that shows his love for film.

 

“Making the music that is bigger than life… that is the plan,” revealed BLXST. “Making short films in these music videos is expanding the ideas and making the music come alive. And if it happens down the line, I want to try my hand at acting.”

 

For now, BLXST is concentrating on making music and working on his first full-length album. Most of his music is available on streaming platforms. His one extended play single titled, “No Love Lost,” and released in 2020 on vinyl has become highly sought after with the few precious copies available selling for at least $400 a pop. 

 

The full-length we will look into making it also available on vinyl for fans who love that medium,” he said 

 

His earlier singles have done extremely well on streaming platforms with the videos also received well on YouTube.  And despite making music for the past three years, fans are hoping that breakout success is just around the corner. 

 

“Criminally underrated,” is how BLXST’s fans describe him.

 

“Well, I like the tag ‘criminally underrated’ because it will have this snowball effect. When 

people who catch on to my music, it goes around by word of mouth making it organic rather than following a trend. Over time it helps build a solid foundation and fan base.”

 

Even if it is also on the other side of the world some 15 hours away. 

 

“Hopefully soon, we can see how we can collaborate with artists from Asia,
 said BLXST. “Today, it’s mandatory to expand the sound and get the feel for different cultures. So I am looking forward to what we can do with other artists in the Philippines, and Asia.”

 

“I’m a chill and laid-back person who gives out these mellow vibes,” said BLXST. “I’m blessed to spread this across the world.”

 

 

 

 

On my turntable: Burning Witches' The Witch of the North

The fourth album from this Swiss metal band is their best so far. I love it.

Filipino indie label Terno Recordings to release Kapitan Kulam & international indie artists

 

Filipino indie label Terno Recordings to release Kapitan Kulam & international indie artists

By Rick Olivares

 

Trailblazing Filipino independent record label Terno Recordings that has given Filipino music fans pop confectionary by Up Dharma Down, Orange and Lemons, Radioactive Sago Project, Populardays, and AOUI is taking the big step of going international. 

 

Music impresario Toti Dalmacion, the man behind Terno Recordings is excited with the new direction. 

 

“The Covid-19 situation prompted me to move into a different direction but still in line with what I do,” explained Dalmacion. “I will release more on vinyl but not necessarily local artists.”

 

Dalmacion said he will be releasing the music of a pair of Brooklyn, New York independent artists Tenants from Zero and Julia Kwamya. 

 

Tenants from Zero is the musical persona of Paul Darrah who describes his music form as “transforming affairs of the art into elegant pop songs” and in the vein of Roxy Music’s vocalist Bryan Ferry, David Sylvian of art rockers Japan, Everything But the Girl, and the Blue Nile. 

 

Julia Kwamya, the self-described “break-up specialist” also hails from Brooklyn and is of Ghanaian and Ugandan heritage. 

 

Tenants from Zero’s album titled, “Flight,” as well as Julia Kwamya’s effort titled “Feeling Good About Feeling Bad” will both hit the independent music stores in Tokyo, the United States, Europe, and Dalmacion’s This is Pop shop in Makati this October.

 

Kwamya’s album is “the product of eight years of work and is about classic mid-20s angst following a break-up,” said the Brooklyn native who is influenced by Joao Gilberto, Kylie Minogue, David Bowie.

 

Also expected from Terno Recordings is the debut album of Filipino noise and sludge rockers Kapitan Kulam who will remind many of early Black Sabbath. The international release of this band will give foreign music fans a taste of the exciting and diverse music scene in the Philippines. 

 

Kapitan Kulam is that other band by media personality Lourd de Veyra who along with drummer Jay Gapasin who also are with the Radioactive Sago Project, guitarist Kakoy Olavides who also performs with art rockers Pastilan Dong, and bassist Eric Melendez.

 

While Kapitan Kulam’s music greatly differs from Terno Recordings’ usual indie pop and shoegaze fare, Dalmacion says he knows there is a market for this music all over the world. 

 

Kapitan Kulam released their self-titled EP online recently, but their full-vinyl release according to Dalmacion should be out early this 2022.

 

As for other local bands under Terno Recordings’ roster, Dalmacion said that only when they are ready with new recordings will they be lined up for release. 

Tips for New Record Collectors

 

Tips for New Record Collectors

By Rick Olivares

 

You have gotten into an expensive hobby such as record collecting. Your collection is now accumulating and now you’re wondering about storage and how to protect your discs.

 

Here are simple and practical tips from decades of record collecting. 

 

Display those works of art. 

One such appeal of vinyl is the album art. Your collection is like having your own record museum version of the Louvre. All right, that is an exaggeration because nothing compares to the Louvre. But I am sure you get my drift - storing them or putting them on display is part of the fun.

 

The square dimension of records and their album art make them best displayed rather than locked up in some mega-plastic box.

 

There are square crates that cost anywhere from PhP 1,200-2,000 with each crate holding about 70-100 records. These are readily available at certain shops like the Grey Market, M.E. Records, Vinyl & Collectibles Online Store and some others all of which are on Facebook.

 

There are also cabinets that can be purchased anywhere from PhP 2,000-7,000 that are actually bookshelves and collectively can hold anywhere from 750-800 records. What makes the number of records vary is the kind of records you have. The 180 gram records are thicker that usually come in gatefold jackets. Records pressed from the 1950s up to the early 1990s are thinner; hence, you can include more on your shelf.

 

Your records are placed sideways and are readable by the titles on the spine of the jacket.

 

And of course, you can custom your record racks. I know people whose racks resembles those in record stores where you can pull each tray out with the front of the jacket facing you. It’s nifty if you ask me. 

 

Save these works of art.

Records all come in shrink wrap. But some music fans remove them because one cannot enjoy the interior art or liner notes that are sometimes placed on them.

 

This is an anathema to some collectors who feel that removing the shrink wrap devalues the record.

 

Do you collect because you are a fan or are you a collector who looks to sell them later on when the title’s value has gone up and you’re looking to make some extra bucks? 

Whatever floats your boat.

 

There are generic looking jackets in black or white with a doughnut hole in the middle. This works well with your second-hand records whose original jackets could be falling apart. That or they have come without them.

 

There are also plastic wraps to replace or add to the shrink wrap.

 

My rule of the thumb is… if it is a second hand record and the shrink wrap is dirty and ageing, I will remove and replace with newer outer plastic for better protection. When the shrink wrap is ageing, it’s chemicals seep into the record jacket and create drop outs.

 

There are two types of outer plastic for the jacket – the re-sealable and the non-re-sealable. Even then, there are two other variants – a thinner outer one and a thicker one.

 

Let’s backtrack.

 

The re-sealable, well, it’s nice if you aren’t playing your records again. Because repeated opening and re-sealing causes the plastic to lose its sense of pristineness for those who are OC.

 

Me? I prefer the non-re-sealable and thick plastic. 

 

Then there’s the inner plastic for your records. 

 

There is the anti-static that is expensive and your ordinary plastic. I keep all mine is the latter. If you insert them in their paper sleeves, they get scratched.

 

Now, to prevent ring wear (is what happens when the disc’s shape imprints itself on the jacket and destroys the outer album art and jacket) from appearing on the jacket, I place the records in their sleeves outside the jacket but both within the outer thick plastic.

 

You can purchase these outer and inner plastics as well as cardboard jackets (for seven-inch and 12-inch records) from Lahn’s Vinyl, Treskul Records, and others. Check out their Facebook pages.

 

Give those records some shine.

Francis Dewey Santos has concocted this excellent cleaning solution that I highly recommend called Dooo-Weez-Ooze.

 

Back in the 1980s, if you couldn’t afford the imported record cleaners, you settled with this local cleaner that came in what looked like a medicine bottle. But this was a scary solution to use as sometimes, it literally melted the vinyl!

 

Santos’ Dooo-Weez-Ooze comes in a kit (PhP 650) that includes a micro-fiber towel to clean records, a rubber mat to protect the disc, and a spray bottle to spread the solution.

 

I highly recommend this (Francis supplies many of the local independent stores with this cleaner) and you can look him up on Facebook.

 

And lastly, catalogue them… your way.

There are many ways to do catalogue your records – by genre (which makes the most sense), alphabetical, or by era. 

 

By cataloguing your records, it makes for easy referencing and pulling them out as you know where they are.

 

Personally, I catalogue my records by genre – Jamaican music (reggae, ska, rock steady, and dub) on one shelf, New Wave in a couple of others, punk and hardcore in a couple, heavy metal, shoegaze/dream pop in one, one shelf has contemporary jazz while another features the old-time greats, and so on.

 

I do have others that stand out on their own. My Beatles records as well as the individual efforts of all the members are in one rack. My Original Pilipino Music records are spread across three shelves – those released from the 1960s to the early 1990s, those released from 2000-onwards, and those released by Filipino bands based abroad. All my Record Store Day releases are in another. Ditto with soundtracks. 

 

You can get creative with your own filing system. It adds to the listening experience. 

 

 

 

 

Itchyworms Waiting for the End to Start: From digital to vinyl to perhaps the best album art of the year

 Itchyworms Waiting for the End to Start: From digital to vinyl to perhaps the best album art of the year

By Rick Olivares

 

The Itchyworms’ fifth album, “Waiting for the End to Start,” is probably the first Filipino music album that was initially released digitally that has out of left field gotten the vinyl treatment.

 

In addition to being the most introspective album of the quartet as it was written and recorded during this Covid-19 lockdown, what makes the vinyl release just as tantalizing is the album art.

 

The album art, illustrated beautifully and hauntingly by Aidon Panlaqui, is already a candidate for the best album art of the year.

 

The cover to the record’s gatefold jacket shows 16 art squares with illustrations depicted the effects of the quarantine on our daily lives from closed down stores, to looking gaunt in the mirror, empty basketball courts, facemasks, their pets, and looking out windows and balconies.

 

Aidon’s minimalist art is jarring.

 

When you open the gatefold jacket, there are another set of 16 art squares that mirror the cover. Except this time, they are actual photos of musical instruments, recording gear, and personal things that the individual members of the Itchyworms went through in this lockdown from the closure of Route 196, wearing facemasks, and equipment at home.

 

“Essentially, the art squares show everything that the band went through in this difficult time,” bared Panlaqui. “It’s very Itchyworms. They tell good stories of what they go through. And I think the songs together with the album art hit the right emotions of what everyone goes through.” 

 

The back of the album shows the song titles on white text against the black starry space. But in keeping with the album’s grim title -- hey, there’s a flaming meteor headed God knows where.

 

“Even while waiting for the end, you can’t lose your sense of humor,” chuckled Panlaqui. “But in all seriousness, I am happy that the band trusts me to do the art (as he has rendered the band’s single art for some time now.”

 

“I think that WFTETS sounds so much better on vinyl,” noted Itchyworms’ co-vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist Jugs Jugueta. I mean, I think it was made for that medium.”

 

The vinyl release of WFTETS is courtesy of Sony Music and Backspacer Records; an independent record seller that only recently put out their first release on vinyl, a re-release of Peryodiko’s self-titled debut. Following Itchyworms’ Backspacer Records is released Dong Abay Music Organization’s “Humanidad” on vinyl. 

 

“The success of Peryodiko gave us a big boost of confidence to approach more artists and press more records,” said Backspacer Records’ Robert Tuazon. “As a young player in the industry, we are grateful to Sony Music who entrusted to us this project. ‘Waiting for the End to Start’ is best listened to on vinyl with the band’s maturity really evident and heard. We are honored to be a part of this project and to share it with music fans.”

 

As for the album art, Jugueta gushed about Panlaqui’s work, “I love it! It is so beautiful. We are always blown away by Aidon’s mad skills.”

 

“WFTETS is an experimental concept album since many of us didn’t have recording equipment at that time, but Jazz (Nicolas, the band’s co-vocalist and drummer) and Peavey Nicolas of Big Baby Studios made it sound like it was recorded in a studio. It sounds very very clean! The vinyl version gave it a bit more body and some dirt that the digital version does not have. But you know, analog noise is pleasant to the ears. The vinyl version gives a different character to WFTET. When we sing about the end of the world, it’s much more believable when you hear it on vinyl.”

 

 

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For inquiries about purchasing Itchyworms' WFTETS LP, go to the FB page of Backspacer Records.

Chicago punk band Negative Scanner on my playlist.

I discovered Chicago punk band Negative Scanner and their FilipinoAmerican vocalist Rebecca Valeriano-Flores in 2015. Their EP and single were both released on 7-inch vinyl in 2014. I did get the band's second album, Nose Picker, in 2018. The compact disc version I got only recently. I hope to pick up their first album soon.

They remind me of 80s punk rock -- snarling, angry, and just right and not too discordant. Plus, the cover art of their albums (featuring Valeriano-Flores is jarring).

Loving the new album of Testament

This is only my second album of thrash metal band Testament after Dark Roots of Earth and I love both of these albums! Titans of Creation is awesome.