Lara - Disambiguate (2025)

"Noisy bois from the south of the metro (Manila)" maintain my image of the South-East Asia's underground music: the lo-fi but honest noisy shoegazers rocking the scenes. Their new (and possibly debut) album comes with all of the subgenre's features and has to sound especially great live.

There's little doubt on who inspired the debutants from the Philippines: the sound of early shoegaze releases from UK is audible in every second of the album. The lo-fi vibes make the resemblance even more striking. The melodies are hidden under the guitar noise, but there are moments where they can shine as well (great Countenance) and generally, I prefer the faster, noisier parts of the album as the ballads, although they diversify the track list, feel unremarkable in my ears.

I do appreciate, however, that the band is not afraid of leaving the vocals behind in some longer parts, relying on the instruments creating a noisy but equally cozy atmosphere (so great in Sonoluminescence!). All in all, a very promising debut with a lot of different approaches to noisy music that, still, together sound very well and coherent.

Disambiguate costs 7 USD.

Check: Countenance

Country: The Philippines

Genre: garage shoegaze

Label: Calm Lake Records

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:spotify:

Paosin The Well - Garasu No Kokoro / ガラスの心 (2017) EN

Paosin The Well, mysterious artists from the Philippines, creates an intimate mixture of ambient, dub and... poetry for people with glass hearts (as suggested by the album's title, ガラスの心 in Japanese means exactly a glass heart). She draws attention like a powerful magnet and amazes with her original ways of art.

The poems recited by the singer with accompanying electronic music inspires the audience with both their message and form. Not only do they tell what the situation in the poet's head is in a very intimate way (quite literary in "Inside A Mad Girl's Head") but also are perfectly fitted for a rhythmic though not very fast recitation, just like the good hip-hop lyrics. Sometimes it's clear and served literary, sometimes well distorted and atmospheric  ("A New Beginning").

And the accompanying electronics consist of ambient backgrounds as flexible as the water surface that are overwritten only by subtle melodies played with keys and beats appearing out of nowhere (as in "Little Isabel (Don't Fret)").

"ガラスの心" costs 6 USD.

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:soundcloud: