Ely Buendia’s solo flight

* WANTED: Bed Spacer

* Musiko Records, BMG

First, let’s start with the cover art: muted watercolor washes and collages courtesy of Cynthia Bauzon (who seems to design nearly every album cover these days) show a (solo?) male figure, possibly gazing into a mirror. That’s the prevailing tone of Wanted: Bedspacer, Ely Buendia’s first solo recording which dwells on breakups and pickups and the search for a suitable replacement in one’s life.

Right away, the title cut announces that this is an introspective Buendia we are about to listen to, a rare private view of the longtime songwriter from the Eraserheads. With a solo, hypnotic guitar part layered over electric piano (recalling the mood of Balikbayan Box and the Beatles’ Dear Prudence), Buendia sings about the need to fill a certain physical and metaphorical "emptiness." (Wanted Kailangan/Bakante na naman ako.) It’s a simple and apt metaphor, decorated by music that is melancholy and somehow lost-seeming. The mood continues through the second track, Monday Mundane, with its loping bass line and Cure-like melody, the vocals notably bare and absent of studio effects. The singer, in fact, handled most of the instruments on this recording, and while styles range from punk (Santo) to techno-lullaby (Over 18), it’s in the words and melodic touches that Buendia’s style surfaces.

If, in the Eraserheads, Ely was determined to rewrite and reconstruct his ’70s pop idols, this solo album is a like a showcase of his ’80s idols. The Cure influence shows up again in Kakaiba, which sounds like an outtake from Head on the Door or Pornography. The flanging and phase-shifting guitar effects on Oras are also decidedly ’80s (Buendia is an acknowledged Robert Smith fan). Finally, the closing track, Hotchik, trots out the analog synths and drum machines one last time, indulging Ely’s fondness for high-pitched cartoon voice. While it’s a treat to hear some of the instrumental pieces from Ely’s (no doubt) vast four-track archives, one wonders if more pressing material could have taken its place on his first solo outing.

While we’re talking influences, let’s get those obligatory references to other people’s music out of the way. Tapos Na sounds like some great, long-lost T-Rex single: banks of squonk guitars cascade over a playfully swooping pop vocal that belies probably couldn’t tell the difference.

Santo is a nice, tight rocker that could easily have found its way onto an Eheads’ album. The melody sounds Mexican or Spanish, with a touch of L.A. hardcore punk thrown in. It benefits from Dex Aguilar’s back-to-basics drumming, whereas a number of other songs rely a little too much on drum machines.

Over 18 (which closes side one of the cassette) has a trance-lullaby feel, with its layers of synthesizers, echo-draped vocals and electric piano tones pointing toward a completely new direction for Buendia; but underneath is a typically sublime melody, and a sly ironic twist to the lyrics. (Siyanga pala/Over 18 ka na ba?) For me, it’s the album’s most gorgeous song, and it makes me wonder why Buendia has not tried his hand at movie soundtracks thus far.

There are a couple of songs written in English, namely the bitter Acid Tongue (I’m not going to feed/Your ego trip anymore) and Shallow Breathing, which seem fairly personal, the better for Ely-philes to ponder their hidden meanings. (My wife, who translated the words, notes that Ely writes equally well in Tagalog and English.)

All in all, Wanted: Bedspacer is a worthwhile showcase for Ely’s talents, though a bit short on length. (44 minutes is a little skimpy in these days of 75-minute CDs and free Net downloads. Surely there’s more material left in those archives?) The initial impression is of melancholy and longing, and those to Buendia say the lyrics are fairly confessional. But underneath Ely’s word-play is a sly wit and talent for ambiguity. It’s the work of a pop craftsman who is canny enough to know that art requires you to show only a few sides at a time.