Toy Symphony has a new album

It is painful but it is true. Original songs do take a while to sink in. Why do you think record producers enjoy doing remakes of oldies? Audience recall makes them better sellers. But if you have the time, it would be worth your while to spend time listening to new compositions. The worse that can happen is you will find something you will not care to hear again. At best you will find little gems that with time will grow into big ones, such as the songs contained in the new album of the group Toy Symphony.

Included in the album are love ballads with sweet melodies interspersed with bouncy dance tracks all done with lots of soul that get better sounding each time you listen to the album. A true standout is Namimilipit Sa Sarap composed by Hot Dog’s Dennis Garcia and Bernard Bismark. Baby Don’t Go and Sana’y Pansinin with wounded heart vocals are also winners. You will also surely enjoy Love is Here to Stay, the jubilant Lifeline and Believe. The other tracks are Sealed, Naghihintay Pa Rin, My Whole World is You and Dreams.

Toy Symphony is made up of the siblings of soul singer Ella May Saison who scored big with the song Till My Heartaches End some years ago. These are Elke Saison on vocals, Elhmir Saison on keyboards and arrangements and Kashli Saison on guitars. Then there are plus OJ Olaguer also on vocals, Manuel "Tabs" Tabunar on bass and Oliver de Castro on drums. The members of the group come from various origins. There are stints as lounge singers, gigs with pop groups like Freestyle and rock bands like Riot Mob. In Elhmir’s case, the pianist was one of the participants in the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1994.

The album is also titled Toy Symphony and make no mistake about it nobody in this group is toying with anything. The dedication of these guys to what they do is serious. I do not think they would have been capable of such a sleek production had they been anything else but.

Magic moments on stage

With the local concert scene more alive than ever, it is also time to treat yourself to the best seat possible with Live, a new album release from Viva Records that features memorable excerpts from recent performances by some of the biggest names around. The numbers featured bring back enchanting memories of magic moments on stage. You will doubtless remember the medleys that rated a standing ovation, the quiet ballads that brought the audience to a hush or the unexpected hit born out of an unlikely pairing.

And because they do have the edge as far as looking and sounding good onstage is concerned, the reigning pop divas lead the line-up of performers in Live. These are Sharon Cuneta with Sunlight, Regine Velasquez and Tuwing Umuulan, Pops Fernandez and When You Say Nothing at All, Jaya with a medley of her big sellers; Zsa Zsa Padilla and We’re All Alone and Lani Misalucha with You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me. Freestyle joins Pops in the hit duet of Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang and Janno Gibbs pays tribute to these famous females with a rendition of She.

Then there are of course, the showstopping medleys. These big numbers can only be heard one afternoon after another in this album and you can just imagine how wonderfully they brought down the houses. These are the Love Medley that includes Weak, Incomplete, 6.8.12 and I’d Still Say Yes by Freestyle; a Celine Dion Hits Medley featuring Because You Loved Me, My Heart Will Go On and It’s All Coming Back to Me by Zsa Zsa Padilla; the Ogie Alcasid Hits Medley with Nandito Ako, Kailangan Ko’y Ikaw and Pangako by Jaya and Regine Velasquez; and the Whitney Houston Medley composed of I Will Always Love You, I Have Nothing, All at Once, Didn’t We Almost Have It All, Greatest Love of All and One Moment in Time by Lani Misalucha.

The selections in Live were taken from Shindig with Pops Fernandez; The Crossover Live Tour with Lani Misalucha; Viva’s & I with Janno Gibbs; Freestyle Live at Araneta with Freestyle; Songbird Sings the Classics with Regine Velasquez; In My Life with Zsa Zsa Padilla, Unleashed with Jaya; and Mega Up-Close starring Sharon Cuneta.