Drum & bass in yo face
It’s been two years since Drip taught Pinoy electronica devotees a thing or two about cooking – and remaining sexy while doing so — with their video for Song No. 9.
The politely sultry gem, directed by RA Rivera and styled by the I Love You girls, sealed the fledgling group’s cool forever, finessing the ether with their effortlessly cool polyrhythms.
So, has it really been that long?
“Well, gigging mostly,” answers Malek Lopez, live keyboardist and sound engineer, when asked what the band had been up to.
“Of course, [we were also busy with] the second album. By the time we released the first [one], we’d been playing the songs for some time so yeah, [new] material was being written.”
Darker Sonic Vocabulary
Slogging across the country’s smoky clubs, Drip promoted new stuff from their sophomore CD since they simultaneously wrote and recorded tracks. “It actually made the recording process much easier and smoother when we were performing the songs live,” goes vocalist Beng Calma, now happily tethered to the artist Juan Alcazaren. “Ever since naman, we’ve been a very cohesive band when it came to songwriting and more so now. We became more open [but] discriminating at the same time, filtering out songs we felt were not good enough and improving the shortlisted ones we knew could sound so much better.”
With new personel in the form of artist/turntablist Caliph8 – and a deeper exploration of drum & bass courtesy of Ian Magbanua, a.k.a. Morse — the Drip masterminds return with Identity Theft. This second effort is tight, delivering a sonic vocabulary of innovative trip-hop, sped-up sub-bass explosions, and slightly darker lyrics. On Turning Grey, strings and scratches surround Beng Calma-Alcarazen’s ode to advancing time. The title track’s syncopated beats take turns galloping and soaring along with the synths, expressing in terribly perfect phrases the confusion of seeing someone you think you know.
On ‘morning after’
A departure from the retro-organic vibe of their clip for Song No. 9, the one for lead single, Morning After, looks like an live-action animé/Fight Club mashup. “The concept for the Morning After music video is a slice from a narrative feature – the payback scene when every bad guy gets beaten up to a pulp by the lead actor,” explains director Jason Tan. “It’s a piece of a bigger picture you will never see. You can feel something has already happened at the start and a resolution is to follow at the end.”
The Terno Recordings foursome admits that this particular track sounds like a love song at first. The layer underneath, however, reveals a struggle. “That struggle is the fight magnified and multiplied by six men and one girl with a golf club,” they say.
The production team behind the video was strongly influenced by Asian cinema, mainly Japanese and Korean films. The bright colors were courtresy of stylist Mads Adrias while Graver — along with Caliph8 — were responsible for the graffiti backdrop used for Beng’s scenes. “That was actually a last- minute call,” confesses Jason. “The band performance was supposed to be done on another day at a different location with a different concept. But when I saw the location, a wall was begging to be made into a marvelous piece. So we decided to move the performance there as well and shot it as soon as the team finished the fight scene.”
In case any of you want to know, the golf club-wielding chick is Alma Cabasal, a member of the Karatedo National Team. The dudes are all taekwondo jins: Je, Dexter, Caloy, Niño, Gilbert, and Butch.
Creativity Now
Aside from the genius video, Identity Theft also blazes the trail by being the first Pinoy CD to be released under a Creative Commons license. All 12 tracks on the CD are open for remixing by the general public.
According to Beng and Malek, it was the brainchild of Mark Laccay, their manager, and Paul Pajo, their web promoter. “They pitched it to us and we approved of it because the concept gives listeners the opportunity to do what they want with the songs — legally at that. It was also our way of reaching out to a wider audience and really, in essence, giving listeners the freedom to enjoy the music however they see fit.”
Regarding remixes, Drip has been spreading it virally, making them available on their sites dripmanila.multiply.com and myspace.com/dripmanila. “We will be re-releasing them online or via collector’s CD or vinyl, but of course with the permission of everyone involved,” shares Mark.
Selectronica
In this comment-driven society, someone on YouTube compared Drip circa 2006 to Zero 7, the UK trip-hop/electronica collective in a rather enthusiastic manner. Malek is thankful for this priceless support. Beng, meanwhile, used to pay attention to what bloggers had to say about their music but hasn’t done so lately. “Someone actually said that we sound like Zero 7? Thank you! That’s nice to know. We love compliments!” she laughs.
By all indications, the fan love should grow more ardent with their follow-up single, Fallen. Directed by Juan Alcazaren, the video will feature hand- drawn animation which took two years to illustrate. It’s made up of about 3,000 individual drawings shot frame by frame.
“But single or no single, we are being played in different ways, ‘on demand’,” concludes Mark Laccay. “With our web marketing and viral promotions, our audience has declined to being dictated upon by radio or TV. They just want whatever fits them. It just makes the music distribution game more exciting.” It seems that Drip’s tiny earthquakes of bass are shaping the local electronica scene in more ways than one.
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Catch Drip at Mag:Net High Street for the launch of Underground Radio tonight, July 19. For more deets, check dripmanila.multiply.com and myspace.com/dripmanila. Identity Theft is out now.
