Stop, look, listen

These 5 local music acts deserve your attention

Modulogeek’s “walking around aimlessly”

MANILA, Philippines - The first few notes of “walking around aimlessly” will break your heart. It comes along with a sting that washes over you like a slow-rolling tidal wave. Joon Guillen’s ambient experiment strays away from the hyper-electronica of his past two EPs and jumps headlong into the pool of sad music for even sadder people.

RomCom, ‘It’s Tight Like Prom Night’ EP

RomCom’s initial outing “It’s Tight Like Prom Night” is a time machine. Holed up in the teen flicks of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, this slick collection of songs will evoke the phantoms of our zit-ridden past. Like a medium that channels Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachel Leigh Cook, RomCom’s EP is more than just a set of prom-friendly tunes. The sweet hooks of the songs will have you opening up your badly written journals where every fight and slip-up was like the end of the world. Open forums optional.

‘The Single Decker Episode 1: Outerhope’

Cooked up by Mara Coson and Nice Buenaventura after an unfortunate iPhone-stealing incident in B-Side a few months back, “The Single Decker” erases any notion that bus parties are for porn and beer-sloshing purposes only. For the first single decker gig, Outerhope brought their lullabies onboard while the rest of the bus snorted Mikmik or chomped cigarette candies.

Outerhope is currently in New York to perform at the NYC Popfest and will be releasing their new EP soon.

Ang Bandang Shirley’s ‘Tama na ang Drama’

The world needs another Ang Bandang Shirley album like it needs another Mike de Leon film. After months of playing new songs, bannering them as teasers to the new album, the band will finally release their sophomore album, “Tama na ang Drama.” The band recently presented “Tama na ang Drama” at a listening party and grand fans night. The album does away with haranas that have crushed hearts since their first album, and shows a darker and more complex sound for the band.

Third World Summer/Love in Athens split single

Released by Number Line Records, this split single contrasts two takes on electronic music, one that is more fluid and the other more grindingly aggressive. Third World Summer’s Displaced Voices, the new project by Allan Lumba a.k.a. Multo, saunters like a hurrying trip from the jittering landscape of the city into the dense arms of the forest.

Francis Maria Regalado’s Love in Athens covers up the other end with a synthpop glaze that pulsates like a frenetic ghost at a boarded-up house at the end of the street. The single is a preview of what he’ll be serving up on his forthcoming EP “Half-awake in the Morning.”