Spacetalking and outerhoping
For the first four or five seconds it’s familiar: a straightforward machine-driven beat; two voices overlapping, boy and girl; sweet wordless syllables dancing with well-chosen words—and then the beat slows and stops, there is an all-encompassing swell of spaceship-descending sound, and then everything changes. A new rhythm kicks in, the sweet syllables are looped and repurposed and relaunched, another voice floats over the transformed song. It goes off on its own dreamlike orbit, led by a satellite love, called by nostalgia for outer space.
That’s what the My Parasol remix of Outerhope’s Twenty Years From Now sounds like. I first heard it played over the sound system at the opening of the Makati branch of home specialty store Heima, and was mesmerized by its reimagining of one of my favorite songs from recent months. Twenty Years From Now is wonderful to begin with, one of the most immediately appealing songs from Outerhope’s brilliant second album “A Day for the Absent,” and My Parasol really make it their own—borderline unrecognizable but a lovely listen nonetheless. Outerhope themselves were there at the store opening to deliver a characteristically strong set; with their trademark harmonies, thoughtful lyrics, and charming, unaffected performance, the sibling duo of Micaela and Michael Benedicto won over an assortment of new fans that night.
My Parasol were absent friends that night, based as they are in Los Angeles. They are also a duo, a kind of Korean-Filipino alliance composed of Susanna “Spark” Park and Mark Redito (better known to local electronica enthusiasts as “Spazzkid”). According to their site, they “met in a whirlwind of fate in a very unfamiliar place, both grasping for what they wanted but couldn’t see. Mark charmed Susanna with an A+ smile and some silly songs. Susanna tried to impress Mark with some bad French. But it worked. Ever since, it’s been sun-kissed melodies and picture collage memories.”
Their excellent Outerhope remix is their latest release, and available for free download on their site. Also free is the amazing Spacetalk, a very appealing mix of guitar-strum and robot rhythms, of Susanna and Mark’s sincere singing. It was “written in collaboration by Susanna and Mark to explore the relationship between Susanna’s organic roots and Mark’s electronic music background,” and “composed and recorded at Musicians Institute, Hollywood where they both attended school.” You can also grab the Spacetalk remixes—no less than 11 of them so far, and counting, by various artists. Susanna and Mark encourage people to make their own remixes, and have made the song-parts available for downloading. They’re currently working on an EP too, which I am eagerly looking forward to.
Going back to Outerhope, if you’ve never had the chance to see them perform live (after gigging relentlessly for the past couple of months, they’re taking a break and will probably have their next show in July at the earliest), the next best thing is to watch these videos they made in cooperation with run&play—recorded live and on location, they demonstrate that the band is really one of the more skilled and noteworthy on the scene today, and that they offer something unique. Go to vimeo.com and search for “outerhope.” (The video for The Man with the Pipes is particularly good, I think.)
Learn more about My Parasol (and download their songs) at http://myparasolmusic.com/. Visit Outerhope at http://www.outerhope.com/. Both bands also have Facebook pages, which you should go and join right now.
