When Childhood Friends Said Goodbye

Back in the 1970s, we lived on Cuangco St,. Barangay Pio del Pilar, Makati, Metro Manila. I had a number of best friends in those days; they were usually my neighborhood playmates, among whom were the brothers Merilles (Joel, Aldrin, Jonathan, and Jeffrey). Their family lived just about three houses away from ours. The eldest of the brood, Joel was my batchmate; we were quite inseparable in those days, especially when we were in Grade Four. However, in 1982, their family relocated to somewhere in Sucat. In those pre-Internet and even pre-cellphone days, when childhood friends transferred residence, that was it--you usually didn't see each other again. Goodbye usually meant farewell. After several years more, it was my family's turn to transfer residence; and we never saw each other again.

A few years ago, I started searching on Facebook Joel until I stumbled upon someone who knew the brothers. In short, I got in touch with Aldrin again. I felt really sad and surprised when he told me about the death of his Kuya Joel in 1995.

Last week, I messaged Aldrin to invite him to our gig in Sucat. To my delight, he with his friend Joseph Pama showed up. Seeing each other after 33 years was really wonderful especially to someone like me who has a vivid memory of my childhood and who values friendship highly.

When Was the First Party that You've Attended?

"Dad, how old were you when you first attended a party?"

Wow, let me think.

It was almost 40 years ago! I was only 11, in 1982, when I started spending my summer vacations at the house of the family of my late uncle Kúya Edmund (Aranzamendez) in Better Living Subdivision, in Bicútan, Parañaque. He and his friends had a group called TRoPa '82 and a mobile disco named Metrou. It was in that summer or maybe the next when they first took me with them to one of those so-called New Wave house parties held in Annex 16-18 of the subdivision.

"Were there lots of people, Dad?"

Oh yes, friends of friends of friends usually attended. Sometimes, there were even gatecrashers. When teenagers in the subdivision learned of a coming party in the area, they just went there.

"Like in the movie Valley Girls that we watched, Dad?"

Yes, but without the bullying part. Fortunately, seldom were there fights. Most just wanted to have a great time, meeting people and enjoying and dancing with the music.

"What songs were playing at the party, Dad?"

New Wave music, of course. It was the 1980s! Two songs that always reminded me of that party were "In the Big Country" by Big Country and "Transfer Affection" by A Flock of Seagulls.

"I wish I was already there with you, Dad!"

Well, those were some of the happy days of my life. We could only relive them with music.

Every time we play these CDs, just imagine my younger days.

Here are some of the albums that soundtracked those parties that I attended in the early '80s, mostly in 1982 to 1985. These were some of the favorite New Wave bands in that period.

*Modern English - After the Snow (1982)

* Duran Duran - Rio (1982)

* Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain (1983)

* Siouxsie & the Banshees - Juju (1981)

* The Fixx - Shuttered Room (1982)

* Fiction Factory - Throw the Warped Wheel Out (1984)

* A Flock of Seaguls - Listen (1983)

* Blue Zoo - 2 x 2 (1983)

* Big Country - The Crossing (1983)

* Depeche Mode - Speak & Spell (1981)

* The The - Soul Mining (1983)

* Spandau Ballet - True (1983)

* Tears for Fears - The Hurting 

* U2 - War (1983)

* Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1980)

* Siouxsie & the Banshees - The Scream (1978)

Why Do Many Humans Become Less Interested in New Music as They Grow Older?

Because as humans grow older, their interests, focus, and priorities in life change.

When a person is in his teens especially, the sense of discovery and craving for something new is normally at its peak (After all, in human development, childhood and youth are the stages when an individual is most impressionable and excited for new things to experience); so, most people, when asked what kind of music they think are the best, claim that the music during their youthful days are the best; whereas the current, lackluster; but this is not true. They simply could no longer feel moved by new music because their sense of discovery had already waned and their budget for hobbies (like in school days) is now better allotted on family needs (They have become the providers of necessities and the payers of bills, tuition fees, kids' school allowances, etc.), so they have also become out of touch and could no longer catch up. 

Yes, the claim that there is no more good music these days is incorrect. There will always be good music, from any given generation since the beginning of recorded music's commercial availability. It's just that the older people become less interested, jaded, and have lesser money to spend on it.

Even many musicians I know have gotten stuck with the music of their heyday; they find liking new stuff difficult now.

Personally, I chose to become a music journalist, reviewer, and collector--this is primarily the reason I remain in touch with new releases. Add to that, being an album reviewer, I get to receive lists of upcoming releases and advanced copies of those that I want to review, from my publisher and from record labels; more so, being in Canada, where there are still a good number of record shops, I could buy music regularly. Most importantly, I have long developed a strong passion for music of various genres, so I always crave for it. If not for these, then I might have been among those who have long become outdated and jaded.

Lastly, in the current generation, there are already a lot of accessible forms of entertainment--no longer only a few that include music. So, younger kids have lots of choices. Music is no longer a top priority. Even if it is, there are already lots of platforms where one could listen to it anywhere, anytime. 

We cannot stop cultural evolution. We could only try to, at least, hold on to some of it and try to the best we can to influence our friends to stay excited or inspired in learning new items of culture such as books, films, and music.

Return to Blogging

Since the popularity of Facebook, I slowly began writing my musings on it, primarily because I find it more interactive. However, there were days when I miss the solitary feeling that blogging had given me especially during the years when I was still heavily writing on it.

So now, I decided to return to blogging, just to see where this will take me.

I want to feel again the quietude while writing with my thoughts. No quick comments, and not much traffic.

If being on Facebook feels like I am in a busy marketplace, blogging gives me the sight of myself's being in a quiet place, alone, with only my pen and journal, like how I always used to be.

I just couldn't sleep, so I logged on here, after four years!

Now that I've written my first blog...again, I'm going to sleep now. I still have work tomorrow.

aLfie

The Halves: ‘Unusual Species’

(On GMA’s 1996 Review of Half Life Half Death’s Concept Album Pymyth Prahn [1996, Viva Records])

by aLfie vera mella

{dedicated to Michael Sutton and Goldwyn Morales Azul)

My fellow music enthusiast and journalist Michael Sutton told me almost a decade ago how he discovered the album of my former band Half Life Half Death. He said that his late friend Goldwyn Morales Azul wrote a glowing review of our album back in 1996, the year the album was released. I have to say that I was teary-eyed while reading every word Goldwyn had to say about our album—just like how he had obviously been able to appreciate every bit of the detail that I (we) incorporated into the album and had gotten what the album was all about.

[Click the image to enlarge.]

For the record, he was the first ever of the rare ones (music critics at that) who were able to understand our music. And considering the fact that Goldwyn wrote the review in 1996, the year the CD version was released, he was really a spot-on music reviewer. (I knew that what he reviewed was the CD version because only the CD version contained "Kapit-Tuko" [my decision] as a bonus track; the cassette-tape format did not include it.)

I like also the fact that Goldwyn described the album as a "concept-like debut album," simply because it was a concept album--the order of the tracks--from one to end--I really arranged painstakingly, thinking of the segues that I had to inject to make every song flow smoothly to the next.

Channel Check

For example, the first track, "Channel Check," may seem just a filler, but it opens the album for a very important reason--that is, to let the listeners know that what they would be hearing would depend on the left-speaker-right-speaker ability of their stereo system.

A Feast in Pastel Castle

Then, obviously "A Feast in Pastel Castle" (Hear ye! Hear ye!) is the call for the celebration of the album.

Alimango
After the call, here comes "Alimango," which ends with sound of waves (think of little crabs playing by the seashore), then seagulls sound by the sea to segue into the seawaves intro of "Butterflies."

The technical musician should have realized that the basslines of "Alimango" sounded like a crawling crab--in fact, the way Ramil Aznar plays the bass on this song, he would literally finger-tap the bass strings with his fingers looking like he was gesturing crawling crabs.

Butterflies

The violin-like swelling guitar melody of Rain Paggao in 'Butterflies" is Rain's nearest approximation of the fluttering wings of butterflies. (I remember telling him after Pet de Jesus and I had given him a rhythm guitar-vocal rough recording of this song that the guitar melodies that I want him to make for the song was one that would remind us of fluttering butterflies, and he was able to achieve it.)

As "Butterflies" fades out with a sad note, here comes "Kapalarang Kuwago" starting with the same somber mood.

Kapalarang Kuwago

Actually, "Kapalarang Kuwago" should have had a guitar melody that sounded similar to that in "Butterflies" to emulate the slow flapping wings of owls, but Rain just did not pursue making this (and this is another story--a personal one concerning turmoil within the band during the time, which I no longer want to delve into. This is the reason "Kapalarang Kuwago" was left out very instrumentally naked compared with the rest of the songs in the album).

If All Sleep Tonight

The next song, "If All Sleep Tonight," did just that--the flapping-flickering sound of the guitar melody in the intro and in the pre-stanza interludes. And this is what connects "Kapalarang Kuwago" to "If All Sleep Tonight"--the fluttering-flickering sound that should have been also in the former song. I have to mention also the fact that the short drum solo Bimbo Ballesteros made in the intro of "If All Sleep Tonight" was an allusion to the intro of The Cure's "Inbetween Days."

Brother's Pen
"Brother's Pen" starts with "too-too-too"--this is a continuation of the "choo-choo-choo" in the coda (ending) of "Butterflies." This is the reason in the self-produced HLHD CD that I produced I rearranged the order of the songs, putting "Brother's Pen" right after "Butterflies." This is one detail I failed to take note back in 1995.

Summer's Rain
The Classical piece "Summer's Rain" was composed by Rain long before many of the songs in the album were made. The keen listener would have realized that the chorus of the next song, "Radio Madness," was built around that melody. Originally, "Summer's Rain" was voted out during our band deliberation on which pieces to include in our album--the reason of my bandmates who voted it out was, this Classical piece is out of place in this kind of album. I really couldn't sleep over this decision. I always believed that "Summer's Rain" is a perfect prelude to the song whose choral melody was built upon it. What I did was pester Rain endlessly for many evenings, calling him over the phone, to insist that we should include this in the album. He said he couldn't defy the decision of the band as a whole. I did not pursue the issue anymore, but begrudgingly.

Then, one recording session when I was late (I was rarely late during the entire recording process because I really wanted to be involved in every detail of the making of the album), Rain was already in the recording booth. I wondered what he was recording, and when I finally realized what it was, was really surprised very pleasantly—Rain was armed with his Classical guitar, recording “Summer’s Rain”! Why he eventually heeded my request, I no longer asked him. More important was that it was finally included in the album.

Radio Madness and We Are the Saints
The fact is, even “Radio Madness” was nearly voted out of the album. My bandmates felt that the song was an oddity in our music, simply because it was already a Progressive Rock song—if one is to analyse the complicated structure and diverse instrumentation. Well, what could you expect—we made this song as our entry to the 1991 Yamaha Band Explosion, so it must be a competition quality—although we did not win, but that was okay—the contest gave birth to this very beautiful song. Truth be told, “Radio Madness” was already complicated but I was still dissatisfied by it back then because I still planned to incorporate more elements, but by the time we were recording it (it was the last song that we polished during the session), the recording budget that Viva Records had allotted for the album had run out! We were actually pitching in monetarily already for the remaining hours of recording! I still wanted to hire a string quartet, get a gong and a timpani, hire a rondalla group and a church choir (for both “We Are the Saints” and “Radio Madness”), but my bandmates were already being weirded out by my “crazy” musical ideas.

Sarimanok
Then “Sarimanok.” Again the technical musician should have realized that the guitar lead parts in this song sounded like the scratching and clucking sound of chickens. Rain made that possible. The festive quality of the music for this song should remind the listener of the style we used for our Christmas single “Sa Paskong Darating.” Again, this song was nearly voted out of the album—the lyrics, they said, was too pretentious, trying to be patriotic to a fault. By virtue of the music itself, I fought for it to be included. I made a compromise—I told my bandmates that I would revise the lyric a bit, so I did. The result was not anymore too serious. I was able to put humor in it. The original words to this song came from an old poem I wrote, entitled “Pagtilaok ng mga Manok.” I had to change this to “Sarimanok” because during the time I had more fondness for one-word titles. But in retrospect, if I could go back and change something, that would include reverting all the titles of the songs in our album that I had to shorten. “Butterflies” was actually “Butterflies Die in Silence.” “Alimango” was “At Nanipit ang mga Alimango.” “Sarimanok” was “Pagtilaok ng mga Manok.” And “Kapalarang Kuwago” was “Kapalarang Kuwago ang Sinapit Ko.”

Aligue
“Aligue” is my (our) kid version of “Alimango.” And even before, I never denied that my inspiration for this was The Clash’s “Career Opportunities,” which has a Punk version and a kid version. I also wrestled with the group for this song to be included in the album. For the sake of fun, they had to concede. Even Francis Reyes was goofing around with the plastic toy guitar during the recording of this track.

Engkanto and Cariñosa
 Obviously “Engkanto” and “Cariñosa” are two separate songs, but in my mind, they are really musically interconnected. So, I put them beside each other, using the cricket sounds (which Pet and I personally recorded using a portable cassette recorder one early morning at the tree and grassy area near our house in Project 6, Quezon City.

Yes, every single detail of Pymyth Prahn was well-thought of. From the album cover to the order of the songs to the text on the sleeve. From every note and sound effects to the instruments used. I remember literally sketching on paper the panning position (left to right speaker) every track for every song in the album would take. For example, Pet’s main vocal part in “We Are the Saints” was panned 45% to the left and my accompanying falsetto 45% to the right, and we employed this trick for every twin-vocal approach that Pet and I made—“Sarimanok” and “Engkanto.”

Furthermore, I have to mention also the fact that I personally suggested and arranged for the guesting of most of the members of Half Life Half Death for the album--in hindsight, I knew that this might be the only album that we would have had to release so I ensured that they were a part of this musical celebration of everything Half Life Half Death was all about: Carol Pobre, Rozylyn Torres, Edmund Villafuerte, Jonathan Mejino, and Joel Reyes; and not to forget the slew of fellow local artists whom included Lani Toquero of Tribal Fish, Jett Pangan and Francis Reyes of The Dawn, and Zeejay Jacob of Kelts Cross.

Pymyth Prahn is a concept album, and it was all planned. It was my personal idea of a kind of music combining clearly my three most-favorite genres--Classical, Progressive Rock, and New Wave.

I thank the late music critic Goldwyn Morales Azul from the bottom of my heart for having been able to get the concept of Half Life Half Death’s music. And it was in 1996, the year the CD version of the album was released. (The cassette-tape format was released in 1995.)