Kadangyan up with ‘Islas de los Pintados’

An emotional Kadangyan swan song left me welling with tears as they announced of their surge into mainstream Manila music during a performance at the Kahayag Café recently.

Obviously, the capital is the niche for opportunities for music artists to be signed up for a major label and this is the direction Kadangyan, dubbed "godfather of ethno-tribal music" here, is heading.

The pack of Baba Mitra, son of the Gran Cordillera; Iligan City-born Jean Marquesto aka John Govinda, Sugbuano siblings Jerome and Rolly Resuera and Rolo Manayon once again glowed with that spellbinding charm as they played for the last time at the Kahayag open platform their gangsa and Muslim gong to connect cultures of the rich North and the feisty South through their Earth/World music.

As expected, the farewell performance was awesome as they chanted the hypnotic mantra of infinite love "Babanam" — "O, Bhavanam kaiwalam."

Recently, I exchanged text messages with John who expressed of the group’s eagerness to penetrate a wider market under the management of Ms. Ann Angala, who used to handle Eraserheads, frontliner of the alternative rock explosion in the country’s music industry.

John is just so eager to "come home" to Cebu because he misses the pace of life here, but could not do it yet because of flooding commitments.

"Nindot na unta i-uli diha kay diri mora ta’g naggukod sa panahon permi, but we are booked for the rest of the month," John’s text message read. Kadangyan is also working on materials for their second album that John said he would reveal full details through e-mail when he finds time.

He mentioned of their performances at Penguin Café along Remedios street in Malate last September 9, Concert at the Park last September 10, at the Conspiracy along Visayas avenue in Quezon City yesterday which were all very successful as crowds were definitely a mix of regional cultural groups.

"Mao ni nakanindot sa Kadangyan kay we are a mix of Filipino ethnic subgroups. We represent regional cultures that our mix of audience could relate to," John pointed out.

 Later on tonight, they will be at the UP Theatre and on the 15th will play at the Siete Pecados of the Westin Plaza Hotel.

Also, I’m excited to learn they are busy working on the carrier of their second album. The carrier track "Islas de los Pintados" is what I consider the kind of song music enthusiasts should have an ear for because Pinoy music should have been constantly moving towards this direction.

"Islas de los Pintados" speaks of the ancient Filipinos who appreciate tattoo-ing as a form of art, and I’m just so glad this could open heightened awareness on body art. Their world music employing indigenous musical instruments and expounding on strong cultural continuity, shrouded by the seemingly ambiance of trance, could lift to a higher level our interest and appreciation to study who the first Filipinos were and the "baybayin" being their old form of writing system.

"What we are propagating is music on what’s truly our own. Content of songs we can truly be proud of, and we have started from here to create consciousness that would give way to the recognition of cultural roots so that we may be able to know who we really are as a people and move from there to deal with our social issues and concerns," this according to Ifugao-born Baba.

The song bound to flow mainstream is set to point out there’s so much more to external wealth that’s only superficial. Beyond such is richness in knowledge, morals, culture, friends, and philosophy that a Filipino could possess if he would only take pride in recognizing his cultural roots and come to embrace tribal wisdom.