They've got your number right here

Intrepid souls and the musically curious braved the sticky, humid night air the other Friday to attend the launch of Number Line Records at Saguijo.

The new, Manila-based independent music label is the brainchild of the Benedicto siblings: Micaela, Michael and Bobby, the trio behind the occasional pop-up shop We Are Triangle (Micaela and Michael also make music together as Outerhope).

They gathered like-minded (not necessarily like-sounding) individuals and bands to form the micro label, which specializes in free digital releases in an increasingly post-physical media landscape, where the thorny path of distribution and compensation remains, well, thorny.

At least this way, they get to release their music on their own terms.

The first 50 guests who showed up got free compilation CDs with varying cover art: one had a choice between artists Bea Camacho, Tof Zapanta, Dex Fernandez, Mariano Ching and Marcus Nada. Don’t fret if you didn’t get one, though; the compilation is available (of course) at their website. Most of the label got to perform, though one or two couldn’t make it, and another two acts with missing members joined forces to form some new mutant strain of “friend-band.”

Highlights tended to be solo acts like Tarsius, the psychedelic/electronic nom de awesome of Pedicab’s Diego Mapa.

Pedicab’s Diego Mapa

Ably assisted by Radioactive Sago Project drummer Jay Gapasin, Tarsius turned in a lively jazz-infused hip-hop/electro set that would have made his idol Daedelus proud.

Owel Alvero and Selena Salang, who share vocal duties for Ang Bandang Shirley, each debuted their solo projects: Owel’s very formal Manuel Nicolas Alvero and Selena’s Slow Hello, with a bass backup from sister Edwina.

Selena’s Slow Hello songs reminded me somewhat of The Spinanes, a good thing if ever I heard one. Alvero’s set, on the other hand, was of the primal man-and-his-electric-guitar variety: animalistic, sometimes pained, yet sincere.

Alvero also described it beautifully when I commended him that evening as “playing chicken with myself.”

Modulogeek, a.k.a. Joon Guillen, played an entertaining set, mixing chillwave with a more aggressive ‘90s-sounding artronica I haven’t heard locally in a while.

That’s not to say that any bands did badly. Indeed, I wasn’t familiar with Treblinka Love Scene or Love In Athens but I’m eager to hear more, based on their performances at the launch and their tracks on the compilation CD.

Head on over to Number Line’s website to score yourself some free music. As of this writing there’s the aforementioned compilation, an EP, a single, and a mix. If you like what you hear, then you’re in luck, because there’s more on the way. (Visit http://numberlinerecords.com.)

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Get some art in your veins! Check out MM Yu and Nona Garcia’s collaborative painting/photography exhibit “Space & 2 Points” at Mo Space in Bonifacio High St.! It runs until May 29. There’s also JP Cuison’s second solo show “Popzilla!” at the Secret Fresh Gallery at the Ronac Art Center. That one runs until May 23. Finally there’s the awesome Goldie Poblador’s “Ghost in the Machine” which is at the Liongoren Gallery and runs until the third of June.

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Ramon De Veyra blogs at thesecuriousdays.com but is more active on Twitter.