One can only guess at the reaction of any intelligent alien life form that listens to this modest gem of an album. Composed of absurdist vignettes and lyrical wordplay (all to hilarious effect), Roxlee’s debut is a stark journey across the mental terrain of one of the most important and legendary underground local artists in the last 20 years. Armed with only his guitar, a harmonica and his imagination, Roxlee  ever the sari-sari store surrealist  gives a guided tour of his strange world and its even stranger occupants (which includes a thinking pig, straying noses and the spirit of a 1960s rock singer).
Beneath the tomfoolery of Roxlee’s tales, however, lies an undercurrent of post-millennium melancholy, most probably about the growing subtopian landscape around him. "I usually get my ideas when I’m in the mountains or around nature," answers Roxlee when asked where he feels most inspired. This is especially telling when one notices his particular empathy with creatures and the environment in the album. Indeed, on songs like The Lazy Frog, he tells of a grasshopper who tells off a man concerned about his thinning hair to worry instead about the mountains "which are no longer green." In the same song, a turtle happily composing a song is snatched and "made into turtle soup," her shell becoming a wall ornament.
Affected by what he sees, Roxlee seeks refuge in his art, transporting him into a more innocent state where he displays an infant’s relish at rolling words off his tongue  most evident in the nonsensical Kyutikyuti with its couplet: " Mga bulate ni kyutikyuti, pwedeng gawin spaghetti." On Unang Kita (especially the second version which sounds like it was recorded in an asylum) Roxlee sings as if in mourning, the childlike melody crying to be let back into the security of the womb. Augmented by the artist’s art brut approach to guitar playing and the honest timbre of his voice, the songs become almost painful in their sparseness.
Anarchic and funny, the songs on "Ghost of Rocker Janis" have the power to disarm even the most jaded of souls, belonging to the rich tradition of Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica, Sun City Girls’ Horse Cock Phepner and Syd Barret’s Opel.
Not that it’s strictly for the art gallery crowd. Roxlee’s distinctive humor  a trademark of his visual work  is sure to force a smile on just about anybody albeit with a knowing wink. " Does my song make sense?" he asks at the close of Twin Mountain. "Nothing makes sense in this world. The only thing that makes sense is when you hear or smell your own fart."
Now that’s something to think about.
"Ghost of Rocker Janis" is available at Tower Records Makati and Alabang. You can also call 0917-8961975 or e-mail documento@kookoo.ph. Also, you can visit the website of documento records at www.documentagon.com. There are only a few copies left so you better hurry!