Tarsius and Patience Dear Juggernaut give it away now
MANILA, Philippines - It feels like Christmas came early this year, and in the same week! That’s because two artists I’m already a fan of released new albums, and gave them away for free.
Earlier this week, Girl The Impaler was announced as available for free download. It’s the debut album of Patience Dear Juggernaut, which is the solo project of Cameron Aquino, who is an alter ego of director and Us-2 Evil-0 guitarist/songwriter Wincy Ong. While that chain of identity may be confusing, the songs on the album aren’t: Girl the Impaler is an apt name for the collection of songs largely concerned with Aquino (nee Ong)’s dealings with the fairer sex. Heck, six of the songs’ titles directly address this, with three of those titles including the names of the girls specifically. But this isn’t the raw anguish, the “touching an exposed nerve” of, say, Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago. Ong’s whimsy (rhymes with Wincy) and trademark sense of humor forbid him from making a purely depressing, sad song (even if it were likely beautiful), so the songs are leavened with witty lyrics and quirky melodies that zig and zag on a usually upbeat momentum despite detailing the pitfalls of pining for someone out of your league (in Forget About Her) or wooing a woman only to find she pitches for the wrong team (Ellen). It’s an intimate album in many regards, not only because the entire thing was recorded and produced and sung by one man. It’s the record of a man who’s put his heart on his sleeve, only to find he’s running out of sleeve.
Just yesterday, the other shoe dropped: the long-awaited debut album of the prolific Diego Mapa’s electro/psych project Tarsius, called Primate. Mapa’s been a mainstay of the local music scene for more than the last decade, with memberships in Pedicab, Cambio, Dayuhan, and Monsterbot, as well as his own solo work as Eggboy or scoring for TV and advertising. Tarsius takes his love of electro, dance music, and psychrock to new heights, culminating in an album that straddles the lines of those genres while seamlessly changing lines at the drop of a (hi-)hat. A song might sound like one of Mogwai’s candle-burning crescendos or the propulsive breakbeat/dance of early UNKLE. In this way, it reminds me of Japanese genre wizard Cornelius, an avowed influence of Mapa’s, in that you never know what genre he’ll play with next, but you know you’ll enjoy the ride. The addition of Radioactive Sago Project drummer Jay Gapasin is a welcome one, especially live where they kick out their jams with a palpable sense of glee. The dexterity and nimble juggling of styles and generous drops of awesome moments displayed throughout the album led me to decree at the end of first listen that it was my album of the year, and further listens have only reinforced that initial impression. While the album is free, you can pledge at artisteconnect.com/projects/tarsius to get the vinyl LP version of the album made, which is going to feature a full re-mastering of the audio.
Tarsius’ Primate: Cover art/design by Electrolychee * * *
Get Patience Dear Juggernaut’s Girl The Impaler at http://patiencedearjuggernaut.bandcamp.com, and Tarsius’ Primate at http://esquiremagazine.ph / http://numberlinerecords.com.
