INDIE JONES (two reviews)
IBO
Love is Where We’re Going
(Sean Power)
RATING: three and a half
RAYYN
Rayyn
(Three Fates, N/A)
RATING: three and a half
Something’s very wrong with music today, ladies and gentlemen, and the problem can be summed up in two words: record companies.
Major record labels are not evil in themselves, of course—nine out of ten albums that you buy probably come courtesy of one of them, and for that service we should be grateful. But all over the world the big players in the music industry are facing an increasingly competitive global market, and in order to keep themselves intact, they’ve begun to hold sacred The Bottom Line. It’s understandable—the music industry is still industry, after all, and they need to make a profit. But this is also an artistic industry, and when the art itself begins to come in second to fiscal concerns, then that is trouble.
You’ll have felt the effects yourself, even if you don’t know it. Ever wonder why there are fewer new acts today? Or why all those up-and-comers from a few years ago have suddenly vanished? It’s a direct consequence of the pursuit of the bottom line. As the labels face more pressure to make sales, they’ve cut their rosters drastically over the past few years, cutting out nearly everyone who wasn’t a big-name star, and giving new artists a short deadline to meet sales quotas. And, in order to improve their chances at mainstream success, the labels mostly sign up artists in the Flavor of the Month, keeping out the groundbreakers, keeping the scene stagnant.
I realize that this is oversimplifying the matter. The music industry, both locally and internationally, have a plethora of issues they need to address to make the scene as vibrant and exciting as it was 20, 30 years ago. But the major labels’ overdomination of the industry is one of the key problems, and one that is only becoming worse as the smaller labels are bought out and companies merge.
Artists have begun to realize that resisting the major labels’ wooing and going at it independently—not only do they get a higher percentage of the profits this way, but they are also given free rein over their own music. While indie artists used to be looked down upon as second-string musicians not talented enough to snag a recording contract with a respectable country, this is no longer true, especially as some of the world’s most talented, most innovative musicians are releasing their albums on indie labels.
The iBo project is indie at its purest. iBo’s first CD, Love is Where We’re Going was written, recorded, and distributed by Sean Power, an Englishman connected with the British Council. “The album is totally self-financed, as I wanted to maintain as much artistic independence as possible,” Power explains.
His efforts are in themselves impressive, but listeners will be glad to find out that Love is Where We’re Going is also an impressive album. The CD offers 10 radio-friendly jazz-funk tracks, written and produced in collaboration with a number of local musicians, most notably Victor Oria from the show band Parliament Syndicate.
Power proves himself an inventive songwriter, lacing the easy jazz tracks with electronic flourishes, and coating the whole thing in pop friendliness. Two of its tracks—the bouncy “A Matter of Fact” and the laid-back “Sing with Your Body”—have been getting radio airplay, but the listener will find that the CD offers a more diverse range of listening options, as well as a few more standout tracks. “20/3/24” is a pop ballad that showcases the talents of contributing vocalist Judith Alagarbes. The Latin beat of “About to Happen” provides a nice change of pace, and Maria Cielo del Carmen’s vocals here are also a good surprise.
In all, Love is Where We’re Going is an album of refreshingly clean, surprisingly likeable pop jazz pieces that go easy on the ears, but which also pulls off the big trick of being memorable without being banal. The CD peaked at #23 on Tower Records’ sales charts—“not bad for a band coming out of nowhere, with little or no promotion,” Sean notes. With sales fueled by radio airplay and by word-of-mouth, the reception has been encouraging enough for iBo to start work on a second CD—definitely something to watch out for.
In the meantime, N/A Records has been around for a year now, and in the space of those 12 or so months, it has made itself the leading indie label in the country today. Folk rock queen Cynthia Alexander is the label’s biggest name, but their roster includes a number of up-and-comers all set to breakthrough to the mainstream soon: folkies Noel Cabangon and the Makiling Ensemble have each gained a cult following, and their recent albums have sold well.
In the meantime, among the most promising of N/A’s new artists is Rayyn, whose self-titled CD is set to be released this month. The N/A artist with the most mainstream potential, his debut is a gentle pop/ alternative rock album strongly reminiscent of the music of Jars of Clay or Creed, full of sensitive-male songs with serene melodies and poetic lyrics dealing with emotional issues and matters of faith and belief.
Rayyn is perhaps one of the most fully-formed young musicians to emerge into the music scene in the past few years—though he’s a new name, his songs display a surprising fullness that is usually found in artists who’ve had more public exposure than he. The multi-instrumentalist Rayyn is a deft songwriter: his holistic approach to composition is evident in the way his songs come out—the instruments meld together seamlessly, resulting in compact, solid pieces that sound deceptively effortless.
“Solitary” is a standout track: Starting out with a quiet piano, the track quickly unfolds as one of the album’s faster tracks, though its theme—unrequited love, of course—would probably call for lugubrious, mournful melodies in less imaginative hands.
“Follow You” is another strong track, with its catchy refrain and uplifting theme eventually overcoming a slow start. It’s “Hold On” that’s the album’s first single (with “Solitary” set to come after), but “Follow You” is the one that stuck in my head after the CD played out.
Rayyn is likely to catch up with Barbie Almabis as the country’s most talented singer-songwriters, though in the meantime he needs to refine the quality of his lyrics a bit more, since its quality varies from the poetic and evocative (“mother may I break the window/ and leave the pieces on the floor/ I send a silent prayer to still my hesitation and walk out through the door”) to the just plain hokey (“as I travel down this road of blind uncertainty/ scared of what the future holds, while you watched over me”); and do something about his overly breathy, truncated vocal style, which makes it hard to listen to him for long periods of time. But these are problems are dwarfed by his sheer potential.
Given time and luck, iBo and Rayyn might have found a place in the stables of a record company, but the leeway afforded by independent recordings can’t be matched by the labels. That’s good news for the artist—and good news for you and me. —Kristine Fonacier
Love is Where We’re Going
(Sean Power)
RATING: three and a half
RAYYN
Rayyn
(Three Fates, N/A)
RATING: three and a half
Something’s very wrong with music today, ladies and gentlemen, and the problem can be summed up in two words: record companies.
Major record labels are not evil in themselves, of course—nine out of ten albums that you buy probably come courtesy of one of them, and for that service we should be grateful. But all over the world the big players in the music industry are facing an increasingly competitive global market, and in order to keep themselves intact, they’ve begun to hold sacred The Bottom Line. It’s understandable—the music industry is still industry, after all, and they need to make a profit. But this is also an artistic industry, and when the art itself begins to come in second to fiscal concerns, then that is trouble.
You’ll have felt the effects yourself, even if you don’t know it. Ever wonder why there are fewer new acts today? Or why all those up-and-comers from a few years ago have suddenly vanished? It’s a direct consequence of the pursuit of the bottom line. As the labels face more pressure to make sales, they’ve cut their rosters drastically over the past few years, cutting out nearly everyone who wasn’t a big-name star, and giving new artists a short deadline to meet sales quotas. And, in order to improve their chances at mainstream success, the labels mostly sign up artists in the Flavor of the Month, keeping out the groundbreakers, keeping the scene stagnant.
I realize that this is oversimplifying the matter. The music industry, both locally and internationally, have a plethora of issues they need to address to make the scene as vibrant and exciting as it was 20, 30 years ago. But the major labels’ overdomination of the industry is one of the key problems, and one that is only becoming worse as the smaller labels are bought out and companies merge.
Artists have begun to realize that resisting the major labels’ wooing and going at it independently—not only do they get a higher percentage of the profits this way, but they are also given free rein over their own music. While indie artists used to be looked down upon as second-string musicians not talented enough to snag a recording contract with a respectable country, this is no longer true, especially as some of the world’s most talented, most innovative musicians are releasing their albums on indie labels.
The iBo project is indie at its purest. iBo’s first CD, Love is Where We’re Going was written, recorded, and distributed by Sean Power, an Englishman connected with the British Council. “The album is totally self-financed, as I wanted to maintain as much artistic independence as possible,” Power explains.
His efforts are in themselves impressive, but listeners will be glad to find out that Love is Where We’re Going is also an impressive album. The CD offers 10 radio-friendly jazz-funk tracks, written and produced in collaboration with a number of local musicians, most notably Victor Oria from the show band Parliament Syndicate.
Power proves himself an inventive songwriter, lacing the easy jazz tracks with electronic flourishes, and coating the whole thing in pop friendliness. Two of its tracks—the bouncy “A Matter of Fact” and the laid-back “Sing with Your Body”—have been getting radio airplay, but the listener will find that the CD offers a more diverse range of listening options, as well as a few more standout tracks. “20/3/24” is a pop ballad that showcases the talents of contributing vocalist Judith Alagarbes. The Latin beat of “About to Happen” provides a nice change of pace, and Maria Cielo del Carmen’s vocals here are also a good surprise.
In all, Love is Where We’re Going is an album of refreshingly clean, surprisingly likeable pop jazz pieces that go easy on the ears, but which also pulls off the big trick of being memorable without being banal. The CD peaked at #23 on Tower Records’ sales charts—“not bad for a band coming out of nowhere, with little or no promotion,” Sean notes. With sales fueled by radio airplay and by word-of-mouth, the reception has been encouraging enough for iBo to start work on a second CD—definitely something to watch out for.
In the meantime, N/A Records has been around for a year now, and in the space of those 12 or so months, it has made itself the leading indie label in the country today. Folk rock queen Cynthia Alexander is the label’s biggest name, but their roster includes a number of up-and-comers all set to breakthrough to the mainstream soon: folkies Noel Cabangon and the Makiling Ensemble have each gained a cult following, and their recent albums have sold well.
In the meantime, among the most promising of N/A’s new artists is Rayyn, whose self-titled CD is set to be released this month. The N/A artist with the most mainstream potential, his debut is a gentle pop/ alternative rock album strongly reminiscent of the music of Jars of Clay or Creed, full of sensitive-male songs with serene melodies and poetic lyrics dealing with emotional issues and matters of faith and belief.
Rayyn is perhaps one of the most fully-formed young musicians to emerge into the music scene in the past few years—though he’s a new name, his songs display a surprising fullness that is usually found in artists who’ve had more public exposure than he. The multi-instrumentalist Rayyn is a deft songwriter: his holistic approach to composition is evident in the way his songs come out—the instruments meld together seamlessly, resulting in compact, solid pieces that sound deceptively effortless.
“Solitary” is a standout track: Starting out with a quiet piano, the track quickly unfolds as one of the album’s faster tracks, though its theme—unrequited love, of course—would probably call for lugubrious, mournful melodies in less imaginative hands.
“Follow You” is another strong track, with its catchy refrain and uplifting theme eventually overcoming a slow start. It’s “Hold On” that’s the album’s first single (with “Solitary” set to come after), but “Follow You” is the one that stuck in my head after the CD played out.
Rayyn is likely to catch up with Barbie Almabis as the country’s most talented singer-songwriters, though in the meantime he needs to refine the quality of his lyrics a bit more, since its quality varies from the poetic and evocative (“mother may I break the window/ and leave the pieces on the floor/ I send a silent prayer to still my hesitation and walk out through the door”) to the just plain hokey (“as I travel down this road of blind uncertainty/ scared of what the future holds, while you watched over me”); and do something about his overly breathy, truncated vocal style, which makes it hard to listen to him for long periods of time. But these are problems are dwarfed by his sheer potential.
Given time and luck, iBo and Rayyn might have found a place in the stables of a record company, but the leeway afforded by independent recordings can’t be matched by the labels. That’s good news for the artist—and good news for you and me. —Kristine Fonacier
posted by Kristine F. | Wednesday, August 01, 2001
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