Hold our hand: A review of UNIQUE’s debut album

WE HAVE waited a long time for this. The rise of an incredibly talented Filipino artist in the singer-songwriter mold who can enrapture, mystify, and enthrall by the sheer power and impact of his singular work. OPM rock had always relied on the fusion of four or more souls and a dollop of British or American influences to produce what passes for, more or less, anthem music. This kind of music is meant to be listened to in large concert venues with the multitude or in drinking venues, all sharing the desire to lose their individuality to the indistinguishable collective.

But what about the kind of music that you want to listen to in the darkened corners of your room, in headphones, with eyes closed while the old and familiar waves of welcome sadness waft in? It takes a special kind of talent to be the preferred company in these intellectual and auditory yet solitary spaces. And only a few respected artists are invited in what turns out to be a conversation between souls - that of the singer-songwriter and the listener.

The opus of erstwhile frontman of the rising popular band IV of Spades, UNIQUE, he curiously labelled as Grandma, has been constant in my playlist for the past couple of days. Unlike the output of his former band which was some kind of rock-infused disco funk, this is music that you hold close and dear.

I am blown away by the talent and ambition of this work. I used to scoff at the recent generation of bands because they may be very musical and entertaining, but they lack the pathos and the depth that make their work stand out. I mean, how many, bands with banjos and violins do we need to express the same idea about youthful heartache and longing.

But consider UNIQUE’s approach to the same subject matter. In what could be the album’s best track, OZONE (Itulak ang Pinto), he croons about the night of expectation that attracted scores of young men and women to that doomed venue that fateful evening in 1996. Over a danceable funk track, he juxtaposed the fire of sexual tension among the club patrons with the engulfing flames that gutted down the disco club killing 162 souls. By all indications, the song is not goth, but the subject matter and the ironic treatment is as dark and brooding as you can get.

The mood of the album is actually brooding and ominous for the most part. UNIQUE taps into the atmospherics of notable contemporary artists such as The XX and Cigarettes After Sex which of course owe their musical DNA to the cold reverb sound characteristic of Joy Division. But UNIQUE’s approach is not aping these foreign musical styles for indie cred. He adapts but makes all his own, for instance, even his Jeff Buckley croon, in his first single Midnight Sky - the only light and unabashedly uplifting track in the album.

The song comes in midway through the album that was already getting dense and heavy. The effect was that the song shines and stands out because of the contrast. The careful sequencing of songs in Grandma is a throwback to the album as an artform with the proper introduction, crescendo, and denouement all present in the sections of the work.

Imagine a cross between Bon Iver and Joey Ayala? Although both are singer-songwriters of exceptional calibre, UNIQUE pulls a hybrid of the two quite effortlessly and convincingly in the track Apoy ng Kandila. He also has a way of stressing notes and words to create a dramatic effect like the great crooners and jazz artists we know.

Proof that UNIQUE is aiming for an uncompromising artistic statement in his debut are the extended intro and outro of a droning DX7 synth that runs on for almost a minute in my personal favorite track, We Know. It is an accomplished guitar-based song that is at once complex and mood-setting and representative of the sounds and emotional feel of the whole album. I believe it also points to the potential sound and feel of his future work.

What strange fruit this Filipino artist must be ingesting to create such a powerful piece of work? The fact that he is still 18 years-old make Grandma, his debut album, truly astonishing.

You are now welcome to stay, UNIQUE, in the bedroom and headphones of many Filipino music fans who appreciate earnest and thoughtful work. Thank you, as you sing in Midnight Sky, for holding our hand there too.