I forget that January this year in Manila would still count as a pandemic month. The state of Public Health Emergency throughout the Philippines due to COVID-19 was lifted on July 21, 2023. So there was still a sense that it wasn’t normal gimmick time. Music people were already heading out, but it wasn’t clear what spaces could become regular haunts, the new arrangements of where to find music.
In 2022 music people were saved by the second floor of building A in Karravin Plaza. Martin allowed for his space to host multiple events, and they ran the gamut – Elephant, Sadomaso Disco, and one extremely difficult noise event that could only really be listened to from the stairwell. Looking back now, we didn’t realize that the Jan event, an exuberant Elephant “clown” party, would be the last. The day after, other tenants had complained about the aftermath: noise, cigarette butts, messy people and the mess they left behind in the compound. So what was our favorite music space had gone out of commission, and we dispersed to other spots of M’s, like Oto.
Something cropped up for me in February: Seltsam. This is a bar on top of Gervacio Building, the main space of which is enclosed by a greenhouse-like structure. Stephan had put together an event called Oktave, which put together DJs who would play techno.
Jem (Davis) would be part of the Oktave line-up a number of times. Aside from Stephan (Levidian), also would spin were Bruder and later on, Alvaro. Because of these repeat performances, I started to get an idea of Jem’s sound – at turns atmospheric, later on harder. It is streamlined techno, no vocals, no house. Bruder had actually stopped spinning techno already, but could be requested to put a set together. Alvaro was new to the Manila scene. Oktave attracted a diverse yet distinct crowd of people that came out of the woodwork to listen to techno. It was the first green shoot out of our pandemic winter.
In July, the Club Kino space in La Fuerza launched.
Its first event was Kaput 2 Utopia, the latest incarnation of the art-techno music event of Derek Tumala. At the 1F side of the space would play: Auspicious Family, Bruder, Jem Davis, and Levidian. At the Kino side would play Tisha, Manilaanimal, Salamangkero, and Hideki. Mic B was full of praise for Jem’s set: “Ginalingan, niya.”
Part of the Kino space is allocated to 1F Projects – which had several exciting and thoughtful events this year.
The whole space is important because it feels like a physical grounding of the fragmented music scene.
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2024, barring catastrophe, should be strong.