The Wily Filipino

Taken By Cars, "Endings of a New Kind".

My friend Ruthie, who's all the way in Manila, and I (over here in Oakland) have this ongoing exchange over IM: she envies my being able to watch, say, Explosions in the Sky, and I'm envious of her being able to see, for instance, Up Dharma Down, pretty much any evening of the week. She's probably right, of course, but I would love to be able to catch my new favorite Filipino band discovery, Taken by Cars, in concert again.

I do like championing music I hear on this blog, even if everyone already knows who they are, but it's especially cooler to me if they happen to be Filipino (for obvious reasons). I saw Taken by Cars live at saGuijo in June of 2007, and I realize now, looking at my old entry, that I didn't really write anything about them. This was probably because I was being the uber-fanboy with the two other bands, but I do remember asking their lead singer (Was it her, drinking outside? How could I have forgotten that? How much did I have to drink?) about when their debut album was going to be released.

Well, it's finally out. The name Taken by Cars suggests a soundtrack to an abduction. Or escape. Either way (and those contradictions are present in the music), their debut album Endings of a New Kind is a driving record, no question about it. The propulsive rhythms suggest a restless urban energy, speeding metal vehicles, dangerous sideswipes in the dark, streetlights reflected off kilter in windshields, shards of glass twinkling dully on the pavement. In Manila that kind of driving happens anytime, but this is an evening record for sure. There's a chill to this music, but it's great for dancing to: imagine a sweaty tangle of brown limbs on the dance floor, if people weren't so shy at saGuijo (and the place wasn't so small). Cold and hot: those contradictions again.

It's not necessarily groundbreaking music, but if the idea of, say, Bloc Party, fronted by a woman vocalist sounds appealing to you, then Taken By Cars should be worth checking out. Endings of a New Kind is full of a nervous, postpunk energy -- maybe a little too clean to sound like the bruised guitars of Gang of Four, but it's certainly from the same musical gene pool. And it's simply great stuff.

The second track, "Uh Oh" (the album's real beginning) has a perfect opening, as instruments fall rapidly into formation: drum heartbeat, stabbing guitar riff, and suddenly, best of all, a synth refrain parachuted in from 1982. "Here I am in full battle gear," sings Sarah Marco. "Here I am wanting you," she adds, and it's a tribute to her voice -- of limited range, maybe, but perfect for communicating this hovering between desire and defense, between languor and tension. It's slurry and drugged for one song (as on "Colourway"), breathy and poppy on another (as on "The Afterhours", with its swirl of crunchy electronic squiggles). (Her phrasings are from the same era, too -- Anja Huwe? Siouxsie? I can't tell.)

The guitar introduction to "All for a Tuesday" seems to steal a bit from Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" -- there's no hiding their musical influences, which is okay -- but this track showcases the twin guitar attack from Bryce Zialcita and Siopao Chua: chug and jangle on the left, soar and swoop on the right. "Logistical Nightmare" rests on a spiky foundation of driving rhythms and piercing guitar chimes, then positively levitates when it gets to the chorus. "Sexy confrontation" indeed.

If I have one small complaint, it has to do with the sequencing: all the fast songs are in a cramped queue on the first half of the album, with the second half being noticeably brighter and club-oriented than the first. ("Stereolove" is probably the weakest track in the collection, as if some DJ simply took the vocal track and plopped it onto a lackluster techno remix.) But we are at least rewarded with the concluding "Shapeshifter", though it does nothing of the sort, except that it builds into an uncoiling, multivocal crescendo that ends the album on a high note.

p.s. to Ruthie: Go get the album!

p.s.2. While the CD can be purchased at their gigs, mp3s can be downloaded at splintr.com, though I haven't tried it yet.

Posted by the wily filipino at February 8, 2008 12:02 AM