Peso Movement’s debut album is a 4-star riot
PESO MOVEMENT
The Gentle Sound of Chaos
WHO: Japs Sergio (guitars/vocals), Francis “Brew” Reyes (guitars), Macky Macaventa (bass), and Kurt Floreska (drums). Sergio is a former Rivermaya, Reyes bent chords for The Dawn, Floreska bashed skins for pop-rockers Soapdish, and Macaventa came from Milagros Dancehall Collective. So Peso Movement is an indie supergroup of sorts.
WHAT: Peso Movement came together in 2011 and their collective experience should give them a couple of legs up your typical freshmen who just wanna rock. But they would rather describe themselves as a new band. It may help that Japs Sergio calls their music “dirty rock.” Guitarist Francis Brew says he plays “fuzzy dirty riffs.”
THE GOOD: It may all come down to the dirty then and what dirty means to people living under the polluted haze of Metro Manila. A cursory listen tells however that there’s nothing dirty (as in smelly) about “The Gentle Sound of Chaos.”
All possible grime and filth blows up in the air because Peso Movement plays backbeat-driven hard rock.
The 12 tracks either start with a frantic drum beat or, from a slow start, the drums taking a minute to kick out the jams. Guitar parts and vocals rise up to the challenge of the big slams and rolls.
Its basic touchstone is garage rock. Yes, it’s got that 60s garage rock vibe of The Standells’ “Dirty Water,” for instance, except that there are no blues nor menace in them darn riffs.
In ordinary circumstances, this could have taken Peso Movement to the sound of the last 60s psychedelic revival bannered by the likes of The Hives and The Strokes.
The nearest they came to that are the Lenny Kravitz scrapes in “Pwersa” and the Smashing Pumpkins sound-off in the opener “State of Bliss.”
It’s Japs Sergio’s helium vocals like a new wave Johnny Rotten that have to do overtime. He co-wrote all of the songs, though, so he has the final word on how best to deliver the emotion or force behind each track.
The songs deal with living in confusion and, well, in the low-level chaos of urban life. There are references to Internet connection, youth and materialism and loss of gravity.
Little gems of thought stream forth: “Set me up with the great blue sky/Can I bring the timeline of my life?” from “Loss of Gravity” and “Bumisita sa kahapon tangay ang armas ng ngayon/Ang pana ng panahon” in the love song-ish “Kita-Kita na Lang.”
THE BAD: Not stinky bad but “The Gentle Sound of Chaos” reads like a sophomoric play on words to describe a sound that’s neither gentle nor chaotic.
THE UGLY: No garbage in this pile.
THE VERDICT: Peso Movement’s debut pays some sideways tribute to 90s influences but in sum, they’ve got their own rocking take on gentleness and chaos. The inclusion of a tribute to Ka Andres Bonifacio in “Aling Pag-ibig Pa?,” however, deserves an altogether separate treatise on love and revolt. But that piece was written for another project anyway.
BEST TRACKS: “House Arrest,” “Five Star Riot,” “Dadami Pera”
Peso Movement’s “The Gentle Sound of Chaos” is available on Amazon and CD Baby. For more purchasing options and updates, follow Peso Movement on Facebook.
