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Let me put it bluntly, Franco sounds a lot like Urbandub. Early pre-synth and sampling Urbandub, to be precise, with a prominent reggae dub twist. The first time I got a whiff of their song “Castaway”, I thought it was Urbandub with a cool guest vocalist. Put your money on the soaring hearty vocal melodies and harmonies, substantial gut-wrenching wall-of-sound distortion alternating with floaty delay-laden guitar riffs, deliberate mathematical drumming, all tinged with a dub and reggae sheen, and it all works like street-grade tetrahydrocannabinol.
The pedigree is understandable, though, as a good part of the band is made up by Urbandub. Gabby Alipe plays guitar and Jan-jan Mendoza handles the skins joining Parokya ni Edgar’s Buwi Meneses on bass and Eight Toleran of Queso on yet another guitar. Which is not a bad thing, at all. The early Urbandub has some of my favorite songs of all time and Influence is probably my choice for the best OPM album ever. What gives this band a fresh new twist is Franco Reyes’ commanding presence, vocal and otherwise. The new Urbandub sound is somewhat infused with experimental forays into electronica and soundscape samples, probably designed by the band commitee, but Franco’s sound is a more straight-forward, in-your face modern rock machine. What I love about these wall-of-sound guitar bands is how the gentle, extended vocal croonings intersperse with the massive, buzzsaw. monster guitar rhythms. Think Smashing Pumpkin’s Siamese Dream with better singing.Yet everything sounds so fresh and exciting.
I kept imagining what the band would sound like if Alipe was singing instead of Franco, I would suppose it would more than alter the feel of the songs. Franco Reyes is more of a darkly-timbred baritone while Alipe’s register is a lighter tenor. Franco sounds like a rugged gentleman waiting to hitchhike so he could serenade you with his road-weary travelogue while Alipe sounds more like your hyper emo younger brother planning on slashing his wrists in the room corner while waiting for dinner. So naturally Franco’s songs are more like barked commands and Urbandub’s are like pleas for help.
But enough of the unfair comparisons. How’s the album?
The album was packaged in an eco-friendly paper case (it’s okay, but I still prefer a plastic case to protect it) and the tracks I think were mastered in a gapless sequence.
Ok, now there’s their signature song, “Castaway”, a floaty, dreamy ode to rejection but my favorite song has to be ‘The Last Waltz”. With its exotic delayed guitar, awesome time signature changes, a dirty,raunchy guitar solo part, it sounds like Muse, albeit an octave lower.
Some songs are a potent mix of metal, modern rock and dub ( which Urbandub also had in a lesser extent) . Franco’s diction actually morphs between a reggae rastafari and his usual rock crooner self which he definitely flaunts in the track ” Song or the Suspect” with a single sample of the word “rastafari” slipped in. See what I mean. It’s a collage and he knows it. Other songs in that vein are “Touch the Sky”, “This Gathering” ( with a slinky slide guitar intro) and “A Mass for the End of Time”. These are rollercoaster tracks infused with Tool-like riffage and Vibronic dub reggae atmospheres. They all work like they’re supposed to. Happy but mad.
My other favorite tracks are more of the straight-laced melody rock variety. “Seasons” is a poppy bootycall love song with nice riffage (shades of Gabby Alipe again). Same with “Memory Kill” and ” The Gathering”. I’ll do a double-take and say they’re great Urbandub songs if not for the voice.”Next Train Out” is a little harder for me to pinpoint. The vocals are more wrenched here, starts a bit like (forgive me for saying this, I’m pulling this off the top of my head) Chad Kroeger perhaps, but thankully the song gets better as you go along.
One oddball track they threw in is “Tetrahydrochloride”, this probably is just a filler. With lyrics like “How high can you go?” and “embrace the natural” in rastafari mode, we all know what this is all about.
And finally, the last acoustic track ” For My Dearly Departed”. Set against the sounds of an ocean, it’s a rather generic song, but it showcases Franco Reyes’ voice nakedly. It sounds like it was a one take song, which prominently gives it a rootsy, raw, homely feel. Good way to end a great album.
So was this whole album worth buying? Definitely! Franco’s sound is like Urbandub’s older cousin. Same roots, totally different personality. Like the band itself, it’s a total whirlwind of contrasting sounds and styles working cohesively for a great,new, wondrous experience. If you’re a self-respecting Pinoy music advocate wondering where Philippine rock will fan out, get this album now!
