A listing of brave and bold Pinoy alternative music acts.
Young music artist Rienne delivers a vibrant indie pop sound with her latest single titled “Just Friends.”
The 20-year old singer is now based in West Virginia USA but is born and raised in the ye olde Pilipinas. Rienne is a self-taught musician and singer-songwriter and has been since she began showing interest in music when she was just thirteen.
Rienne’s new single “Just Friends” is a bright sounding indie pop number with driving rhythm guitars set against glittering melodies that shine bright like Christmas lights. Rienne sings about “not ending up with the person you like,” as she said so in her official press. And that the bright upbeat sounds masks Rienne’s frustration of wanting to be more than, as the title suggests, “Just Friends.”
Rienne shows a lot of promise. Her themes swirl around “living with depression and the experiences of being LGBTQ+.” ‘Just Friend is the second installment of a three-single trilogy that started with the initial track “Try Again” – a minimalist indie pop-punk track that starts off with the line “here we are again at rock bottom.” But despite the earnest tone, the song is honest in its delivery. And that’s enough to be going along with.
Alternative pop rock band Over October has just released their first Tagalog single titled “Sandali Lang.”
According to the band’s press, this wistful sounding new number “tackles the feeling of falling in and out of love,” adding it’s about “emerging a better person after weathering the storm.”
This “emotionally captivating” song starts off as an acoustic driven number but builds up as a thumpy power ballad complete with a short guitar solo set to blister. Lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Josh Buizon does a good job of it vocally and transfers all of the emotional a-wanting and hurt through his singing which goes from regular to falsetto. Over October includes lead guitarist Josh Lua, drummer Janessa Geronimo and bassist Joric Canlas.
Local dream pop duo No Lore releases their second single entitled “Lou.” This catchy ear worm of a song is equal parts beautiful, haunting and playful.
The catchy synth riff that No Lore employs plays on “Lou” is an obvious nod to Barry Manilow’s “I Can’t Smile Without You” cleverly incorporated to reel the listener in and therefore make their own melodic argument on why we should listen to No Lore. Suffice to say that we are convinced by No Lore’s persistent musicality.
No Lore shares that “Lou is the Scot word for ‘love.’ But the song is about denying it. It portrays the image of a girl who hides the love she feels out of fear.”
No Lore is a dream pop, alternative pop duo that includes Tita Halaman a.k.a. Joisha and her brother Jerald Angelo. The fact that No Lore and a creative like Tita Halaman breathes the same air as ours here in Las Islas Filipinas encourages us to no end that Pinoy pop is way more than just about rap, ballads and what goes viral on TikTok. We daresay that No Lore has become a fast favorite.