Word: manila
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...most stereotypes, these are both true and untrue. Filipino hotel entertainers proliferate across the globe, but they are merely the workaday exports of a culture that, on its home turf, plays louder, harder and in more diverse ways than just about any other. Head out most nights in Metro Manila, and you'll be spoiled for original live sound, be it R&B, indie pop, electro-fusion or punk...
...scene this vibrant, it's hard for any act to rise above the clamor, but Up Dharma Down might just be doing so. Beloved of air-punching fans and chin-stroking critics alike, this genre-defying quartet was pegged by BBC radio DJ Mark Coles last year as the Manila band most likely to cross over to the lucrative Anglophone market of North America. Its internationally viable sound shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows the environment it sprang from. "The Philippines is used to following global music trends," says Toti Dalmacion, Up Dharma Down's manager...
...musical reference points, from the fey electronica of Zero 7 to the studied cool of David Sylvian. It makes for music that manages to be both thoughtful and sensual. "A band like this doesn't come around more than once in every 10 years," says Rock Drilon, founder of Manila's influential live venue Mag:net Café. Adds Andrew de Castro, program director of MTV Philippines, "When everyone else was doing rock, [the band] came out with fresh electronic-based neo-soul, with a drum-and-bass rhythm section and an ambient guitar sound...
...Manila got its first taste of Up Dharma Down in 2004 at a bimonthly showcase for untried acts. That sensational evening at Café saGuijo-a proving ground for Manila's young bands-immediately caught the attention of local cognoscenti, and the next time the band played, the venue was packed. Since then, Up Dharma Down has won national music awards for its debut album, Fragmented, and it was nominated for Best New Artist at the Philippines' 2006 MTV Music Video Awards. It was also the first Filipino band to appear on MTV's Advance Warning, a showcase...
...base. Millare certainly hasn't let the kudos go to her head; in fact, she has set a straightforward goal for the band's immediate future. "The most important thing," she says, "is to be heard." She could be speaking for young musicians in bars all over Manila...