Bayanihan. It’s a Tagalog word that, loosely translated, describes a spirit of community and cooperation. The Bayanihan thread runs through everyday life in the Philippines and – naturally – is an organic element of Manila’s sound art and experimental music scene. The default relationship between producers and artists in the city is one of collaboration. From the NØNRANDØM performance nights in the chambers beneath Manila’s ancient Fort Santiago building to Ezzrei’s Continuum Bass phenomenon, performers help each other out, sharing equipment, time, advice and ideas. This is a vital and exciting scene, and one that deserves more international attention.

Ezzrei
“Ang Daigdig Ko’y Ikaw”
From Ang Daigdig Ko’y Ikaw
(Ezzrei) 2025

One of Manila’s handful of female producers, as well as running the Continuum Bass team of bass-driven performers, Ezzrei is determined to showcase Pinoy tradition and culture. “Ang Daigdig Ko’y Ikaw” is a case in point. Here, she takes a cherished Pinoy love song beloved of her grandmother and gently coaxes it into a bouncing, choppy junglist ballad. Ezzrei’s take is built around Celeste Legaspi’s version of “Ang Daigdig Ko’y Ikaw”. A singer, actor, film producer and civil rights campaigner, Legaspi’s swooping, strings-led version of the song was recorded in 1980.

Drago Katzov
“HALAM HARAL”
From Ashtrays To Gaza / Aural Torture Unit / Drago Katzov
(Drago Katzov) 2024

Drago Katzov (aka Markus Bulandus) emerges from his self-created swamp of distortion and noise to make dark layers of drone and neurotic glitch. The disquieting discourse continues with “HALAM HARAL”, a track in which all production elements seem to have been put through a phaser and then run backwards. “HALAM HARAL” is taken from a three-way split EP that also includes tracks from fellow countrymen Ashtrays To Gaza and Helsinki’s Aural Torture Unit, released on the Basement Corner Emissions netlabel out of Portland, Oregon.

The Conspiracy Tapes
“For As Long As It Takes”
From The Conspiracy Tapes
(The Conspiracy Tapes) 2023

Juan Paolo De Silva is the figure behind Manila’s NØNRANDØM, the regular club night that platforms sound artists and experimental musicians. Along with organising and producing NØNRANDØM events, Pao makes noise under his The Conspiracy Tapes pseudonym. Taken from the self-titled album, “For As Long As It Takes” is – for want of a better phrase – intelligent dance music, the sort of track that works well during the post-club hours. Understated and precisely produced, there is a hint of Kraftwerkian fascination with travel and motion at play here too. Unsurprisingly, Pao counts Aphex Twin, Autechre and “most Hotpoint white goods” among his influences.

Tarsius
“Vagabond”
From Vagabond
(Tarsius) 2025

With Diego Mapa on sampler and drums and Jay Gapasin on drums, Tarsius shapeshift their way across Manila’s underground music scene. A number of producers in the city have a fondness for dance genres that have their roots in the UK, and Tarsius’s influences include a predilection for the kind of two-step garage rhythms that fired up the South London club scene in the mid-1990s. “Vagabond” plugs into the duo’s affection for classic UK garage, clicking and clattering along as cut-up vocals and reverse ambient samples poke through a two-step rhythm.

Bobby Legaspi
“Solemn Surrender”
From Beneath Black Waves
(Bobby Legaspi) 2023

While Bobby Legaspi spends some of his time working with Filipino stoner rock and metal bands, the music he makes as a solo artist moves in calmer waters. Legaspi is a gifted guitarist who concerns himself with the possibilities his instrument can explore. Thus, the textural, instrumental strata he creates feature hazy drones, lambent, elusive melodies, and waves of electric delay. A track from Legaspi’s Beneath Black Waves album, listening to “Solemn Surrender” feels like standing alone in the ocean shallows on the darkest of nights. Bobby Legaspi makes beatific music.

Children Of Cathode Ray
“Mantracks”
From Mantracks
(Children Of Cathode Ray) 1990

Legendary by any measure, Children Of Cathode Ray formed in Manila in the late 1980s, and went on to shape the development of sound art in South East Asia and beyond. Made using reel-to-reel tape machines, “Mantracks” is one of the collective’s earliest surviving tracks. In fact, it was thought lost until 2013 when it was discovered on a cassette tape and remastered in digital format. In their early days, the collective included Tad Ermitaño, Jing Garcia, Blums Borres, Peter Marquez, Regiben Romana and Magyar Tuazon. Of the original line-up, Tad Ermitaño and Jing Garcia continue to perform as Children Of Cathode Ray.

autoceremony
“Retiring A Human By Mistake”
From Retiring A Human By Mistake
(autoceremony) 1996

Alongside his Children Of Cathode Ray duties, Jing Garcia has been performing and producing sound work as autoceremony since the mid-1990s. Created in 1996, “Retiring A Human By Mistake” is an early Garcia solo recording and one of the first he made using a computer as a production work station. Swayed by Joy Division, Skinny Puppy and Vangelis’s Blade Runner soundtrack, “Retiring A Human By Mistake” is underpinned by a descending, dragging bassline and reverb-drenched drums, as disembodied radio voices jabber and jabs of static wander in and out. All mastered on a Pioneer MiniDisc PMD-R1 portable recorder.

s00thsyr
“Calm Under Pressure”
From s00thsyr
(s00thsyr) 2025

A regular performer at both NØNRANDØM and Continuum Bass events, Mico Catipon (aka s00thsayr) is known locally for his rhythmic ability. A trained drummer, when push comes to shove, the Akai MPC is s00thsyr’s chosen weapon. Essentially an electronic sampler and drum machine, the grid of pads on the Akai MPC means it can be played like a set of drums. Subtitled “(live finger drums)”, the “Calm Under Pressure” track finds s00thsayr punishing the Akai MPC pads as he wrests a decidedly retro-sounding slice of intelligent drum ’n’ bass from his machine. Slickly smooth and reassuringly hectic by turns.

Read Simon Coates’s full report from Manila in The Wire 498. Buy the issue in our online shop. Wire subscribers can also read the article online via the digital magazine library.