Formed : 2003
Members:
Ramon Mayor
vox/ambient guitar,
Jerome Velasco
effects/amb-guitar, Christian Conception drum machine/programming/textures
Label: Dissonance Recordings
Official Website:
www.myspace.com/theslavedrum
AMP Address:
amp.channelv.com/theslavedrum
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Latest News
Band Profile (Thu, 2 Aug.)
Formed in Manila, Philippines in early-2001, The Slave Drum was originally Jerome Velasco (Daydream Cycle, Citrusphere, Teeth) on ambient guitars and drum machine, Paulo Pacia (Digitalis) on bass, and Ramon Mayor (Digitalis, Trailsweeper) on vocals and acoustic guitar. Heavily influenced by most of the early atmospheric bands of the 80s and 90s, the band debuted at the old Intramuros spoken-word batcave, Sanctum Unmasct...mesmerizing the bohemian contingent with their minimalistic rhythms, folksy lamentations and hypnagogic ambient drones...eventually leading to their involvement with the experimental event production group ’An Elysium’ and releasing an eclectic debut under Dissonance Recordings in 2003...
The band is currently in the studio (The Drone Loft), writing and rehearsing for their 2nd album...so far, about 5 songs have been arranged and recorded. Pacia left early-2006 to pursue other things and has been succeeded by Chris Concepcion (of Decay Transit, Inflikt) on electronic drum programming and sound textures. They hope to release the album late-2007. (site concept & design by C. Concepcion / main band photo by Y. Sabalvaro / live photos by R. Ong / ’nature’ photos by R. Mayor)
Additional tracks available for your listen... (Thu, 2 Aug.)
Hi,
We are pleased to invite you to send your nominations for the upcoming AVIMA 2009 indie music awards (Asia’s First Independent music awards) set to be held on March 21st 2009.(deadline for song submissions are on February 12th, 2009)
The awards event is looking to honor the top independent talents from across Asia in 4 major genres hip-hop/rap, Pop(R&B/Jazz/Reggae), Dance/Electronica and Rock.
The AVIMA 2009 is a unique awards event that may be held at a venue or if there are budgets or logistical shortages, will then be a global webcast show. The current venues being explored for the event to be held is Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing or Singapore.
The event is open to any act that is geographically located in Asia and so far we have had more than 150 songs sent in for nominations from countries like Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Korea, India, the middle east and Taiwan.
Do email us your songs to music@voize.my (music at voize dot my)to be nominated in mp3 format or any readable format. You may also point us to your download sites at myspace, amp,youtube or even your own website.
AVIMA 2009 is organized by the Asian lifestyle and entertainment website Voize. my (www.voize. my). The company is based in Malaysia, and intends to champion the rights of independent bands all over Asia. We understand the plight and frustration of indie bands, and we wish to provide a platform for indie acts to showcase their true potential and how communities around the world are responding positively to fresh new sounds and genres.
If united, together, we can build the biggest indie music community in the world and get the due respect we deserve. We also intend to assist indie acts to cross-over into Europe and USA with regards to promotion,digital media platforms, mobile media, marketing, PR and concerts.
We hope to work with the media in each country to try and support the awards and provide create more awareness to the public. Please let us know who are the best radio stations, newspapers, TV stations, websites that we could write to, to help promote you and also the awards. Also let us know if there are any potential sponsors you feel that you may want us to contact from your respective country to be part of this event. We would be grateful if you could also get us the emails that we could write to.
Please refer to the attached Appendix (or scroll below) for the full list of award categories and awards criteria/regulations that can be considered for submission.
Here are the criteria and categories for AVIMA 2009:
a) 75% of band members must be of asian origin or born in Asia. If 75% of the band members have also resided for more than 2 years in an Asian country, then they are also eligible. In some instances, if the founder of the band is Asian, and the other members are not Asian, but reside in an Asian country, they are eligible too.The only exception is for the best college act category, where an act of any nationality may submit as long as they are from an Asian college/university
b) Songs submitted must have been released between December 1st 2007 and December 31st 2008.
c) Indie acts may submit unreleased songs for the awards. Even “live” sessions, concert songs or demos are eligible. We understand sometimes indie acts may not be able to afford to get into good studios to record.
d) Award winners are eligible to participate in the awards
e) All indie acts must not be attached to any of the major labels – Sony BMG, Warner-EMI or Universal Music. However if your song is distributed by the 4 major labels but they dont own the rights to your songs, and your song in itself is independent, then you may be eligible. The concept of the Independent awards is to honor songs and EP's and not albums.
f) Deadline to submit all songs will be on February 12th 2009.
Voize. my is also the organizer of VIMA indie music awards, Malaysia’s First Indie Music awards show
We look forward to having you nominated for this "KOOL" music awards. Do email me (editor@voize.my) should you need any clarification with regards to the awards.And check back often at www. voize. my for more details. Also, we would love to do any phone interviews, album reviews or host your video links on our site to give you more exposure in Asia. We want to help you and the independent music scene to grow.
Cheers!
(6 nominees in each main category and 3 awards to be given out- Gold, Silver and Bronze) :
1. Best Pop
- Best Pop Song
- Best Pop Act (Group, duo or individual)
2. Best Rock
- Best Rock Song
- Best Rock Act(Group, duo or individual)
3. Best Hip-Hop
- Best Hip-Hop Song
- Best Hip-Hop Act(Group, duo or individual)
4. Best Dance
- Best Dance Song
- Best Dance Act(Group, duo or individual)
The Fun sub-categories are as follows
5. Best Remix
6. Best Collaboration (between 2 acts or more)
7. Best Instrumental
8. Best Genre Bender (more than 2 genres in a song e.g alternative-jazz,ambient-rock,dance-rap)
9. Best Song To Play At Camp Fire and To Do Away With Monday Morning Blues (for all songs acoustic, ambient, folk or mellow)
10. Best Dance Dj (Club)
11. Best College Act (any college or university act can apply-it doesn’t matter what nationality)
12. Best Guitar "Goreng" Riff (best guitar riff)
13. Best Act In the Whole Universe (International Act)
14. Best Album/Single Cover Art
15. Best Freaking Act Of The Year (voted by the nominees on who they feel is their their favourite indie act in Asia)
17. Most Mind Blowing Music Video
Cheers..and Be [i]ndependent!
Siva Chandran
Managing Editor, Voize. my (editor@voize.my))
Founder of VIMA 2008/AVIMA 2009
yo mga pards!
sali kayo sa 88DB Online Battle of the Bands! Sa Pilipinas lang yung contest.
First prize is 10,000 Php
2nd prize is 8,000 Php
3rd prize is 6,000 Php
walang registration fee to join the contest!
log on to: www.88db.com.ph to know more about the contest.
pwedeng pwede kayo sumali sa 88DB Online Battle of the Bands! lahat ng Genre invited. so, log on na sa www.88db.com.ph to register your band and to know more about the contest.
You can always buy the album at Fully booked branches, Bukswagen Experiments, Magnet, Montage, Blanc Gallery, Exit Rafa's Cafe or Tokyo, Belgium,Amsterdam for international purchase.
For a complete info, check location details at the bottom of this page.
Spirit Dancer, Dark Dancer
Get lost in the sway and soundscapes of The Slave Drum...
by Karl R. de Mesa
I always thought I'd die at 27. I still have a month to go before I pass the mark but, barring a miraculous "act of God" mishap, I dont think I'll vamoose within the rock and roll age of expiration.
Just in case, though, I've prepared a few things in lieu of my departure. Like what song to put on. I want you to know the song I want to be playing at my memorial service is Dead Can Dance's "Devorzhum."
That song is properly poignant, not to mention elegiac. It conjures in no particular order: long, shadowed corridors, romps on a forest floor, watching lightning storms, crowded streets, sunny fields of barley and a night sky with a full blanket of stars doing their calliope, time-lapse dance with Polaris unmoving at its center. Flashes of a life well lived but cut short, incomplete.
You can probably tell the song's got gravitas coming out its wazoo. Which is usual in a DCD song. Which is why I like it. Because, in between the sobbing women and stoically shaken men, "Devorzhum" will also provide a great soundtrack for the mourners smoking my ashes mixed with, erm, herbs. My remains must become a part of them forever.
My funeral rite isnt the only unusual effect borne out of DCD's music. Many people have also been inspired by DCD's pursuit of the strange in music that they've started their own weird-sounding, atmospheric bands.
The Slave Drum is one of these.
Taking their name from one of DCD's songs the band was formed in early 2001. At that time they were Jerome Velasco (ambient guitars and drum machine), Paulo Pacia (bass) and Ramon Mayor (vocals and acoustic guitar).
They were sound trippers and sensitive souls heavily into darkly-atmospheric bands under the the Projekt (Faith and Disease, Black Tape for a Blue Girl) and 4AD (Bauhaus, This Mortal Coil, His Name is Alive) labels. They have since acquired a fourth member in Inflikt member, Chris Concepcion (drum programming, sequencing and sound textures) to round out a fuller sonic palette.
"[Back when we were formed] every weekend we'd just get in the car, drive to Tagaytay and play all these CDs," says Ramon. "We'd just hang out, have a drink overlooking the lake and absorb the whole atmosphere. It got to a point that we just didnt want to listen anymore."
"We knew we could pick up our instruments and hardware and perform in some way," says Jerome. "We had other bands before this but our taste in music before Slave Drum was not that mature."
They released an indie debut in 2003 under their own Dissonance Records titled Remembering Nothing, which featured their obsession with hypnotic songs flavored in droning, ambient guitars sketched from beats that were part-musing and part-primal.
"We adopted the hypnotic quality of the music so people can get into our groove," says Ramon.
The song where the band takes its name is "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove." The specific lyric goes: "You build me up then you knock me down / You play the fool while I play the clown / We keep time to the beat of an old slave drum."
Historically, the slave drum refers to the drumbeat used by the colonial masters to get African slaves to do chores. Most often they were aboard ships sailing for the New World. Once there they were to be sold and bartered at the auctions.
Says Christian: "Our slavedrum isnt necessarily made of pigskin. Its just making a sonic palette for people to get inspired in their daily life."
On their indie debut The Slave Drum are at turns menacing ("Swervekiller") and fanciful ("She Rides") often reveling in a friendship with their meditative side. Though many may say their sound is derivative of the labels they listen to, Remembering Nothing is a strong Exhibit A for the advancement of Pinoy atmospherics and sound trippers.
Same-sounding doesnt necessarily mean awful, though tracks like "Datura" and "Down" could use more creative chord progression. Plus, the same tracks could also be invigorated with more than a little speed and pep in their slower-than-snot-on-a-cold-Russian-winter tempo. Hypnotic is good, cataleptic is not.
Their dry and dark sound can easily be mistaken for goth but these guys are more aptly described as painters of mood. It just so happens that they often paint bleak and dramatic stuff. In fact, the Eno meets Red House Painters of "Collide" with its samples of waves crashing and other nature sounds is as far from gothic pomp as can be.
The icing here is the minimalist opus "Transfiguring" whose snarl and bubbling fury make it the perfect prelude for a gang fight in an evacuated, post-apocalypse city or background music for traveling to the dark side of the moon. Something inside metamorphoses along the way, like stepping into a tattoo parlor and getting protective ink against demons clothed as lovers. Youre just not the same. You're completely the same.
In fact many listeners, after hearing them live, often describe them as "Floydian." Though this misses the mark the boys still feel a thrill whenever they get this comment. "Well, thats great!" says Jerome. Then adding that, for them to get this kind of sound requires a lot of technical effort at gigs. "Not like our old rock bands that just require 30 minutes to set up. We have to be there an hour before to figure out our game plan"
Ramon quips, "But thats never prevented us from playing. We love it so much that it hasnt ever mattered, kahit nakakapagod, its worth it naman to see the people's reaction"
"I've always been cinematic," says Christian. "To me imagery equals sound and vice versa. We make music for the film in my mind. Just flashes of narrative."
At a recent local gig, fronting for Swedish industrial band Interlace, The Slave Drum so impressed some of the European producers that they've started a process of sending each other e-mails. On the list for negotiation is travel to Europe for performance and CD distribution. "This is still in the works, though," says Ramon.
Poised to release their second album after an eight-month hiatus, Ramon adds that a sneak peek into their current line-up will number something like 10 or more tracks. Though only three songs have been completed, lyrically there will be no more singing about love's loss. Songs will now delve more into the spiritual side of existence. "The drama of life," sums up Christian.
Hopefully, their second album will be released in the last quarter of 2006. There will also be a fuller, more romantic sound that details subtle narratives and imagery hitherto unconveyed by the first album.
"Back when we were recording the first album some people involved didnt get what we wanted," shrugs Ramon. "Id explain it like: imagine a train in Siberia, riding through a snowstorm, and theres an angel following them. Thats how I want it to sound like. So theyre like: dude teka muna. But now that were all in the same mind-frame and circle, its easy."
The Slave Drum have also since signed shoegazers Skies of Ember onto their Dissonance Records label and have hopes of getting other acts in, like the art-noise outfit Elemento.
Where to get the album "Remembering Nothing"
The album is available at:
(Manila, Philippines)
Bukswagen Experiment
(Diorella Section, 2nd flr,
Circle C Mall, Congressional Ave, QC)
Magnet
Katipunan Ave, QC)
Exit/Rafa's Cafe
Xavierville Ave, QC)
Big Sky Mind(New Manila)
Montage Records
(Greenbelt 4)
Fully Booked
(Power Plant, Rockwell Makati)
Fully Booked
(Greenhills, San Juan)
Blanc Gallery / Wax
(2nd Flr and Basement, Crown Plaza, De la Costa St., Salcedo Village, Makati)
(Tokyo, Japan)
BBS Tokyo (Cat St., Meiji-Jingumae, Tokyo, Japan)
http://www.bbstokyo.com
(Europe)
Available at selected record shops in Amsterdam and Belgium
