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Music review: Slow Hello’s ‘Audio Baby’ is early-morning music in a neat package
Selena Salang (right) leads Slow Hello. Photo by Mayee Gonzales courtesy of Slow Hello
Selena Salang is more well-known in independent music circles for being one of the lead singers of Ang Bandang Shirley, a band known for its catchy pop tunes. But while her contributions to the 2012 album “Tama Na Ang Drama” (Wide Eyed Records) included the decidedly happy number “Wala Lang,” it was the more downbeat “Glacier” that stood out among her songs for the album.
Salang's solo project, Slow Hello, has had one previous recording, the two-song EP “Minty Fresh” (Number Line, 2011), and the styles we have heard in it and in her Shirley outings are evident in the new Slow Hello record “Audio Baby” (Number Line Records, 2013). Here, Salang’s project is now a full-blown band, with Marc Inting on bass, Erwin Hilao on drums, and Russ Davis on guitar.
The record begins with a ballad about an overheard conversation (“Show and Tell”), and with guest keyboardist Nikki Cabardo’s organ work on this track, it does betray a feeling of ease. But Salang does not flinch early on from demanding what might be a seemingly painful truth from the persona’s lover, turning the gentle lull into a jolt. “It made me think of my condition/I thought that I might try/To finally ask the gentle question/Of you and I,” her persona sings.
Each song on this album takes on an emotional honesty that is not immediately apparent from the music, which echoes in part Salang’s interest in the alternative rock of her adolescent years. There are songs that illustrate the struggles with love, friendship, getting ahead, and concepts of beauty and attractiveness (“Runway Blue”). Right in the middle is the song “You Know It’s You,” the album’s first single, and it is for me a perfect example of how she makes lyrics and music fit together. Here, she sings “trippingly on the tongue,” as the Bard put it, of the thrill of falling in love.
But the song that echoed in my head all day before writing this review was the track previous, “Prayer for a Breach,” a song written in quite an opposite mood. In some way, it reminded me of “Glacier” in terms of its sonic signature and its theme (an increasingly chilly relationship), but the imagery she evokes this time is of an impenetrable wall: “These walls are of steel, they go sky-high.”
This is an album for those early mornings when one makes breakfast. It has enough contrasts to prevent one from giving in to the temptation to go back to bed. But these are also songs that one can listen to when one needs to hear, as we do need at times, stories we could ultimately relate with. In an unpublished interview with her other band, Salang said that her songwriting was a way of working out otherwise what happened to her before. "Audio Baby" is a good example of how one’s poetry makes sense of experience and allows the rest of us to share in her journey. — BM, GMA News
Copies of "Audio Baby" are available at the band's gigs.
Salang's solo project, Slow Hello, has had one previous recording, the two-song EP “Minty Fresh” (Number Line, 2011), and the styles we have heard in it and in her Shirley outings are evident in the new Slow Hello record “Audio Baby” (Number Line Records, 2013). Here, Salang’s project is now a full-blown band, with Marc Inting on bass, Erwin Hilao on drums, and Russ Davis on guitar.
The record begins with a ballad about an overheard conversation (“Show and Tell”), and with guest keyboardist Nikki Cabardo’s organ work on this track, it does betray a feeling of ease. But Salang does not flinch early on from demanding what might be a seemingly painful truth from the persona’s lover, turning the gentle lull into a jolt. “It made me think of my condition/I thought that I might try/To finally ask the gentle question/Of you and I,” her persona sings.
Each song on this album takes on an emotional honesty that is not immediately apparent from the music, which echoes in part Salang’s interest in the alternative rock of her adolescent years. There are songs that illustrate the struggles with love, friendship, getting ahead, and concepts of beauty and attractiveness (“Runway Blue”). Right in the middle is the song “You Know It’s You,” the album’s first single, and it is for me a perfect example of how she makes lyrics and music fit together. Here, she sings “trippingly on the tongue,” as the Bard put it, of the thrill of falling in love.
But the song that echoed in my head all day before writing this review was the track previous, “Prayer for a Breach,” a song written in quite an opposite mood. In some way, it reminded me of “Glacier” in terms of its sonic signature and its theme (an increasingly chilly relationship), but the imagery she evokes this time is of an impenetrable wall: “These walls are of steel, they go sky-high.”
This is an album for those early mornings when one makes breakfast. It has enough contrasts to prevent one from giving in to the temptation to go back to bed. But these are also songs that one can listen to when one needs to hear, as we do need at times, stories we could ultimately relate with. In an unpublished interview with her other band, Salang said that her songwriting was a way of working out otherwise what happened to her before. "Audio Baby" is a good example of how one’s poetry makes sense of experience and allows the rest of us to share in her journey. — BM, GMA News
Copies of "Audio Baby" are available at the band's gigs.
