Struggling to find that new artist to fall in love with? Fear not, our contributor Kess Leung is here with the latest and greatest musical recommendations of each week. In this edition, Kess highlights Filipino indie rock act One Click Straight.
I had been introduced to the band ‘One Click Straight’ by an acquaintance last year, and while I had enjoyed the single ‘She’, I had put it on the backburner. It was only recently that I rediscovered the track, yielding repeated spins. Singing in both Tagalog and English, ‘One Click Straight’ is an alternative indie rock band from the Philippines made up of three brothers, Sam, Toffer, and Tim, alongside their friend Joel. The band has released three EPs in total, each with its own distinct colour.
The radio crackles in the titular introductory song to give the album a rustic start, which blends well with its concept.
Their first EP Nostalgic was released in 2017. It has a more vintage feel, with six songs ranging from alternative rock to pop music. The radio crackles in the titular introductory song to give the album a rustic start, which blends well with its concept. Personally, I feel that most of the songs on the album are quite similar in terms of the alternative rock vibe that they go for, besides track 3 – ‘Shakin’’ and track 6 – ‘Electric’, which employ more of a funky pop rhythm, and have a great instrumental mix of guitar, keyboard and drums. The vocals are however sometimes hard to understand, and the diction is not always clear. This might be of liking to certain people who enjoy more slurred-type vocals, and if not, should still not stop anyone from listening to this solid project.
With the band in a seemingly vulnerable state, the dreamy and breathy vocals compliment the instrumentals well, making it mine and many others’ favourite release of theirs.
A year later the band released their debut album under Offshore Music, The Midnight Emotion. Here, the track ‘She’, which was initially released as a single, would come to be the group’s most well-known song. Generally, this album has a more upbeat feel as compared to the solemn ambience in the previous work, and consists of 11 songs in total. Rather than alternative rock, the record leans more towards alternative indie and power pop, similar to sounds one might hear in Halsey’s music. In my opinion, the vocals improved greatly in this album compared to their first, with the lead singer seemingly having more control over his voice. With the band in a seemingly vulnerable state, the dreamy and breathy vocals compliment the instrumentals well, making it mine and many others’ favourite release of theirs.
As I do not speak Tagalog, I unfortunately do not understand the lyrics. However, this is by no means a reason to avoid this album, as the music speaks for itself.
Recently, the band dropped their second EP. This time, all the songs are in Tagalog. Accompanied by pop-ish tunes, the project, titled Harana Coma, would be the band’s most upbeat one yet, employing a more optimistic tone. As I do not speak Tagalog, I unfortunately do not understand the lyrics. However, this is by no means a reason to avoid this album, as the music speaks for itself. My favourite song off the record would have to be ‘Paraiso’ which had originally been released as a single last year. Compared to the rest of the album, this track has a noticeably slower beat and an overall calmer flow to it.
Of course, all of this is just my own personal opinion and I would encourage everyone to try and give this group a listen themselves, and who knows? Maybe you’ll find yourself with a new artist to add to your playlist. ‘One Click Straight’ is available on Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play, so make sure to check them out and show some support.
Kess Leung
Featured image courtesy of Paul Hudson via Flickr.
Article image courtesy of @oneclickstraight via Instagram.
Image use licence here.
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