“Maling Akala” and Reggae

October 31, 2005

I just love it when someone actually does justice in covering classic songs from great musicians - particularly the local rock band Eraserheads‘ songs. The local reggae group Brownman Revival did exactly that: they did a reggae cover of the Eraserheads’ song Maling Akala — and they even included a snippet of Ely Buendia’s vocals in the ending “May mga kumakalat na balita, na ang kaligtasa’y madaling makuha” phrase. (Ely Buendia was the lead vocals of the Eraserheads. The Eraserheads disbanded in 2002.) Whenever that song is played, my mind gets transported back to the early 1990’s when the songs from E-head’s debut album Ultraelectromagneticpop were played almost everywhere — in homes, buses, jeeps, establishments, and in the radio waves. (Unfortunately, Maling Akala was not played widely by radio stations back then, though I heard it played at least once by NU 107, if I remember it right. But it was very popularly played at homes, public vehicles and some establishments via cassette tapes. The radio stations play Walang Hiyang Pare Ko, Ligaya and Toyang. All of these songs, together with Maling Akala, are part of the Ultraelectromagneticpop album.)

But did you know that Maling Akala was really and originally intended to be played reggae-style by the Eraserheads themselves? But because of their apparent lack of experience in playing music (or rather, reggae music in particular) back then, they were unable to play it right. So they played it their own unique, creative way — a fusion of rock with bits of reggae, hip-hop and some craziness — and the end result turned out to be splendid and very cool!

Here’s an excerpt from an interview (Google cache; the original site is dead) with the Eraserheads about the recording of Ultraelectromagneticpop. I think it’s also included in the Pillbox, the Eraserheads’ own magazine. (I used to own it but I somehow lost it. By the way, the Eraserheads consists of Ely Buendia (vocals, rhythm guitar), Raymund Marasigan (drums, keyboards), Buddy Zabala (bass, keyboards) and Marcus Adoro (lead guitar) )

Here goes:

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Maling Akala

RAYMUND - Can’t do decent reggae groove so I switched to hip-hop. Experimented with drum fills na hindi aral [”drum fills I haven’t learned yet”]. Lyrics came up because of need. Few takes. No money for horn section so I put melodica lines and double tracked it.

ELY - The only song with two versions: first one had marimba [a xylophone-like instrument] by Buddy but was scratched because it was off-beat. Cost us lots of money. This version we recorded live (sabay-sabay kaming tumugtog [”we played it live together”]). Guitars are not loud enough. It’s not about sex! Ang dami ng takes mo sa lead, Marcus! [”You have too many lead guitar takes, Marcus!”]

BUDDY - Nice fusion of music. I like it the most over the rest in terms of music, playing instruments and what-not.

MARCUS - Ely, hoy! Gising! Marimba under lead guitars tinanggal, pinalitan ng torotot ni Raymund. Maraming individual takes na nauwi sa live Hip-hop Reggae. Sex. [”Ely! Hey! Wake up! Marimba under lead guitars was removed, replaced by trumpet by Raymund. It had many individual takes that eventually became live hip-hop reggae. Sex.”]

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The lyrics were written by Ely Buendia and Raymund Marasigan.