Hijo - Slow Rock Volume ½ EP

Do you know what happened when a band broke up and vocalist leaves the room and kept every dude hanging??? You know what.... great things happens! Yi! cheesy intro! Everybody probably knows about Hijo already. Bamboo left the band and Nathan, Ira, and Vic Mercado was like hell yeah let's get some keyboardist and another guitar artist to bring some fat thing on the rhythm and let's make our own music - that's HIJO.

This is old news already. The band started way back in 2011 and their debut EP Slow Rock Volume ½ started getting attention at the first quarter of 2012. It's a four track album that have different sets of arrangement and different feel on every song. But let me talk about how awesome the actual CD first and then I'll cover the sound quality of the recording and then we will dig more on the actual songs.

The CD Packaging

I am amazed on the quality from the jewel case, to the glossy inlet and to the white CD with hard to read markings. When I was holding it in the record store I was like "sulit na sulit" even i have not heard about their songs yet.

Front

Back

The front and back cover of the CD was very simple, the back cover contains the track list and some credits to the record company but wait till you see the inner fold.

Inner Fold

The inlet was produced with high quality - glossy, embossed, textured, feels expensive! And I know this thing does not contribute to the quality of music but it brings a punch to overall experience. What's inside are Credits from the band members, track lists, and lyrics which i really like. Not everyone is doing it this way today but heck if you only have four tracks, why not.

Sound Quality

Overall the tracks were nicely recorded and it's a little loud too. However the first track Tamalee, to me, sounds boxed, felt like the guitar and drums cannot breath. Going to the second track, Dahil Sa Iyo, there's a nice separation of instruments and equally calibrated against each other. My poor D60 did not give justice to the actual CD, if you move your eyes around the image you will notice the Hijo logo and on the other side are the tracks perfectly embossed.

Slow Rock Volume ½ EP

There are only four tracks in this EP -

1. TAMALEE
2. DAHIL SA IYO
3. TORQUEMADA
4. DI MO NA KAYA

First run on all four songs to be honest I didn't quite get what the heck was Hijo. So I burned it to my iPod and tried to listen to it more, re-read the lyrics and tried to work my tiny brain out.

Tamalee was an instant favorite. Sounds to me like all five of them were on steriod. I love the layering of the two guitars and Nathan's bass glued them together. I just wish it was recorded clearly or maybe I need to watch them live to get a better appreciation of the materials. This song's a bi-language song - for a second I thought i was still listening to Riveramaya and or Bamboo.

Second track Dahil Sa Iyo put me on another dimension, a quick shift of phase. Tango-sounding-felt-like-i-need-to-dim-the-lights was were I was taken. But there's a lot of mix though out the song, it started very smooth, piano and guitar pluck was exceptional and then mixed with guitar solo and the signatured-gapang-bass. Turns out its not a boring song but a highly technical one.

Torquemada is what you should expect from this lineup. This may be a sleeper from the rest. The last track from the EP 'Di Mo Na Kaya was a good wrap up, again the dynamic of each instrument is just right, this was arranged nicely not to over power each instruments and the piano/keyboard gives a good flavor to the loneliness of the song. I was very lonely after I listened to the whole album.

Which brings me to one thing that I didn't like - it's too short! Bitin! It was very dragging, heavy, and after 'Di Mo Na Kaya I was like still wanting to recover and there should be 1 or two more tracks after.

Now I am thinking why there's no follow up? where's the full album? it's been like almost 2 years since they put this out. I don't know, I don't have any idea but hey if you see this EP in the record store (bought mine at Astroplus Shangrila) pick it up and you won't regret it. Sleeves pa lang panalo na!
 

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Superlux HD681 EVO PART II

This is the PART II of the 2-part-series of Superlux HD681 EVO headphone review. The complete unboxing and overview can be found here - HD681 Unboxing. On our unboxing we also tackled the build quality of HD681 and price/performance ratio and of course my initial impression. Bottom line, I was impressed with HD681, for Php1,990 HD681 is already a steal!

Isolation & Comfort

Superlux HD681 EVO have a good sound isolation but does not totally cancel the outside noise. Using this combo on my office I can still somehow hear my colleague chatting but I cannot eavesdrop on what they are talking about. It also bleeds quite a bit so my colleague can sometimes hear some of my crappy choice of music.

The stock pleather pads is kinda irritating to me though, especially if I used it in a non air conditioned room. It tends to heat up very quickly and rubs below my ears. It also squeezes my jaw that makes me uncomfortable over a period of 30 minutes. There are available replacement pads out there that will easily fit Superlux HD681 EVO like the AKG K240 velours and the Shure SRH 940 velours, that's based on my research because I really cannot tolerate the sweat and all and I'm hoping to get some improvement on the bass and treble too.

Sound Quality

Natural sound, clear, wide soundstage and a little bass - or on a much better term, not over powering. Those are the quick positive things I can easily drop for HD681. Superlux tends to be piercing on previous cans but surprisingly this one is not, the treble is just enough and not fatiguing. The bass for me is just right but sometimes I felt it's lacking on the boom boom on some RnB tracks, especially on the "gapang"

The reason why I separated the unboxing to this was the burn in process - and now I'm done. I think on my estimate I already clocked 100 hours and my impressions now are:

• The bass was well pronounced, can go a little deeper now
• Improved soundstage, a little more open than stock
• achieved a few notch of accuracy and improved detail

I mean the improvement was not life altering experience but the overall feel you can definitely say that it has an improvement after the burn in period.

I also took this outside and asked a few good friends from headphiles.org and able to got a few insights from them. Most of them already owns and used high end headphones and gears so checking cans below Php2k mark makes them a little doubtful but don't get me wrong, the guys from headphiles have tried all sorts of cans and iems from different price range that's why they are the best people to ask. Most of them replied to me that "it's OK" "a it detailed" "not bad for 2k" "little less on the bass" "ITS BIG!!!!!" and another guy said to me that this was a major upgrade from the previous version. But hey, they tried the superlux after trying all these highend cans in the pictures below, - and HD681 EVO is 10x cheaper :)

One thing that made me really happy about this cans was when I used HD681 to check the full album of Foo Fighter's Skin and Bone, it's a 15-track set recorded live acoustic gig with expanded lineup of Foo with added violin, keyboard, and percussion. The experience was so different! The separation of the instruments and the soundstage was just right and amazing. Again it's very enjoyable.

Conclusion

Superlux HD681 EVO's sound is mind-blowing for the price. It's not the best headphone out there but it's best headphone for the under Php 2000. My only qualms are the sweat on my ears after prolonged use, I am now hunting for velour pads to replace the stock pleather pads. If you want your desktop setup more enjoyable at home, HD681 EVO will not disappoint you.

And here's my desktop setup:

• FiiO E09k
• FiiO E17
• and a nice looking mini isolation plinth

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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RON Henley - Wala Pang Titulo

After the death of Francis M. last 2009, I knew from there I will lose interest in mainstream hip hop.... and I did. I have a huge respect for the Master Rapper and to me nobody can replace The Man From Manila, that's why for 4 years I've never known a home grown hip hop artist (well except GLOC9) or even paid attention to hip hop until early this year when I overheard a group of young dudes talking about FLIPTOP and all the "basagan" and I googled it and I was like - this is effin cool!! Then my cousin (Chris Escolano) told me that he'll be making a video for Ron Henley and I said Ron who?!  All praises to Ron came from Chris so I guess he's worth checking.

First time I heard biglang liko I was impressed. The lyrics are comedic good and Ron Henley has a very wide imagination. So I bought his EP to check and listen the rest of the song.

ako ay paru-paro

nakadapo sa iyong damo

sa liwanag ang ganda mo

andaming nabibighaning gamo-gamo

Ron Henley's Walang Pang Titulo EP came in digipak-style packaging with a nice caricature of himself on the album cover but without the tattoo. The digipak has a high quality print, (MCA did a good job on this) I really like a high quality glossy album, it feels good in the hand and feels expensive and just add good vibes.

Gatefold album! another plus, a lot of room for more arts and other stuff. The outer piece of the album cover contains the track names which that side also doubles as the back cover and some song info and other artist who collaborated with Ron Henley on Making this EP was on the other side. 

The inner gatefold contains the credits. The CD can be found on the center slit of the digipak which was not easy to take out the CD, I had a problem taking it out and I almost ripped the side of the slit.

There are 6 tracks on this EP and 4 out of 6 songs Ron Henley jammed with 4 other artist, kinda gives different flavors for the the whole package.

1.)	Platito
2.)	Venus
3.)	Biglang Liko (ft. Pow Chavez)
4.)	Atat (ft. Muriel)
5.)	Langit (ft. Bea Valera)
6.)	Hagdan (ft. Kat Agarrado)

The audio quality of the CD was not bad, I burned it to my ipod classic using the highest bit rate an sounded really good over my Superlux headphones. I also tried playing the CD both in my car stereo and my CD Player at home and performs at the average, anyhow I did not expect an audiophile quality output for hip hop genre.

Out of the six songs I can pick 2 songs that I liked, "Biglang Liko" and "Atat". The beat at Biglang Liko is very catchy and I can classify the song as mainstream hip hop. The lyrics have a wide variety of imagination and I could interpret the lyrics as simple as the dude tries to score  but it could mean different to other listener and maybe Ron Henley have a different meaning to it. Muriel's voice in "Atat" is very caressing and stimulating! that's all I can say!

The song "Hagdan" on the other hand is not on top of my list. It sounds like Eminem and there's a lot of anger, hate, and then right in the middle it bends towards having hope, I felt lonely after listening to the song - maybe it's just me, I just don't like sad songs.

Ron Henley's song have the same format of rap-verse-then-chick-will-sing-the-chorus, the thing that separates him from the rest was his poetry. Today I know there are different breeds of young generation and for sure a ton of them can relate to the stories of "Wala Pang Titulo"

The Lost Records of Iwo Jima

Or should I call this -

"The Unknown Japanese Boxset"

Last Saturday, we went down to Laguna for family event and on our way I saw a couple of Japan Surplus shops so I paid them I visit during the low down of the event (well I snuck out). The store was small, with a very few surplus items mostly old Japanese furnitures so I don't wanna waste my time looking around and felt hopeless to find any vinyl record so I asked the lady if they have such, and without looking at me she pointed me to the corner of the store and told me they have one piece, so I checked it and I saw something that looks like a photo album, covered with dust and and gold scripts reflected when it hits the light and I was like - for real? Is this a boxset or what? this just adds to the atmosphere and the feeling of discovering a lost treasure... so I grabbed it and it's very heavy, and when I opened it it still looks like a photo album because the booklet was placed on top but when I grabbed the second box and opened it and holy shit! I saw the individual records and I quickly yelled! HOW MUCH for this!! That's how I discovered the lost treasure of Iwo Jima.

 I don't have any idea on what the hell is this boxset. I cannot google it because I don't know what to search. No English text on the whole vinyl. No clue. None. Which makes this more exciting. It could be very expensive, or could be worthless.

The Boxset contains 2 small boxes containing 10xLP each, a 136-page booklet, and a separate LP.

The condition of the boxset itself have some issues on the edges, and it looks like a fake leather but sturdy, the individual boxes are in pristine condition so I quickly expect that the vinyl should be in near mint condition - but, I was wrong, the wax can pass as brand new!! All are in mint (M) condition, absolutely perfect in every way and maybe played only once or not.

The inner sleeves have picture that looks like 70's or maybe 60's. The first box have 10xLP and numbered properly and that's the only readable character to me in the whole entire set. box number looks like his early years in music and box number two looks like the second half of his career. And yeah, I don't know the artist, don't have a single clue.

Box # 1

Box # 2

The Booklet

The booklet is in near mint condition. Total of 136 pages all written in Japanese with pictures of the artist and maybe those that he worked with. Looking at the pictures, and judging his looks, he's like Ryan Cayabyab or maybe Gerard Salonga.

I also found one LP inside the box. Not sure if it is really included but it's the same artist. The jacket is in near mint condition and the wax is mint. Tried spinning it and the sound was very clear, no remarkable clicks and pops and it the tracks were amusing, it sounds like they are recording and forgot to click the stop button. There's a lot of chatting, maybe an instruction from the guy then they play music and then another round of conversation.

 

So,yes, this is not from Iwo Jima and obviously I just made that up but it feels like I found a treasure. I don't know who's the guy on the cover but he reminds me of the nemesis of 80's japanese series like Shaider and Bioman. This boxset can be worth a lot of $ or nothing.

If you can read Japanese and if you know this boxset please help me identify this awesome find! Use the comment box below and you don't, please tweet or share it in facebook until it reach someone who might know (pls use the buttons below) and here's the another shot of the title

watashi-wa tasuke-ga hitsuyō desu!!