This side of Avocado Sun is served up strictly for those who enjoy 1970s dub reggae, say Lee "Scratch" Perry or Augustus Pablo. 

Organic roots, the twist being no drum machines, just jamming with Jahpoy at the helm (on chopsticks, I think it was),  Nils on drums and me on bongos. Add some foundational Kaloy del Puerto bass on the second song “Up From Bottom" and some spicy Novel Ruiz keyboard licks and the brew is complete. Oh yes and an exuberant singer I stumbled across, Maria, on vocals. 

I Walk the Beach
Up From the Bottom
Medication, Meditation
Under Surveillance
Kaloy + Nils' Ball of Wax

The original tracks were recorded in September, 2018, at Strawberry Jams. This came just after experiencing five months of Boracay closure. Basically a me, myself, and I story (see the Chasing Sun video)  that proved a pretty good dress rehearsal for epic pandemic.. Imagine you are walking the length of an empty, stormy beach that has been stripped of people. Every day… 


In April, 2020, I added some guitar ('60 Gibson, hello) and bass, plus Maria's vocals and Novel's keys at Room Eleven in Cebu. This century's 4:20 dub delivered at a time (silver linings syndrome) when it is truly necessary for the ecosystem to refresh. 


As much as this is a true tragedy, meltdown expected, the earth has gained a little healing time while we figure out how to reset the system away from fossil fuels, overwhelming pollution, and speculative habitat destruction. Let’s make Earth Day our birthday (see Don’t You Leave Me, Wonder Woman).


As with the other Avocado Sun sides, served up with toast, the polished initial track peters out into the rough stuff. Bear with it. The fly-on-the-wall outtakes are always the most interesting,  wise man say.

For fabric sleuths, I leave it to you to find the song in this earlier playlist that relates to the composition at hand:

Don't You Leave Me (Wonder Woman) was created impromptu at the midnight tail of a marathon September, 2018, Strawberry Jams session in Quezon City that generated the Avocado Sun side "All Fall Down.” 


It was the first session I can remember where everything came together and we were were truly in a flow where everyone was firing on all cylinders.


Herding cats, the usual experience when working with musicians who are asked to extend beyond the norm, gave way to each musician actively working to come up with interesting sounds on the spot. I think it had to do with Ian and Nils having been with me on two previous sessions in close succession, working with musicians who didn’t quite get it.


My work in arranging sessions often about being a disruptor, to generate something new. But this time the other musicians were ahead of the curve. It was also a moment of flux, personally and politically.


One session member was facing his own personal identity crisis, which only became clear afterward. I had personally spent five months on Boracay during closure, which was a pretty good dress rehearsal for a pandemic lockdown. Minus the unifying health mission of fighting a disease. 


As for the music? With Ian Joseph leading the charge on guitar and Nils Sens on drums,  songs go from solidly executed to pretty rough in a matter of minutes. That is the nature of ad lib material and what some would see as a detriment I see as a strength. 


I don’t get bored listening to Dylan, Marley, Hendrix, or a number of jazz musicians 50 years later because of that off-the-cuff, lightning in a bottle quality. If you get the zeitgeist right, a lot of technical failings are forgiven. Wonder Woman has a lot of soul and something of early Motown at its roots, if I was to categorize.


Most important to me, the lyrics are extemporaneous, part of the fabric concept when the vibe is right. Some would say anyone can do that. But I don’t understand myself how I came up with a narrative on the spot that has a beginning and an end, within what seems to me very good musical construct. 


All I can say is that when you immerse in something in the moment, and the other musicians choose to join you, there is often the possibility of magic occurring. 


There was one set piece of lyric I worked with within the first song:


Medications, meditations
the improvise of all nations.
Meditations, don't need no medications
sun salutations and all that jazz.
Ball of wax we live on,
ball of wax we given,
and if we give a heart attack
to the earth it's not forgiven.


That’s it. 


The Uptown song takes a kernel from Jim Morrison and probably transforms it into something original enough to be considered new. Considering that’s how the Lizard King transmuted the blues on the original, and the noncommercial nature of fabric, I’ll claim authorship. Those who want to debate can listen to The Changeling, or better yet the Aquarius rehearsals, and decide for themselves.