Potent yet scarce.
BAKUNAWA is quite an intriguing project. An oddball of an album where Micaela Tobin's operatic vocals fill the empty void blossomed with reverb as crushing percussion, blasts of bricked noise, and serene guitar passages accompany and emphasize the themes of preserving her Philippine culture and ancestry while also fighting back against imperialism that has lead for the culture to slowly be forgotten.
I liked it, but my big problem is that it doesn't seem fleshed out and expansive, given that some of the tracks already run short within a 35-minute runtime and they don't add that much to the whole narrative besides some intriguing textures here and there.
It's still a good project though, and when the songs do hit with that operatic swell and harsh sound, it really does hit hard.
Best tracks: BAKUNAWA, Apolaki, Bituing, Mirrors