In their maiden outing via Lilystars, The Bloomfields shed their mop-top stylings for generous helpings of psychedelia.
It’s an exciting day in our little corner of Pinoy indie. The Bloomfields, beloved for their adept mop-top stylings, are putting out their first single for Lilystars.
The tune’s called “Byaheng Mahiwaga,” and I’m going to say this now: It’s not just another day at the office.
I mean, the guys have gone through key personnel overhauls and lost significant past members, sure. But if this new single is any indication of where they’re taking the Bloomfields train, it’s difficult not to be onboard.
That Beatles-Kinks cadence they’ve mastered like kings is still intact. Their virtuosic harmonies remain unsullied. Their rhythms can still get your moms and dads to kick off their loafers.
But whereas ten or fifteen years ago, they were doing Early Fab Four-like arrangements, this time they’re dialing up the psychedelia.
“The song is about those trippy rides [where you gather] friends to celebrate and experience […] psychedelic adventures,” the band says in an advance statement, hastening to add that it was—in fact and indeed— “inspired by an actual psychedelic experience.”
There’s some Tame Impala in there, a dash of Bowie if you strain for it, but really, what producer Lakan Hila was gunning for was more esoteric Beatles fare: the psych-rock, odd-time pastiche that is George Harrison’s “All Too Much” from Yellow Submarine.
(To my mind, however, the top-down, wind-in-your-hair vibe of “Byaheng Mahiwaga” veers closer to something like “Rain”—the B-side to “Paperback Writer”—but, yeah, I generally just like splitting hairs.)
This, the band says, is the sound of them “[letting] go of [their] inhibitions” and creating “what [they] feel sounds great and awesome” without setting their sights on hits and views. Incidentally, it’s also the first offering for a forthcoming record that will mark the band’s twentieth anniversary.
The gesture isn’t so resolute. I mean, it’s not an about-face proposition; it’s not like they’re shedding all that old skin. But hearing this—and knowing they’re thickening the layers of the cake with ingredients other than what they’re best known for—we just know bassist Louie Poco, guitarist Nathan Abella, lead guitarist Lakan Hila and drummer Rocky Collado have got something good on their hands.
And what is it? I’d say it’s persistence.
“Expect a different sound from our earlier albums. Expect […] more experimental stuff, [though] you will still hear our ‘60s inspired-elements,” the band adds in anticipation.