#PUNTOPlays 🎧 - Tag-init 2023 🌞🍦🧋
Welcome to my Climate Anxiety party!
Hello kaibigan!
It has been a BUSY few months in PUNTO land!
From working in politics in one of the most gerrymandered states in the States (hello Ohio), pursuing other personal projects, and grappling with some pretty thorny growth edges… 2023 has been relentless. And now: summer’s almost over!
Here are the latest tunes I’ve lined up to take us through some of the hottest and most sweltering days of the year.
Hello extreme heat; hello wildfire season; hello hazy, lazy, and humid days where you’re either swimming outside in your own sweat or freezing your ass off inside your heavily air-conditioned house.
Climate anxiety? What’s that?
No need to listen to this particular playlist in order.
#Taginit is a mellifluous melange of global summer bops marked by pop, bossa, electro/house, nu-disco, 2000s RnB… best shaken and stirred. It’s all about quenching that heat.
So sit back, grab your favorite refreshing beverage (mine is an addictive new concoction involving iced watermelon jasmine tea w/ pops of lychee jelly), and let these fun summer tunes wash over you like the waves of the ocean (or sea, or lake, or pool, or just a very, very cold shower).
The Earth is burning, but we can still party. ✨ Summer vibes forever. ✨
As always, I also wanted to share some diasporic Pinoy bops below. I highly encourage you to listen and support Filipino artists worldwide. Spread the love!
Air Mail – Rocky Rivera
📍 San Francisco / The Bay
A powerful, vibey, hip-hop punch from the one and only Rocky Rivera (named after the main character in Jessica Hagedorn’s iconic Gangster of Love).
A diasporic molotov of a song – tracing Rocky’s immigration journey from the Philippines to San Francisco as a result of her parents escaping Martial Law. It samples Didith Reyes’ song Bughaw Na Buhangin (Blue Sands), and a provocative snippet of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ speech when he first declared the Philippines under martial law in 1972.
Manila - Young Cocoa
📍 Manila (via Jakarta)
Always gotta have a Manila tribune in every playlist! (I’m a Manila girl for life.)
This is probably a modern interpretation of Hotdog’s classic Manila. Young Cocoa’s tribute is a happy, infectious bop about living in Manila’s urban jungle and loving all of it despite its contradictions and complexities. When Young Cocoa sings about pulling up in Katipunan, EDSA, and the skyway, I’m immediately jolted by homesickness for my home city until I remember the insane traffic, grind, and accumulated stress that comes with living in a megacity. Still. Manila forever.
“Filipino kid – just a mix of cultural things. Showin love to Manila, it’s the city of dreams.”
Disco Fever - VST & Co
📍 Manila
What more can I say about VST & Co.? The ultimate OPM (Original Pilipino Music) OGs, the kings of the Manila Sound, basically the music you’ll hear playing at every single Filipino party. Guaranteed to make your titos and titas get up and start dancing.
VST & Co is a beautiful blend of disco, funk, and jazz with a uniquely Pinoy spin that defined the 1970s in the Philippines. I’ve recently heard the group described as a Filipino hybrid of Earth Wind and Fire and the Bee Gees – and it couldn’t be more spot on. Pure unabashed disco – without cheese or judgment.
Real Girl - Mutya Buena
📍 London
I first discovered Mutya as part of the iconic Sugababes group in the early 2000s. Their garage-cum-RnB sound dominated the airwaves in the U.K., and I was lucky enough to have caught the start of their rise as a 10-year-old living in London.
I fell in love with this amazing, Lenny Kravitz-inflected song when it came out in the 2008 Sex and the City movie… and was shocked to find out that Mutya had gone solo! She is a biracial British Pinay with a Filipino dad and an Irish mom – who also happens to have roots in Bohol like me! One of the earliest and most impressive examples of the Pinoy diaspora for me.
Back to the Streets - Saweetie (ft. Jhene Aiko)
📍 SF & LA
This song came out in 2020, but it is a FOREVER vibe.
This epic collab features Saweetie and Jhene Aiko – who are both proud diaspora babies and even prouder representatives of each of their unique blend of multiracial cultures (Saweetie is Blackipino; and Jhene Aiko is literally a mix of everything). They sing and rap about moving on guilt-free for growth and expansion – and not being held down to any particular time, entity, or place (unless of course, it’s the streets).
Happy listening!
