Pantayo Announce Debut Self-Titled Album

The Toronto "R&B gong punks" have shared its new song "Divine"

BY Allie GregoryPublished Feb 25, 2020

Toronto all-women "R&B gong punks" Pantayo have announced plans for their debut record. The self-titled album arrives May 8 via Telephone Explosion.

Pantayo's eight songs — recorded over the span of three years and produced by Yamantaka // Sonic Titan's alaska B — is "an audio diary" from the group's five self-described queer diasporic Filipinas. For the album, Pantayo put their contemporary electronic spin on kulintang pieces using a number of traditional percussive instruments as well as kick drums and synths.

"If you listen to the recordings of our rehearsals and songwriting sessions, you can hear us deconstructing the kulintang parts section-by-section and practising our songs in different styles," said keyboardist and vocalist Eirene Cloma in a statement. "You can also hear how close we've gotten and how our creative workflow strengthened over the years."

Pantayo's Kat Estacio explained further: "One way that we can make this world feel like home for folks like us is to mix the kulintang music that we learned with different sounds and song structures that feel familiar to us."

Today, the group have shared the album's lead single "Divine." You can listen to that down below, where you'll also find the album's tracklisting, as well as the group's upcoming tour dates.

Pantayo:

1. Eclipse
2. Divine
3. Heto Na
4. Bronse
5. V V V (They Lie)
6. Taranta
7. Kaingin
8. Bahala Na

Tour dates:

03/07 Toronto, ON - Burdock
04/04 Glasgow, Scotland - The Adelaide Place Baptist Church
04/06 London, England - Cafe OTO

Full disclosure: Kat Estacio is in charge of Layout at Exclaim!

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