Mark Dela Cruz | Muni-Muni

 Mark is someone I've known for more than a decade and it's a friendship that has span the transitions of platforms on the internet from Blogger, to Friendster, to MySpace, to Facebook and beyond. 

It is interesting though that as far as personal interactions I can remember not more than a dozen times when we were able to interact personally and its mostly at shows in San Pablo Laguna or when we shared the stage with his band Driveway to Driveway at Saguijo, AMOS Cafe and the short-lived Sazi's/Myric's in Malate with 2 of those venues already closing shop and Saguijo in an indefinite hiatus because of the pandemic I think personal interactions would be far from happening.

Beyond that, I have also been a fan of his work not only as a performer but also as a songwriter and musician that has stayed true to the DIY ethics of the punk and indie rock subculture that we both shared an affinity to.

It's always a great feat to bear witness to his evolution as an artist through the years and it's the reason that I am always eager to learn about his new projects whenever he'd share them or whenever I would see them pop up on social media.

Muni-Muni is a great departure from the minimalist acoustic sound that he explored in Oblong, yet still harkens the catchy hooks and the heart on his sleeve honesty that has carried him throughout his decades-long musical journey.

The opening track SLEX jumpstarts the EP with the melodic kind of indie rock that I've always been fond of, it also reminds me of his other pieces of work from Boy Meats Girl and A Life Less Ordinary.

The synth parts on the second track, Tanong Mo Sa Buwan brings me back to the simpler years of 2007-2008 where like Mark's Oblong I explored the electronic music realm alongside Mark Redito's Cocolulu/Spazzkid, Sharen De Guzman's HappyBoy and Erick Fabian's Cerumentric through my lesser-known project Never Forget The Cause.

Maginhawa is a Tagalized re-imagining of Driveway-To-Driveway's Perfect Moment, that features Diego Mapa on guitar.

The EP closes with one of Mark's most musically sophisticated compositions Ikot Ng Mundo, whose lyrics offer careful reflection and hopeful consolation to life along with its ups and downs.

It's hard to imagine how much of the EP's instrumentation was done solo primarily due to the pandemic lockdowns. Equally surprising how much of it was done DIY at home using an IOS GarageBand app which in a way is also both a testament to the added ease of recent tech advancements in audio recording via mobile devices but the same time attests to Mark's evolution from recording acoustic songs and creating FL Studio loops that he mixed via a free download of Audacity software.

On a personal, this EP also comes at a time of indescribable anxiety where I often find myself on the edge of losing hope in the many things that I hold dear ---but Mark's music and his itch for writing songs from the heart somehow give me that needed push to persevere out of the current historical and personal predicament that I find myself in.