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It
was early '96 in the Philippines when I began putting
to tape my sounds. Back then I had no idea that
there were such musical genres as noise or
experimental. I'd normally mess around with my
portable cassette recorder out of boredom. I'd tape
conversations of people passing by while hanging out
on my favorite restaurant. Tape the sounds of machines
being used in a construction site, or the arriving
commercial train whenever I get the chance. I'd go
home excited with how much tapes I've used up just in
one day. Listen to them all, and kinda put myself back
right there when that sound was just happening. I'd
borrow tape decks and even karaoke machines from
friends, and mix the good parts from my treasured
sound collection. I didn't know what I was doing at
the time, but it was like nirvana after listening to
my final cuts. And this fascination, with sound grew
more and more. I became a sound recording enthusiast.
Sooner
than later I had accumulated a huge catalog
of unreleased materials. I'd filter through
them all and compile what I thought was the
best from the bunch. Those that didn't make
it to the mix were later on
"recycled" onto new recordings,
they would provide me blank canvasses for
which I painted with sounds manipulated from
homemade machines. These machines would
later on breakdown out of abuse or improper
electrical connections. Out of all the
machines that I built, only one survived for
awhile and to this day is still my all time
favorite, I had nicknamed it "Sharky". Sharky was an old rusty
electric fan that didn't even have it's
original safety cover. Blades exposed, I
would throw meat and vegetables while it's
running making a huge mess all over my tiny
room. Customized mics implanted at Sharky's
innards would record the noise it was making
while I perform my best gig ever.
Unfortunately, Sharky was burnt to a crisp
when our house caught fire.
Finally
I had enough material to release a full
length cassette. "Poisoning Thy
Self" was unleashed to the local
underground scene garnering very little or
no attention at all. Nobody knew what to
call it, they didn't understand what it was,
most of them were highly annoyed or shocked
that they would call me mentally ill. So in
response, I released my second tape
"Mental Combat". I was already in
contact with a bunch of underground folks
due to the successful circulation of my
little newsletter "PsyWar" and
because of that, the tape was able to get
worldwide distribution. Slowly the noise
insanity coming out of my tiny room got the
recognition it deserves. People were wanting
copies all across the globe. By this time, I
was exposed to other noise acts that blew me
away. I wanted to meet these people. Wanted
to release tapes with them together and
distribute their releases locally.
Mid
'98, I left the Philippines for the US. And
I brought with me the plague known only as
Insomnia! I decided having my own label
would be awesome, so I started releasing my
tapes under this label (O.W.L. Records at
the time). The response was good. I've met a
great deal of noise freaks like myself.
Learned new ways of manipulating, abusing
and torturing sound sources. Got better with
electronics and digital recording. Didn't
release that much material until year 2000
when I gave birth to Mandarangan Recordings.
By this time I had learned so much
technology that I decided I should apply
them to my new label. People liked the
label, and I'm very proud of it. They cheer
for the good quality releases I've been
dishing out and my total support for the
d.i.y. noise network. At the moment my focus
lies on Mandarangan Recordings, Insomnia
pops out on a few compilations once in
awhile but still somewhat inactive. Rest
assured Insomnia is still here, brewing
unexplained sound barbarism through a
slow process. Until then expect me to put
out some of my pieces through other labels
(mainly compilations).
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