[This song is a part of an ongoing story mini-series.]

The Curious Tale Of Al Kahtraz and Billy Bead, part 1:
>>>----------->
Billy has a bad habit of snapping his fingers when anxious. Waking up in a dimly-lit dormitory room full of life-sized statues of Jesus standing beside Buddha and Ganesh, each holding either a scissor or a knife in the right hand and and empty potato chip bags on the left did not lessen the anxiety.

Sitting at the feet of the odd gathering of statues was an otherwise bald person with a single dreadlock on the person's forehead. The person was trying to feed potato chip crumbs to a small good luck frog statue, the kind that sits in gold coins. The person squinted at Billy, who was forcing his feet toward the only other human in the room.

"Hey, you're finally up. This is for you." The person gestured with a left arm and gave Billy what looked like a yellow calling card, but it doesn't have any number or name on it. It only said, 'Way you break me'. Billy noticed that the arm giving him the card is a wooden arm.

He took the card and flipped it, and on its back it said, 'DECEMBER TEN'.

Billy looked at the owner of the wooden hand and asked, 'Who are you and where am I?'

The single dreadlock shook and the person answered without turning their head.

"I'm Al. Al Kahtraz. I have reason to believe we are stuck in a pocket dimension."

Billy started snapping his fingers again, rapidly this time and off-rhythm.

Al is now making the frog statue drink from a straw in a soda can. Al continued, "Better stay calm, yo. That way we can figure out how to get out of here."

Billy replied, "Honestly, I'm having panic attacks, Al. Like, what does that card even mean? What's supposed to happen on December 10? Is it this coming December 10 or a past event? How do we know?" The finger-snapping settled to a near-steady slow rhythm.

Al looked for a switch in the room and found a switch. A grayish fluorescent light flooded the room. "What I do know is that it isn't yet December 10 now. Why I know, I've no idea. Just as I don't know why we are in this room. I woke up yesterday, and saw you unconscious in the other bunk bed."

Bill asked, "This whole pocket dimension thing, why would---"
There were loud rumbles in the corridor outside the dormitory room, heavy footsteps, and voices that sounded like bad phone reception.
Al's wooden hand grabbed Bill's arm and whispered, "Hurry, go to your bunk and pretend to sleep. Just do it! They will not bother us when we lie down and pretend to sleep." Both scampered to their bunk beds and covered themselves with moldy, dusty blankets.

There was the sound of turning keys, followed by the door opening. A tall figure in a robe, with a reptilian head that nearly looked humanoid, came in, followed behind by two more robed figures with similar heads. One was carrying a cleaver the size of a Manila envelope.

(continued here: www.facebook.com/cerumentric/posts/10159259645324052 )

Way You Break Me

CERUMENTRIC - Way You Break Me

皆様、＃お元気ですか
皆様は自分の毎日生活でとても忙しいだけど、僕の新しいシングルに聞いていただきませんか。

この歌が皆様に聞かれるのは感謝します。

僕はフィリピンでセルメントリックという電子音楽インディロックアーティストとして2006年今まで自分のオリジナル曲を作って演奏しています。

「Remi For Always」という曲は僕の友達、れみちゃんを記念して作られたのです。

遅いなんですが、悲報を聞くと僕は悲しくなって、この曲の作り方は難しくなりますが、本当に頑張りました。れみちゃんの思い出のためにこのシングルを完成して発売したいです。

皆様、このメッセージを読んで曲を聞いて、本当にありがとうございます。

よろしくお願いします！

リンクはこちらです：
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1JlNOagD7T3e7kKE5UAHbV

YouTube Music: https://youtu.be/saL9rS2JFz8

Bandcamp: https://cerumentric.bandcamp.com/track/remi-for-always

Remi, we all miss you. You now live in the starlit skies.

*******

The new single by CERUMENTRIC, "Remi For Always" is now streaming on Spotify, YouTube, Bandcamp, Amazon, and other music streaming sites.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1JlNOagD7T3e7kKE5UAHbV

YouTube Music: https://youtu.be/saL9rS2JFz8

Bandcamp: https://cerumentric.bandcamp.com/track/remi-for-always

＊＊＊＊＊
一世一代皆が
Issei ichidai mina ga
Once in a lifetime, everyone
特別の人を会う
Tokubetsu no hito wo au
Will encounter a special person
人生は短いだけど
Jinsei ha mijikai dakedo
Life is short but still
どうして君は急に
Doushite kimi ha kyuuni
Why do you have to suddenly
すぐに出発したの
Sugu ni shuppatsu shita no
Just leave right away

レミ、今のこと
Remi, ima no koto
Oh Remi, right now at this moment
星空で住んでいるね
Hoshizora de sundeiru ne
You live in the starlit skies, right?
優しさを覚えている
Yasashisa wo oboeteiru
Your kindness, I'll remember
いつも、いつまでも
Itsumo, itsumademo
Always until the end

君のおかげで
Kimi no okage de
Because of you
皆の人生が変わられた
Mina no jinsei ga kawarareta
Everyone's life was changed
毎日笑顔の明るさ考えて
Mainichi egao no akarusa kangaete
Everyday I think of the brightness of your smiling face
起きて見せたい
Okite misetai
It makes me want to wake up and show it

Always and forever
*****
#indiemusic #indierock
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#electronicmusic
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#singersongwriter
#synthmusic
#vaporwave
#aesthetic
#aestheticwave
#retropop
#newwave
#80s #1980s
#jrock #jpop
#japanese #japaneselanguage #japanesemusic
#TokyoOlympics2021
#japanesesong

Remi For Always

If you love punk, hardcore, electronica, and block-rocking beats, you will love this.

Goodbye Cynics

This song is a difficult one for me to write about. I think about people I know personally who took their lives because they can't endure the pain of living anymore.

I think about famous people like Robin Williams and Yuko Takeuchi (who is so adorable in the Japanese TV series Lunch Queen) who took their own lives despite being at the peak of their entertainment careers.

I think about how certain people, from all walks of life, rich, famous, poor, unknown, young and old, all had the same thing: there was NO ONE THERE when they were at the most difficult time of their lives.

I think about the time when I was 13 and suffering domestic abuse. I think about that time that caused me to have trigger response whenever someone touches me on the back, or when someone lifts a coffee cup above my head. I wanted to die then, and for solace, I tried to remember the songs from a tape that my mother's then-partner threatened to burn if I didn't stop playing it at home.

People can debate as much as they like, but I firmly believe that shaming people for having suicidal thoughts, and people around us who are making suicide a social taboo, have made it more difficult for some of us to be honest about our feelings and talk about it more openly.

The world of hustle culture, this obsession with career success and monetary security, has relegated the problem of suicide to therapists, mental institutions, religious entities, and supposedly-convenient phone hotlines, rather than deal with the problem directly.

Call me heavy-handed if you like, but this modern culture has turned the suicide issue, which kills millions annually across the globe, into a dial-a-number thing, the way we relegated cooking and eating healthy to fast-food corporations.

Sometimes all you have to do is just be there for them. Listen to what they have to say without judgement. Stop imposing your beliefs, whatever they are, as a quick solution to their problem. Just listen. Just be there.

Do we have the courage to deal with the confusing, harrowing, and painful reality that our friends and family go through when they find it too painful to live? Can we be there for someone so that they won't make the wrong decision of taking their lives, so we can help them find ways to make living just a bit more bearable?

Better do it now, before everything's too late. 
lyrics
Don't U Tell Me (Too Late)
(CERUMENTRIC)

I've been doing my best
Just to reach out to you
Closer and closer to the edge
Oh please don't jump off

I just want you to know
That somebody cares about you
Our hearts will break if
You did something you will regret

Don't you tell me
It's too late
For me
To understand
What you're going through
Won't you tell me
What's hurting you
Inside
I'll be here to listen
I'll be here for you

ほぼ毎日
Hobo manichi
人生は大変だけど、
Jinsei ha taihen dakedo
皆はあなたのことを
Mina ha anata no koto wo
よく心配して考えてるので
Yoku shinpai shite kangaeteiru node
自分の悩みの中で
Jibun no nayami no naka de
ファイト！あきらめないで
Akiramenaide
明日のことが変わるので
Ashita no koto ga kawaru node
新しいチャンスがあるよ
Atarashii chansu ga aru yo
忘れないで友
Wasurenaide tomo
マイペースしても大丈夫

I'll be here for you
credits
released February 2, 2022
Words and music by Frederick A. Fabian
All instruments, vocals, production, and mastering by Erick A. Fabian Sr.

CERUMENTRIC - Don't U Tell Me (Too Late)

Released last September 26, 2022 as 16th anniversary single under Synthicide Music.

This song is especially for those of us who have ever felt pushed to change who we are or sacrifice our principles in order to suit others. I wish you the strength to leave unhealthy relationships behind and the inspiration to value yourself more for who you are, and in turn, value other people the way they are. You don't need to change to have worth or the right to be recognized for who you are as a person.

CERUMENTRIC - Don't Need You To Love Me

I envisaged an anime-influenced 1980s B-action movie as the inspiration for the theme tune for my song "Devil Killer." The song's lyrics discuss dealing with and severing relationships with toxic and destructive people in your life—the "devils" who oppress you and make you feel horrible about yourself. I'm hoping that people who listen to this music find it empowering to listen to and fun to dance to.

Devil Killer

New song by CERUMENTRIC. This will be included in an upcoming full-length album.

Sentimentality And Robots

A version of this existed as a QR code mp3 giveaway sticker last October 2022, but the stickers were not the size of cars and so got lost when I gave them out at a show, which explains why nobody bothered to scan the code (maybe too drunk?).

Anyway, it took more than a year for me to finally get to mix and edit this song properly. This is a sneak preview to the good stuff I'm working on for release this 2024.

May you find your joy to live and love. You are important to someone. There are people who value you. Don't give up. It gets better over the years.

Lyrics: 
Thank you
It's now over

Don't you want to
Start over

Find your joy to live
Find your joy to live
Find your joy to love

Oh, it's over

You're in a safer place now

It's now over

To live

Thank You It Is Over

The 2007 debut LP, edited and remastered.

Grace (In A Postmodern World)

First 2015 single from Manila's Underdog Electropunk Force!
HYPOCRITES
Words & music by Erick A. Fabian Sr. 
I just can’t be bothered to care anymore. I don’t want to see where this is going. I don’t want to know anymore. I can see the world burn. I’m gonna watch the world burn. I’ll sit back and watch the world burn. Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! I’ll sit back and watch the world burn.

Hypocrites

Lyrics:

The gods are now destroyed
And we are now free to be ourselves
But the same prejudice
insecurity and fear
Still plague us

You won't understand
If you tried
 Living
In your 
safety net

Beyond comfort
Beyond convenience
After disbelief
There is more
To dream about.

Words and music by Frederick A. Fabian
Copyright 2016 TicTiger! Productions

Dreamlandia

Dedicated to the memory of a great friend and greatest fan, Jo Pacia, who passed away last 30th September 2017 after battling cancer for a long time.

Words and Music by Frederick A. Fabian. Copyright 2017 TicTiger! Productions.

If I can't have you
No one else will
Don't you know
How I feel

Be consumed
In the fire of my love
Burn up, burn up
Into flames

You can't tell me
To not feel anything
I will bleed for you
If I have to

If I don't have you
May the whole world die
Nobody loves you
Like I do

There's only one thing
That I care about
Nothing can stop me now

You can't tell me
To not feel anything!

Incinerated Love Affair

Most people visit Japan, and specifically Kyoto, and they see mostly the same things: tourist spots, historical buildings, amazing culture, delicious food.

I visited Kyoto in late Spring 2018 and it was a life-changing experience. Beyond the tourist attractions, sights, and treats to the senses, what I found was an experience that is somewhere between time-travel and falling madly in love, not just with a person or a place, but with life and the memories that we all make when we travel and immerse ourselves in different cultures, how it opens our minds to other perspectives, and how the experience creates in us a longing for a time that does not exist, but we can possibly create the possibilities if we can keep focused and committed to it.

I dedicate this song to all the heroes and heroines, the doctors, frontliners, the medical staff, and all those who are working hard, fighting for us in this time of the COVID pandemic in 2020. May this song be a reminder in the future that these difficulties shall pass.

I dedicate this song to my patient and steadfast wife Miam and our children, who give us a sense of normalcy and stability despite being in a chaotic world.

I dedicate this song to my late good friend Joanne Pacia, who fought the battle against bone cancer in 2017. Thinking of you keeps me strong.

Finally, this song is also for those who are fighting secret battles. You may be in a dark place now, but there is a place of love and safety waiting for you. Just keep fighting, outlive your enemies, survive, and things will definitely get better in due time. You are loved, you are important, and you will soon be free.

Kyoto Night Sky

Inspired by the youthful energy and undying spirit of free speech in this year’s anti-terror bill protests, CERUMENTRIC created a song, “Groove 1986”, to serve as a reminder that a healthy democracy allows room for nonviolent free speech and freedom of expression. 

“As an advocate of the freedom to think for yourself, and the freedom to honestly voice out your concerns in public, especially with the COVID pandemic already destroying the lives of families and of their loved ones, I wish to remind us all that whatever decisions we all do to respond to this, it should be rooted in love for your fellow human being, it should be rooted in your desire to free their minds from mind-control and emotional manipulation,” says Erick, as the sole permanent member of CERUMENTRIC.

Groove 1986

Filipino synthpop/retrowave/synthrock musician CERUMENTRIC creates passionate, honest songs about self-empowerment, body positivity, radical self-care, and self-healing using straightforward pop song structures with influences from punk rock, retrowave synthesizer melodies, and post-rock layers.

He is always enthusiastic about new technologies, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence and the use of computers to perform music. In order to create songs that will transport the listener to his alternate futuristic neon-lit universe, he combines DIY punk aesthetics with Japanese ideas such as ichigo-ichi-e (treasuring the unrepeatable nature of a moment) and wabi-sabi (finding beauty and serenity in things that are simple, imperfect, and impermanent).

CERUMENTRIC

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