Wolfmann+ Rages On

By Cris O. Ramos Jr.

On August 21, 2005, Wilfrid Andrew “Wolfmann” Hernandez passed away at the very young age of 28 due to aneurysm. The musician was a pioneer in his own right; an electronica artist who was on the verge of opening the local scene on electronic music, mixing it with an aggressive rock flavor that borders on the concept of organized chaos. His signature song “Piniritong Dalagang Bukid” from his second indie release Diner featuring Sugarfree lead vocalist Ebe Dancel peaked at number two in rock station NU 107’s weekly countdown. He was also a staunch supporter for the independent music scene, believing that a lot of independent artists can get mainstream success if only the system presents more opportunities for them.

His sudden departure was met with a lot of grief not only in the local electronica scene, but in the local rock scene as well. But before he passed away, he did leave a band composed of Whannie Dellosa on drums, former Eraserhead and current The Dawn/Cambio bassist Buddy Zabala, Kathy Meneses of Daydream Cycle and Ebe Dancel as lead vocalists. Wilf also left a number of demo recordings of new songs enough to fill a new album. A song entitled “Para” was submitted to NU107 and ended up #56 on NU’s 2006 yearend countdown.

Which gives way to the new independently released self-titled album of Wolfmann+ - an album comprised of 16 cuts with Wolfmann’s last batch of songs recreated with faithfulness to the original singer/songwriter’s arrangements. The songs in the album were re-recorded by Dancel, Meneses, Zabala and Dellosa alongside former Twisted Halo frontman Vin Dancel, Raimund Marasigan of Sandwich/Pedicab/Cambio, Chillitees keyboardist Dan Gil, former Teeth and current Daydream Cycle/Skies of Ember guitarist Jerome Velasco and Cris O. Ramos, Jr. The album features favorite cuts such as “Dasal,” “Walk Slowly,” “Shooting Mercury” (which Wolfmann dedicated to all the newscasters who placed their lives on line for the truth especially those who paid the price of death)“Secret Army,” “Driving School” and “Para” as sung by Wolfmann himself as well as remixes by electronica artists such as Squid 9, Silverfilter, Morse and Abdel Aziz aka Neon8.

The Wolfmann+ album was launched this January 25, 2007 at Café Saguijo, Makati with special guests Electronica Manila All-Stars (Silverfilter, Abdel Aziz and Morse), Bagetsafonik, Peryodiko, Drip and, of course, Wolfmann+.

Wolfmann+ album is now available at all Music One outlets: Alabang Town Center, Glorietta 3, Greenbelt 3, Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Mega Mall, Quezon Avenue, and SM Pampanga.

A tasty serving of Pinoy electronica

By Cris O. Ramos Jr.

Born November 17, 1976, Wilfrid “Wilf” Hernandez started learning to play the guitar at the very young age of 12 and was able to write his own musical compositions at the age of 14. He dabbled as a guitarist for upstart alternative rock music bands before deciding to go solo in 1998 and was groomed as an acoustic artist. He could have been Jimmy Bondoc, then it would have been over.

Wolf then ventured into electronica music in 1999, dabbling and tinkering with some software programs for remixing and investing on grooveboxes, samplers and synths in 2001 that brought out the new Wolfmann sound generally classified as breakbeat. The breakbeat genre has always fitted Wolfmann’s inner personality as it provides Wolf, an outlet to vent out his personal aggression over his own stark observations with his music that he finds difficulty expressing with his relatively calm and quiet demeanor. He then settled on his monicker “Wolfmann” because some friends of his had a difficult time calling him “Wilf” and called him “Wolf” instead. Since then, he has generally crafted his own signature synth sound from his Korg ea-1 analog synthesizer with relative ease. And true to his firm stand against intellectual piracy of any form, Wolfmann made it a point to invest on strictly using original equipment and software for his musical work.

Wolfmann’s first live set was on November 22, 2002, at Big Sky Mind. He finished recording his first independently produced Breaking the Beat Project and was able to release it mid-2003. The album was a study in organized chaos and helped him land a curious following not just from the blossoming local electronica music scene but the independent rock scene as well.

Wolfmann challenged himself to conceptualize and finish Diner to let people view and experience the different facets of electronica music from Wolf’s own perspective. When it comes to songwriting, Wolfmann prefers to write of love, hate, despair, oppression, aggression, delusion, confusion and disillusionment in this ever-shrinking world.

As a matter of fact, the aforementioned carrier single “Dalagang Bukid” is about the exploitation of the masses, the rape of our motherland by people who are intoxicated by their own selfish desires, the song’s lyrics should serve as an eye opener. The rape victim, the “dalagang bukid,” who was left in the field to decompose and fry under the sun, personifies what our country will be like if we let the oppressors take over—just another victim.

Not a guy who rests on his laurels, plans for a third album is already in the works where he wishes to write more about social commentary, politics and deterioration of society’s moral fiber.

(excerpts from Cris Ramos' Press Release for the "Diner" Album Launch)