GHETTO HYMNS for the EARTHBOUND and WEARY


the S. Kidlat! Ocampo Songbook

     As Betawave X forges ahead with their Ghetto Space Music project, the ICS Grants and Commissions Board counsels Kidlat! -on the strength of his undergraduate dissertation- to propose and submit a collection of works to the District Municipal Hall for public dissemination and archiving.

     Ocampo dutifully responds by offering this seven-piece songbook entitled fittingly: Ghetto Hymns for the Earthbound and Weary;  an unmistakeable double-action petition for self-upliftment and steadfastness, and at the same time an invocation for sweet deliverance and repose.  It embodies a spirit of hope - not one of passive longing but of a proactive and dynamic aspiration.

     "The songs themselves are strong statements on their own," reports Cultural Presinct Head Librarian  M.L. Sian,  "There is a clear call for new and different ways of perception, but presented in a language accessible to all".  Post Office Damaged Parcels Clerk, Totoy Monteiro, assents, "...this is some funky shit I ain't never heard before!".  As unadorned yet wonderfully vibrant as the songbook cover, the music is of an uncluttered -and thus unfettered- exuberance.

     "These works will serve as valuable contributions to our burgeoning culture and society," states A. Cobarubia of the ICS Board, "The Betawave ethos of glad-hearted self-cultivation is a timely -and timeless- axiom that we would all do well to live by."