Leadership

Benjamin Boh, or affectionally known as BB for Brother Ben, is a personal friend of mine for a number of years.

I knew BB through my closest confidante, Esmond Han (or BE for Brother Esmond). 3 of us had many wonderful memories as 6-string buddies, and have had performed together as  "Evil Singing Pandas" in the unplugged/acoustic years.

The set up is usually 3 acoustic guitars with 3 part harmonies, and combining all of our friends and fans, it's always good vibes on stage with the both on them on stage.

Fast forward to 2021, BB became the General Manager of McDonald's in Singapore. He worked hard, loved what he did, and rose in the ranks. 

After seeing him featured in the latest issue of CEO Magazine, I knew I had to have him as my guest for the talk show, I just had to! What surprises me the most is that BB accepted my invitation without blinking. 

Despite of being the CEO equivalent in this World-Famous Multinational Company, he remained humble and human, and above all, a friend. 

In our conversation, we spoke his journey starting with being a strategist / analyst, before moving into operations (relocating to Japan, bringing Singapore's McDelivery Business Model to Japan), and now, a General Manager. 

Leadership was one of BB's main sharing, and I can personally relate and connect to his way of stewardship, his train of thoughts, and his state of mind.

The conversation with BB is truly a humbling experience and this is one of my most memorable episode of "In Conversation with ESP: Season 2". A must-watch for all leaders, followers and folks with a humble heart. 

Thank you, BB. All the best in this meaningful journey.

For more of Benjamin Boh:

https://www.theceomagazine.com/executive-interviews/food-beverage/benjamin-boh/

linkedin.com/in/benboh

boh.benjamin@gmail.com

Originality

Originality.

Are you original? Are you unique? Are you one of the sheeps in the herd? How do you cut through the noise and rise above the rest?

I had Daniel Vrangsinn in the latest episode of my talk show. According to Wikipedia, Vrangsinn is a Poet, Musician and Video/Graphic Artist. Believe me, he is way more than that. Above all, I am proud to call him a friend of mine.

In this episode, we talked a little about his origins, his latest projects including being an “Orange Ambassador” by Orange Amplifiers, an English Amplifier Manufacturer.

As a prolific and successful record producer, Vrangsinn offered these words of encouragement at the end of the show: “Musicians / bands who made it and who are signed by record labels are the ones with their own sound, their originality. Quit trying to be someone else, and start be original.” It’s a cliche, but there’s a lot of truth in it for everyday life.

For more of Vrangsinn, please visit https://www.vrangsinn.no/

#talkshow #podcast #publicspeaking #broadcast #inspiringpeople #inspiringthroughwords #citymusicsingapore #encouragingothers #professionalhost #makingfriends #meaningfulcontacts #dontjudge #objective #findgoodinpeople #encourage #inspire #inthistogether

Here's the episode of the chat; thanks for watching and listening. 

ESP’s first all instrumental album: Blood Tangerine Sky

The journey of making music can be lonely at times. You can ask any Musician or Song Writer. There will be a time when you are left to your own devices, and there is no one else to be depend on except yourself, basically (Try so hard to do a Dave Hill impersonation.) 

I faced this loneliness in 2005, when my bandmates and I went our separate ways. A little like Bryan Adams lyrics “Jimmy quit and Jody got Married, I shoulda known we never get far.” Thank goodness I found my other band mate, and he/she/it is called Apple Garage Band Licensed Drum loops. 

Cover Art work for "Blood Tangerine Sky", originally known as "7 Electro Jelly Fishes".

With the basic knowledge of cut and paste and my very mediocre guitar and bass playing skills, I managed 5 instrumental tracks complied as ESP’s latest offering “Blood Tangerine Sky”. The album is now available on Bandcamp and soon on all major streaming platform. The instruments used were my trusty Yamaha Pacifica 112XJ, Yamaha RBX 270, a huge 2 x 12 Line 6 Amp (I don’t remember the amp model), Sennheiser e-835 to mic up the amplifier. 

It’s not Rex “The Sex” Viperon or Kohld “Laang” Haveneson one-man-band quality, I admit that. However, most of the guests in my talk show have similar words of encouragement “Just Do It”. I am brave enough to produce something, I should be brave and proud enough to show it. 

There you have it, I give you “Blood Tangerine Sky”. How would you classify my style of playing? Leave me a comment and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Conversation with the Legends: Messiah & Manheim

In the last episode of "In Conversation with ESP Season 2", we had Manheim and Messiah 50% of Black Metal Band Order. Their first full length album Lex Amentiae released in 2017 has 8 unique tracks, when the sound is undeniably True Norwegian Black Metal. I personally enjoyed each of the 8 tracks tremendously. 

For folks who don't know who Order is, they are a sonic-nuclear assault team of Norway's metal veterans, made up of 2 Members of The True Mayhem (Manheim and Messiah) and 2 members from Cadaver, another veteran black metal band from Norway. 

In this episode, Manheim and Messiah shared the their journey of how they met, how they were in the  beginnings with Euronymous and Necrobutcher, how they parted ways. and finally how they reconvened to form Order. Manheim in particularly was especially passionate about their up coming 2nd full length album "Gospel". 

It's truly an honor to have the both of them as guests for "In Conversation with ESP Season 2". For full episode, please click on following link or listen as podcast in all major streaming platform in the very hear future. 

Post show trivial: We only managed to locate Manheim 15minute before we went live. Messiah gave me a brief of what Manheim is like as a person in less than 5 minutes. I barely scrapped it through by asking him half-way intelligent questions, and I was a little concern in the beginning. 

Manheim shared an encouragement "There is no stupid questions, only stupid answers." I am grateful to the both of them for being such forgiving guests, but I think I offered enough justice and have certainly done my very best. 

I can't wait to have them back on the show again. Thank you Messiah. Thank you Manheim. 

Here's Order's the first album Lex Amentiae on YouTube:

Kohld Haveneson of Laang featured in Guitar Battle Solo in ESP’s Fall of the Giant.

Kohld is a new found friend in 2020, and he is definitely one of the highlights in the memorable year of 2020. 

We have never met in person, but he transcends kindness through 2 different continents (he lived in both Liverpool and Knoxville in the same year), by being a big part of ESP, through various collaborations in several songs. 

He is hardworking and creative musician with a lot of grit and, on top of that, his chemistry with ESP is close to impeccable. Kohld is also a regular guest in my talk show “In Conversation with ESP”. He is very eloquent and an excellent conversationalist; it’s always a joy to have him on. 

Rex and I have a lot of respect and admiration for Kohld, and we look forward to having him on board in future ESP projects. 

I will write about Kohld ever so often because I love him like “a brother from a different mother”. Stay tuned! 

Meanwhile, here’s Kohld wearing an official ESP Black and White Raglan, ripping some sweet solos of the song “Fall of the Giant”. 3 different angle, 16 bars of sweet guitar tone and amazing techniques, one song, featuring the one and only Kohld Haveneson. 

Review for Zombiepura by Metal Noise September 2020

2020 had been a very kind year to me personally despite of the Pandemic. 

Rex and I manage to produce 12 new songs, 2 compilation albums, various international collaborations with amazing & talented artistes, and above all, all the people that I love and care about are all healthy and well.

It’s also the year where ESP had a chance to collaborate with Witch Taint’s Lance the King of Black Metal in “Zombiepura” and the song is being reviewed by Metal Noise. 

We don’t know Metal Noise personally yet, but they sure have some kind words for the song. What I enjoyed about the review is that the reviewer DJ Vapour got all the nooks and crannies of the punts (of the song). DJ Vapour even reviewed the Hip-Hop-Drum-&-Bass demo. Thank you Metal Noise, I appreciate your review and I hope we get to connect in person sooner than later. 

For the full review, please click on link below: 

https://metalnoise.net/2020/09/review-zombiepura-by-evil-singing-pandas 

Zombiepura, available for streaming and download at Bandcamp.

Witch Taint’s first single “Sons of Satan”. Lance the King of Black Metal and Matthias Backwards got me at BMX-Corpse Paint combo. 

Footage of ESP Live in Bangkok, 8th of December 1998.

A footage of ESP live in the Beast of Beer Festival in Bangkok on the 8th of December 2018, Thailand. The band was doing the song “I cooked the Omelette (Spanish Style)”.

I did not warm up properly and I was literally down by -66% by time the band reached this song. Not sure if you can tell, but I am absolutely running out of breath. Our session drummer, Jil Kaosis, has a habit of going faster and faster like a rollercoaster during live sets. I literally almost died by the end of the set. 

Almost dying was a worth it I guess, something for the archive. Something to show my children that Daddy was a Rolling Stone. 

ESP and our very first Pop-Punk release “海边“

 

Our first release this year in 2021 is a song called “海边” or “Seaside” translated in English.

With the help of our friend, Kohld Havenson of one-man-black-metal-band Laang,  (https://laang.bandcamp.com/),giving him free play for arrangement, “海边” 2021 is born. The arrangement by Kohld is in the vibes of Modern Pop-Punk and it’s agreeable to most listeners. Find out what Kohld has to say about “海边” in the YouTube link below. 

This song was originally composed in 2002/1 as a bossanova-ish mandarin pop love ballad. Kohld did a fantastic job be reinventing the song into something modern, heart pumping, punkisg and catchy an easy on the ears all the same time. The guitar solo outro is simple but very melodic and memorable. To pay tribute to Mandarin Pop Diva A-Mei, I sneaked in a part of the chorus of the hit song “听海” right at the beginning. It’s a cheeky thrill for me because we pulled this one off.

I have always admired artistes and musicians that evolved with times and choose to be more relevant as they mature and progress. After taking the path of evolving, some would have received harsh criticisms and backlashes, which I personally feel it’s unfair to them.  Metallica effort in the 3 albums “Load”, “Unload”, and “St. Anger” is a classroom example of how their fans were disappointed with them after they tried something new. 

Unbeknownst to some of my friends and fans,  the genre of music that I enjoy is not restricted only to metal, but also they other extreme ends of folk, pop, unplugged, jazz, blues, children’s music and more. So by releasing “海边” was one of the gambles for ESP, because it’s not a not a metal song. 

We certainly hope you enjoy “海边” as much as I have enjoyed the process of producing the song with Kohld (on all instruments*, arrangements and engineering” and Rex (*on bass) for this song. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Thanks. 

Rejections for ESP by Record Labels and Criticism for “Assassination of the Emperor Tuna”.

I have been requesting record labels to consider having ESP in their roster. I personally think that ESP has worked very hard, and it is time we fight for some recognition.

Alas, I did not have much luck so far. The typical reply for rejection would be “Our roster is full until 2022, and we will not be signing new bands. Good luck and all the best!”  Situations will be very different if ESP is a famous band like Slayer! Record companies would stand in line for us to pick and choose. Even if their roster is full, there’s always room for one more band like Slayer. Wouldn’t that be nice?

One person said “...both of you (Rex and Remy) don’t have long hair and don’t look the part for Metal Artistes.” Nani-Dafuq (Nani = “What” in Japanese, Dafuq = the F**k. Hiroaki Sato San would appreciate this). 

Oh no, James Hetfield, Rob Halford, Isahn, Matt Heafy, you have all just lost your licenses to be in the circuit. Now get out, and we never want to see you again. 

Just today, I have received a criticism for the song “Assassination of the Emperor Tuna” (I cut and paste without editing, please bear with the grammatical error); I listened to your song, but the sound and the riffs are too modern to my taste. I like such old Thrash bands like Slayer, Demolition Hammer, Sacrifice, Vio-lence and Hirax. Your song remind me to those bands which i never liked, such bands like amon amarth, in flames or avenged sevenfold. I like the front cover, that is funny and not a typical one. Good luck and all the best!

At least he liked my drawing. 

It’s a pity that he judged ESP based on just one song! I could probably further recommend songs with the “old school” elements he was looking for like “TYHP”, “No Sleep Till The Devil Knows When”, “I Cook The Omelette (Spanish Style)”, but I don’t this he has the bandwidth, or the growth mindset, for ESP anymore. Needless to say, they are not interested in us. 

Instead of being upset, I invited him to my talk show. I wonder if he will take up my invitation. One more friend means I have one less enemy, right?

Meanwhile, what do you think of “Assassination of the Emperor Tuna”? I like it. Rex likes it. Hiroaki Sato San loves it. Joey feels hungry when he listens to it. What about you?

Hiroaki Sato (Tokyo, Japan)

I met Hiroaki San for the first time in 2017 when he was in Singapore on tour with Defiled. He was on bass and the ripped the stage with his White Mockingbird, basically.

The members of the band were open to mingling with the fans with autographs and chats after their set. I took a photo with Hiroaki San and exchanged Facebook contacts. I reached out to him online as soon as I could and gave him honest compliments for show. He generously responded and kept in touch, on and off, over the years.

In 2021, Hiroaki San have been noticing my painting and drawing by pressing “like” and by leaving notes of encouragement. I can’t help it but to ask him if he would like to have one of my drawings and what would he like (me to draw). He replied “Stratocaster”. 

I draw better SGs as I have always been fascinated by the look for the devil’s horn, and I have been drawing SGs since I was a teen. Drawing a decent Devil’s Horn Gibson Classic would be a “Walk in the park”. Stratocaster? Goodness, for the life of me. 

Since, Hiroaki San was so supportive and I did not want to disappoint him. It was not my finest guitar drawing, but I did my best by adding other elements like Disco Ball, Amplifiers and Microphone with lots of Crayon Paste colour. I took a photo and showed Hiroaki San and ask if I should re-do it? He replied: This is just fine. Hiroaki San asked he could do anything in return? I proposed a guest appearance on vocals for our song “Assassination of the Emperor Tuna”. He said “Yes”. I barter traded a piece of child-like crayon art for a guest vocal in a record? 

The song was about Tuna Sashimi, one of Japan’s most loved cuisine. To have a Japanese artiste appear in a Japanese-Food-related Thrash Metal Song, written by song writers from Singapore and Thailand was a great honor indeed. 

Just when I thought the honor cannot be higher,  Hiroaki San took the trouble to research and found a 900 year old Japanese Haiku (Traditional 3 liner poem that tells a full story, talk about the art of summarising) as his lyric for the guest appearance. I am beyond stoked. 

I made a comment to a new found metal-head friend saying that “We have new song launch, and I am passionately promoting it. No one cares about the releases for small-time band like ESP, but I do it anyway before music is a big part of my life. Especially music from my band.”

Her reply was encouraging. She said “People don’t know what they are missing, small bands make the best songs.” So, here you go, “Assassination of the Emperor Tuna”, available on all streaming platform and for sale in Bandcamp. We have come a long way for this. Thank you for reading. 

7 Electro Black Jelly Fishes

I sold one of my paintings to Jude Tan a while back, one of the many kind facilitators of Korn Ferry Academy. I entitled this piece “7 Electro Black Jelly Fishes”. 

Here’s how Jude interpreted it: 

“My interpretation of the painting: there are many people that go through your life - some brush past you like on the train, some stay a while for a phase of your life like colleagues, and others make an impact on you that makes you who you are. I keep getting drawn into the center of the painting and I feel that it’s those close connections - family, loved ones, friends, that come together to shape who I am. And I’m glad I made a new one today.”

Thank you, Jude. I hope this painting brings you good luck, good health and peace. 

 

We are celebrating “The Lonely Space Monkey Pt. 1” 1st anniversary. A huge shout out and thanks to all our friends and fans who took precious time to listen and purchase the 6 songs which Rex and I put together from January to June 2020. 

Please consider purchasing the compilation album or stream for free to support us; Rex, the guest artiste Kohld and I would be greatly for your support. Thank you. 

The 6th and final song of “The Lonely Space Money Pt. 1” Compilation is a traditional Lunar New Year Classic 恭喜恭喜. Gong Xi Gong Xi or literally translate to “Congratulations”, is a song written in 1945 by Chen Gexin. There is a poignant history to this song and it’s one of the few Lunar  New Year song written in a minor key. For further reading, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Xi_Gong_Xi

Rex was reluctant to take on this project at first, as he is not particularly fond of doing covers. There is also a cost in putting up covers on streaming platform which we haven’t quite recovered yet. However, I believe in this song and I believe in Rex so much, that I really insist in putting this song out.

The arrangement and style used in ESP’s rendition of 恭喜恭喜 is Melodic Black Metal style. Rex is a big fan and admirer of Dark Funeral for Sweden   Amongst other great bands. I can feel a hint of Dark Funeral, especially the music break at around the 3 minutes mark. 

When we launch this song in 2020, the world is right in the heart of the Pandemic. This song is meant to be an encouragement to all, especially to the frontlines who are still working tirelessly till today. The second stanza of the song really took it home:

冬天已到尽头

真是好的消息

温暖的春风

就要吹醒大地

It is loosely translated as “The winter is coming to an end, and it’s indeed a wonderful news. The warmth of the Spring-wind, will soon awaken the earth.” Nothing is forever, and tough times don’t last. Humanity always prevails, life will be back as it was as long as we stay united. 

 

Live Unplugged: My Engineering Can’t Replace your Blackened Heart

I was in the mood to pick up my Black Hello Kitty Acoustic Guitar (The same guitar used in the recording) to do a “live version” of My Engineering Can’t Replace your Blackened Heart on YouTube. It’s just one of those spur of the moments...that like when you are in love, I just had to do it that night in April 2021 and it’s never been a better time to reshare while we are celebrating first anniversary of “The Lonely Space Monkey Pt. 1” Compilation album. 

Bass Recording Video: My Engineering Can’t Replace your Blackened Heart

 Rex is showing off that he can write play pretty mean bass lines too. 

My Engineering Can’t Replace Your Blackened Heart

This is the fifth and final original composition in “The Lonely Space Monkey Pt. 1” compilation. I am also really proud To have written the melody, lyrics, played all of the acoustic guitar parts, plus arrangement for this one for the first time. Rex took the back seat and provided some low groovy basslines for this song.

To add that special “something” to this easy going unplugged ESP song, I have invited Kohld Haveneson from Laang once again to provide electric guitars and engineering of this song. Kohld’s creamy space-like guitar tone in this track would be his signature for all other ESP’s future release. You can find Laang at https://laang.bandcamp.com/

The intention of this track is showcase my ability as a singer-song writer (my main instrument is the acoustic guitar when I am stage, and I was never a strong electric guitarist) and at the same time giving our fans who are used to our Thrash Metal genre, and different perspective of what ESP can do. This song also helped bridged the distance between my listeners who are familiar with my unplugged materials with ESP. I really liked how the song turned out. 

The Fall of The Giant

The Fall of The Giant was launched exactly on year ago today on the 4th of July 2020 and it is included as the fourth song in “The Lonely Space Monkey Pt. 1” compilation album. 

While the launch date has nothing to do with USA’s Independence Day, but we had the honor of having an America-Based Guitar Wizard - Kohld Haveneson (originally from Keelung, Taiwan) in the track. He is the maestro behind, One-Man-Atmospheric-Blackgaze Band - Laang. 

Kohld provided guitar works in an epic guitar battle with Rex “The Sex” Viperon for this track at the last portion of the song; depicting the final battle between Hanuman and Thotsakhan. You can find Laang at https://laang.bandcamp.com/

I did some extensive reading on Ramayana and through my research I found out who the good and bad guys were, the details of the battle, who died, who prevailed, and put in words and rhymes. 

I enjoyed the process of producing of The Fall of the Giant tremendously for various reason: Firstly, I am born in the year of the monkey. Secondly, epic tales like Journey to the West and Ramayana are etched in my mind since I was a child. I always fantasise being the Monkey God, the Protagonist, the Hero. Lastly, I paid tribute to all of our Thai friends and fans by drawing “Thotsakan” as the cover art, in traditional Thai style. Khob Khun Mak Mak Krub, I am grateful for all your support. 

This is probably our least comedic song in the compilation. The only (comedic) element I can think off, would probably in the hook, where Thotsakan was questioned in his dying breath, “How could you totally be defeated by a monkey?” 

Then again, he’s not just any monkey. He’s Hanuman - God of Wisdom, Strength, Courage, Devotion and Self-Discipline. 

Compliments for Assassination of the Emperor Tuna.

“You got to listen to believe it. ESP’s Music is generally diversified with a blend of punk, heavy, thrash, death or whatever you call it with a catchy tune and a happy song. Never regret. All the best!” - King Shahril (Veteran Metal Fan)

“I gotto say I liked what I heard.” - Putragunawan Hosni (Hardcore Metal Vinyl Collector)

“Don’t be fooled by the family friendly imagery. This hits pretty hard.” - Daniel Sebastian Peter (Leader of Legion Ov The 7 Churches Singapore Chapter & Owner of Death Sentenced Productions)

“I don’t know how to appreciate metal music but I thought the Otoro and Chutoro lyrics were funny.” - Jamie Yick up-and- coming Fashion Designer. 

“This song makes me feel hungry.” - Joey Chin (Producer of “In Conversation with ESP) 

“The brain dead emperor is now worth gold.” - Remy ESP 

Have a listen to Assassination of the Emperor Tuna Today!

My Engineering Can’t Replace Your Blackened Heart.

The 3rd song in “The Lonely Space Monkey Pt. 1” compilation is the song with a pretty long title. 

There is Sci-Fi (Dr. Ymer Naf, the Robotics Engineer Heart Replacement Surgeon), Fantasy (The evil Sorceress who turns her enemies toads, well.. who lost her heart), Romance (The Doctor fell in love with the Sorceress) and with all good dramas, Tragedy (Spoiler: The Doctor died). 

We managed to cramp all that content into a nail-driven, catchy, punchy, slammable thrash metal tune. When the lyrics was completed, I was like “wow, I actually pulled this one off”. 

After Oathbreaker, My Engineering Can’t Replace Your Blackened Heart’s cover art is drawn by me or the second time. It’s not your typical sinister, dark and morbid art like most metal music album covers, but hey, it’s mine. 

Trivial: This song has 4 versions, and all released in May 2021. 1) Original Thrash Metal 2) Nebula Eye’s IX Remix 3) Unplugged Version 4) Laang Version. This track has the most rendition of all ESPs songs. It’s also Linda’s (from Lunarin) favourite song. She mentioned in our talk show that is sounds like a “bad ass breakup song”. 

Right Here Waiting.

When I was 12, it was the last year in Primary School (Elementary School). It’s also the last chance to perform in Teacher’s Day in school, to impressed the teacher that you had a crush-on. (I was pretty mature for a 12 year old, I gotta admit).

Richard Marx’s “Right Here Waiting” was an insanely hot track then. It’s a big deal if you got the guts to go on stage with a microphone, and and sing that hit song in front of all the teachers and kids. The memory is still fresh like yesterday, when the all the kids in the school went bananas, when one my schoolmates nailed it on stage (yeah, on Teacher’s Day). I wish I was the one on stage singing “Right Here Waiting” that year. 

Fast forward to 2021, guitar hero Matt Heafy released “Right Here Waiting (feat. Richard Marx)”. I knew Heafy always produce good music, but wait..what? “Right Here Waiting”?  I was skeptical, of course. 

Then I found myself putting this song on repeat mode. Here it is, let me know what you think. :) 

Oathbreaker

Oathbreaker is the 2nd song in “The Lonely Space Monkey Pt.1” Compilation album. 

I met Darryl Edmund “Oathbreaker” Kho (DEOK), a professional super-middle weight boxer, in one of those “what-metal-t-shirt-you-are-wearing-in-the-elevator” moment in late 2019. I was all suit up before a business meeting with a client in the same building where DEOK works. Yes, he was wearing a rather eye-catching metal music t-shirt. 

We exchanged contacts quickly and stayed in touch. After a few conversations with DEOK, my own discussion with Rex, ESP will be penning a song for DEOK for his “Walk-Out” for his fight. The timing felt right, and the spare track Rex had written was overloaded a fighter-vibe. The kinda of intro that makes you all pumped-up and ready to go.

I read up all the 101s about Boxing: style of fighters, different names of punches, big names in the scene, famous quotes and the result: Oathbreaker. 

Besides the very “Slammable” opening riffs, I was also very pleased with how the the hook turned out. It’s kind of addictive and makes you want to repeat it in your mind all day long. A little like Drake’s “Started from the Bottom”. You’ll probably find yourself whispering the chorus to yourself uncontrollably when you’re in the bathroom or something. 

Trivial: Rex consider this as one of our “B” side tracks and did not think very highly of it. I also thought that my vocals could be more aggressive. However, Oathbreaker turns out to be one of the songs that really catches people’s attention and it was specially mentioned by a number of guest in our talk show. I am so pleased that people like it. 

Thanks for listening to “Oathbreaker”. You can find him at https://www.instagram.com/darryledmund/?hl=en 

I look forward to watching DEOK walk out this song live one day before the fight in a ring. I think #immagonnacry when that happens. 

The Assassination of the Emperor Tuna, now out on “Cassettes”!

ESP’s new song “Assassination of the Emperor Tuna” was launched on the 26th of June 2021 and now available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and wherever you stream your music. 

All music by Rex “The Sex” Viperon, I drew the cover art and wrote the lyrics about Tuna Sashimi. Special mention of Hiroaki Sato (Abyss, Satokin and Ex-Defiled) from Tokyo (Japan), on guest vocals in the 4 minutes mark. 

The lyrics are from a 900 year old Japanese poetry about, you guessed it, Tunas. A Japanese artiste provided vocals for a song written by a Singaporean and a Thai about Tuna Sashimi? This is one of ESP’s greatest honor. Thank you, Hiroaki San. On behalf of all at ESP, we salute you.

“Spank” The Magic Monkey

"The Lonely Space Monkey Pt. 1" compilation album has a total of 6 songs. 

Since we are 6 days away before the 6th of July 2021, I thought it might be appropriate to introduce one song each day, to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the launch. Now for the first song:

“Spank” The Magic Monkey is a fictional Cyber-Mercenary for hire. He’s brave, fearless and somewhat bulletproof. Always holding an enormous gun and equipped with flying missiles, it would be nice to have him on your side of the battle field when you are in trouble. 

Rex’s vocabulary in guitar language is proven to be beyond boundaries, when he rearranged “Spank” with the Nebula Eyes’ Octra Remix. Giving “Spank” another perspective in the Industrial, Space-Age and haunting rendition. 

The cover art of “Spank” is by the funny, sensational and insanely talented Rebecca Dore: https://bexlilfairy.wixsite.com/beccadraws

All music and arrangement by Rex “The Sex” Viperon: https://www.instagram.com/rexviperon/ All story telling, rhymes and lyrics by me. 

“Spank” is our most popular song based on statistics from Distrokid (the aggregator that. Hmph, I wonder why?  Maybe you can tell me. Leave a comment, feedback or compliment. I would appreciate it. 

Until next time, thanks for listening. 

  

Flying start to July: Thanks City Music Singapore.

ESP is off to a flying start on the first day of July 2021.

Mr Hoe Yeegn Lougn of City Music Singapore has sponsored two USB (left: Samson Satellite, right: Mackie EM-91CU Condenser Mic for ESP's vocal recordings for the upcoming releases, and the weekly talk show "In Conversation with ESP".

This is truly a recognition of my crafts after 21 years and an amazing encouragement in trying times like this. Thank you, Yeegn Lougn and all at City Music Singapore.