Welcome to Songs You Need to Know, our weekly rundown of the best music right now. The Rolling Stone Philippines team is constantly sharing things to listen to, and each week, we compile a ragtag playlist of songs that we believe every music fan today needs to know. Whether it’s the hottest new single or an old track that captures the state of the present, our hope is that you discover something for your musical canon.
This week, Geese’s “Trinidad” sharpens their art-rock edge with wiry guitars and restless momentum. fitterkarma flips heartbreak into chaos on “Pag Ibig ay Kanibalismo II,” where love turns self-destructive. Tei Shi and Loyal Lobos join forces for “222,” a Colombian reggaeton-inspired cut that pulses with heat and intimacy. Filipino-German producer hey arnold fractures the club floor in “i want ben bondy & dogs.,” a glitchy, deconstructed sprawl, and many more. Each track hits from different angles, but they all demand your attention.
Brooklyn’s art school dropouts think about the Caribbean
Brooklyn band Geese continue to lean into their raw and abrasive brand of art punk with their latest single “Trinidad,” a preview of their upcoming album Getting Killed, coming out September 26.
The track builds its momentum on jagged guitars and a restless rhythm section, but it is Cameron Winter’s vocal performance that cuts through with terrifying urgency. His scream-shouted refrain of “there’s a bomb in my car!” arrives like an alarm bell, underscoring a set of disturbing verses that paint a fractured family portrait: “My son is in bed / My daughters are dead / My wife’s in the shed / My husband’s peeling off the lead from the walls.”
The imagery is unsettling, but Winter’s delivery is bracing, transforming anguish into catharsis. “Trinidad” is chaotic, loud, and relentless, the kind of song that affirms Geese’s reputation as one of the most unflinching young bands in New York’s alternative rock circuit. —Elijah Pareno
Half-rant, half-mantra, and 100 percent addicting
“222” is the latest single and the eighth track in Colombian artist Tei Shi’s upcoming album Make believe I believe, which comes out on August 29.
For over a decade now, the musician has cultivated a discography that is, at once, diverse and cohesive in genre. While she’s achieved a popularity status bordering on cult, having collaborated with Glass Animals and Blood Orange, I think Tei Shi should be given more flowers, and “222” is just one of her many songs we should be raving about.
The dance pop track boasts of a mellow reggaeton beat over coquettish lyricism and an arpeggiator that scratches the brain. From the melodic siren-like vocals in the Spanglish verse and pre-chorus, Tei Shi and fellow Colombian singer Loyal Lobos jump into a rapping chorus that’s half-rant, half-mantra, and 100 percent addicting: “Quiere mi numero, me lo voy a inventar (He wants my number, I’ll make it up) / dos-veintidos-veintidos-noventa (222-2290).” — Pie Gonzaga
Deconstructed club that plays hard and soft
On August 20, kwia, a Filipino-German-owned listening space in Berlin, announced it would likely close its Maybachufer venue in 2026 due to rising rent costs. As a tribute, it released its first compilation, kwia001, featuring tracks that capture the deconstructed club and ambient sound that its circle of DJs and producers has cultivated over the past four years.
The bonus track — “I want ben bondy & dogs.” by Filipino-German producer hey arnold — experiments with hard and soft textures, layering sample after sample with both edge and finesse. It opens with bright, airy synths over a tight drum beat that lands with just the right amount of head bop. Other elements — chopped, juke-inspired kicks, an oscillating dub siren, and a rubbery, lurching bassline — weave beneath cuts of Juiceman emceeing on El-B’s 2006 dubstep track “Buck & Bury (Original Mix)” and a skitterish, high-pitched vocal sample from DJ S.K.T.’s Calypso-inspired “Soltera.”
Like the rest of the compilation, “I want ben bondy & dogs.” refuses to pander to cookie-cutter feelings, staying true to kwia’s mission — as stated in an Instagram post — that “softness can be radical.” This track isn’t on Spotify, so go listen to it on Bandcamp. —Sai Versailles
Hugot lyrics and a bloody good hook
fitterkarma may still be campus favorites at Benilde, but “Pag-Ibig Ay Kanibalismo II” has launched them far beyond the indie college scene.
The pop-rock track is deceptively simple, built around a chord progression that recalls the immediacy of Filipino alt-rock staples like Moonstar88’s “Migraine” or Kitchie Nadal’s “Huwag na Huwag Mong Sasabihin.” But instead of leaning on nostalgia, the band channels their own obsessions — from Japanese pop to underground indie aesthetics — and turns them into something distinctly their own.
Songwriters Joao De Leon and Addy Pantig craft a love song that reframes devotion as something consuming, even destructive, and delivers it with a hook so sticky it feels engineered for endless replay. It is bright, punchy, and emotional, yet playful enough to stand apart from typical heartbreak anthems. In its catchiness and bold framing, “Pag-Ibig Ay Kanibalismo II” positions fitterkarma as one of the most exciting young bands to watch. —Elijah Pareno
A track on contentment in the uncertainty of one’s identity
In Wolf Alice’s new album The Clearing, released on August 22, the British rock band jump right into the music of the ‘70s, coasting between theatrical glam rock and The Beatles-esque psychedelic rock.
One of the album’s highlights is “White Horses,” which leans folksy with the bright acoustic guitar strumming. It sees vocalist Ellie Rowsell share the mic with drummer Joel Amey, who wrote the track. It speaks of contentment in the uncertainty of one’s own identity, faithful to the album’s larger themes of clarity and self-assurance. “I could just wander always, like a leaf on the southeast breeze / I do not need no rooting, I carry home with me,” Rowsell and Amey sing. — Pie Gonzaga
A distorted rework that lives up to the original
British DJ and music producer Vegyn — the mastermind behind Frank Ocean projects like Blonde and Endless — was given the daunting task of remixing French electronic duo Air’s seminal downtempo album Moon Safari, and he delivers.
With so many edits saturating the electronic music world today, the Blue Moon Safari remix album, shows how musical reimagination can honor its predecessor through faithful restraint. In his rework of “Sexy Boy,” Vegyn manages to retain the warmth and elegance of the original while layering in his signature sound design — unnerving yet tender — whether through newly distorted guitar clashes or a smoky breakbeat that pulsates well into the wee hours of the morning.
“I’ve got a great relationship with that record, as with the rest of the Air catalogue,” Vegyn said in a video interview. “So it was really nice to just get the opportunity to kind of work with something classic and ruin it slightly.” And in doing so, the listening experience of Blue Moon Safari has the rare pleasure of being bingeable, the way the original Moon Safari still rewards a front-to-back listen. —Sai Versailles
British jerk music that’s loud and clear
A new wave of British rap is taking shape, and EsDeeKid’s standout track “LV Sandals” shows just how ferocious it can sound.
The Liverpool artist teams up with internet cult favorite fakemink and producer Rico Ace for a track that thrives on menace and swagger. Its DNA pulls from jerk music — trap’s restless, abrasive cousin — and reinvents it with surging bass, cloud rap samples, and a rhythmic urgency that keeps the song just shy of two minutes. Lyrically, the trio trades boastful verses about status, style, and excess, but what lingers most is the track’s atmosphere. The low-end rumbles like an engine revving in the dark, while the verses feel like they’re delivered from the edge of a street fight.
Equal parts rager and statement of intent, “LV Sandals” pushes beyond simple braggadocio to showcase a movement eager to redefine U.K. rap for a restless generation. —Elijah Pareno
Sedative Cebuano downtempo à la Portishead’s ‘Sour Times’
Hailing from Cebu City, Womb is the trip-hop and downtempo project of Nocebo and Beauty Empire actress Chai Fonacier (vocals), Anthony Uy (guitars and synths), and Fender Figuera (drum machine).
Released under 22 Tango Records, their 2013 debut album Anesthesiac closes with the evocative “Sleepy Head” — a track that drifts in and out of consciousness with its glitchy drum pads, hypnotic synths, and uneasy composition. Their album artwork — decorated with syringes, a tourniquet, and pills swirling down a drain — echoes the lived-in angst of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s memoir Prozac Nation or the 1999 film Girl, Interrupted: “I can’t hear you / I can’t feel you anymore / Send a postcard / from the dead / Wake up, sleepy head,” writes its lyrics.
Here, you can clearly hear Womb taking cues from the descending chord progressions in Portishead’s “Sour Times,” and in doing so, they create a similar sense of inevitability. Yet “Sleepy Head” is less sultry and more languid than its counterpart — tragic, but with glimmers of optimism. What’s more, it echoes an aesthetic sensibility that has lost its way over the years, but in 2025, I’m all here for it. —Sai Versailles
A straightforward disco track with resonant and aggressively positive lyrics
Black Opinion is one of the old OPM bands we should all know more about, but whose written records — if there are any — might have been lost to time. Despite the lack of available reading material on their work, the eight-piece disco act makes itself known through various OPM playlists on streaming.
Save for the people who copped their 45s decades ago, all we have of Black Opinion now is an eponymously titled compilation of their music, which was released digitally in 2012. Among the songs is “Bahay Yugyugan,” a straightforward disco track from 1978 with bonggos, brass, and aggressively positive lyrics that resonate today. “Ang problema ay limutin sa bahay / Bahay Yugyugan,” the band sings in chorus. And who doesn’t love a song about leaving your worries on the dancefloor? — Pie Gonzaga
