Ben&Ben is bringing its debut studio album, Limasawa Street, to physical formats for the first time, with CD and vinyl editions now available for fans and collectors.
Released in 2019, Limasawa Street introduced the nine-piece band’s folk-pop sound and included songs that would become closely associated with Ben&Ben, including “Pagtingin” and “Araw-Araw.” The album went on to receive multi-platinum certification from the Philippine Association of the Record Industry (PARI) and won Album of the Year at the 33rd Awit Awards.
Pre-orders for the physical editions open August 29 at 12 noon through Backspacer Records.
When can fans pre-order Ben&Ben’s ‘Limasawa Street’?
Pre-orders for the CD and vinyl editions of Limasawa Street open on Saturday, August 29, at 12 noon.
Fans can place their orders through Backspacer Records.
The physical release gives listeners an opportunity to own a tangible edition of an album that has primarily been experienced through digital platforms and live performances since its 2019 release.
Why is ‘Limasawa Street’ important to Ben&Ben?
Limasawa Street was recorded during an early stage of Ben&Ben's career, when the group was still developing the sound and identity that would later define the band.
According to the group, the album captures a particular point in their lives and serves as a record of their ideas, emotions, and perspective on love and life at the time.
The album also has an unusual place in the band's history because the material was recorded before the group had fully settled into its nine-member formation.
For Ben&Ben, revisiting the record means looking back at the period when the band was beginning to establish itself and learning what it meant to create music collectively.
What songs are on ‘Limasawa Street’?
The album produced several of Ben&Ben's best-known songs, including:“Pagtingin”
“Araw-Araw”
The songs helped establish the band's distinctive approach to Filipino folk-pop and became part of its early musical identity.
The album's success eventually took Ben&Ben beyond recorded music and into live performances across the Philippines and Singapore through the Limasawa Street tour.
‘Limasawa Street’ receives a new physical treatment
The CD and vinyl versions have been remastered by Jett Galindo, a Grammy Award-winning sound engineer.
Remastering involves preparing previously recorded audio for a new release format. For a vinyl edition, the mastering process also considers the technical characteristics of the format to create a suitable pressing master.
For longtime listeners, the physical editions therefore offer more than a different way to store the same album. They provide a collectible version of a record that has been part of Ben&Ben's catalog for several years.
Why are physical music formats making a comeback?
The release arrives at a time when music consumption is dominated by streaming, but physical formats continue to have a place among music fans and collectors.
Streaming provides immediate access to enormous music libraries, while physical albums offer ownership, artwork, packaging, and a more tangible connection to a particular period in an artist's career.
Vinyl, in particular, has become increasingly associated with music collecting and album listening as an experience rather than simply a way to access recorded music.
For Filipino artists, physical releases can also give fans a way to preserve albums that might otherwise exist primarily as digital files or streaming links.
A physical bookmark in Ben&Ben’s career
Nearly a decade into Ben&Ben's career, the physical release of Limasawa Street gives the band's earliest major body of work a new place in its catalog.
The album captures a version of the group that was still developing its sound, audience, and ambitions. Its songs have since moved beyond that particular moment, but the physical editions allow fans to revisit the record as an artifact of where the band began.
For longtime followers, that makes the CD and vinyl release especially significant. For newer listeners, it offers another way to discover the album that helped establish Ben&Ben as one of the prominent names in contemporary Filipino music.
