One Day Holiday - ...But I Will, So That's Cool



Before we proceed with something else, let's just get the first business of the day done with, first - we are currently in the midst of listening to Mogwai's latest long player entitled Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will which is slated for a Valentine's Day release. Perfect really because that day is also when Kuala Lumpur will play host to the Deftones concert. Our initial impression about the album is that it is sort of like a continuation of their last album, The Hawk is Howling, sort of straddling very safely somewhere within playing it safe and being (calculative-ly) ambitious; so now that you know what to expect off of it. We will be coming up with a full review of the album next month - guaranteed.

Next, as we have mentioned in the previous paragraph (in case you missed it), Deftones will be playing live in KL on this coming February 14, ticketing details which can be obtained here. We are definitely going, since this comes hot on the heel of the release of the band's most rewarding release since White Pony, Diamond Eyes. The only downside to that is the terms and conditions that have been set by the organizers, stating STRICTLY NO PHOTOGRAPHY. That's a real let down there since the organizers for the Mogwai concert had no qualms about us snapping pictures all throughout their one hour plus set. (Look photo above. That was taken using a Sony digital camera) Our report from that show will definitely be full of words. Only.

Finally, the new semester is already in full swing so this blog might not be updated as frequent as we hoped it could. Even though this semester I'm only having 12 hours of class, but note preparation has so far not been anywhere near from smooth sailing. Couple that with the fact that this semester we have to cover grammar, reading comprehension, paragraph and essay writing, speaking and listening skills, all in a four hours a week class for 14 weeks - it's not terribly comfortable. There is hardly any breathing space I have to concur. (But thankfully there is still some space for me to do some listening) In the meantime, enjoy this leading single off Mogwai's seventh studio album called "Rano Pano".

REVIEWED: Until the Light Takes Us (the Black Metal Documentary Film)



"Modern music is as dangerous as cocaine"
Pietro Mascagni (Italian operatic composer. 1863-1945)

When a particular type of music becomes powerful, it becomes a tool that empowers people to be powerful - a fair warning perhaps that should have greeted the audience when one is watching this documentary film about Norwegian Black Metal called "Until the Light Takes Us". What we were treated in the opening scene though was Fenriz (of Darkthrone) standing in front of the camera, unaware that it is running, in a studio, while the film crew talk with each other in the background. Then the first piece music that greets the audience who we take might be expecting to be awashed with glorious distorted noise played over cheap amplifiers was instead treated to a pseudo chamber pop piece by Icelandic band múm; a song entitled "Ballad of the Broken Birdie Records". In fact, that song would appear many times all throughout the film, right to the rolling credit.

As how it would have been politely implied in the opening paragraph of this review, there are a few problematic issue with this movie that we somehow felt have not done any justice to how it was promoted to be - a stunning view of a music movement that once shocked the whole world. But perhaps before we drop our already-sharpened bloodied ax over the neck of this filmocumentary (we'll gladly take credit for the creation of that term, yes), it is fair enough for us to say that the issue that was raised in the film actually makes it a worthwhile watch, if not for its punishingly languid pace. Basically, from what we understood, since it is a view from within the movement itself so it must be in-depth, is that the NBM movement itself was indeed a fraction of three entirely different school of thought and approach where the only thing that unifies them as a single entity is the similarity in their music. That's all. We have one side, represented by Fenriz who is in it entirely for the music and nothing else; the second 'rebellious' side represented by Varg Vikernes (of Burzum, church-burning, and murder of Euronymous fame) who were all very political about things; and then the third side which is perhaps best represented by Per Yngve Ohlin (a.k.a. Dead) who is just absolutely mental and very dark about the condition of his life and the world.

This is where the first problem with the film arises - it's good that the filmmakers have decided to include many differing point of view in their analysis of the movement so as to give a clearer picture and a better grasp over the issue. However, because all these point of views were left untreated and not unified at the end of the movie so as to give a coherent overall view of the issue that they were discussing, one starts to wonder what actually is the filmmakers are trying to achieve here? Yes, we understood now that the church burning thing and the murders of prominent figures within the circle is an individual problem and not a collective one. But they also threw in other things like the satanic reference into the discussion as well as a highlight on the two troubled soul, Dead and Frost, and then left it on its own.

We like to think that when a filmmaker decided to come up with a documentary on any particular issue, it has to be that the filmmaker actually does have a stand (opinion) over the issue and would like to voice his/hers. We like to watch a documentary that has a voice of its own, rather than dependent entirely on other's. The single biggest flaw that this documentary committed is a glaring lack of its own voice, of its own opinion, of its own stand. If the film is just an overall view of NBM, then they shouldn't have bothered interviewing Fenriz and Vikernes at length. They shouldn't have bothered covering on the Black Circle, the infamous burning of the Fantoft Stave Church (and many others), the Euronymous-runned Helvete record store - none of those. If they are just trying to paint a picture of these Black Metal crowd as being largely misunderstood, misguided poor soul, other earlier documentaries on NBM have done that, and they did a much better job at it.

Then, did we mention about the painfully languid pace of this film? Because if no then we would really love to stress on this one - I watched this film three times, and all three times I fell asleep halfway through it. It's a documentary that plays out on a very personal, intimate level, and in which we are pretty cool with that. Sure, Vikernes is just human after all, and he sure does have his own opinion about his fellow compatriot - Fenriz, Dead, Faust - that is entirely normal. But what is not normal is that when you try to make a film on a subject matter that is famed for its dark, torturous sound, for its troubled, satanic-reference rich lyrics, and its anti-Christian view, and make it into an intimate, sobering affair, it kind of lulls our sense receptors and made us go numb. Seriously, the only thing that you will be thinking about very loudly throughout the movie is: "Where is the noise? It's too quiet in here."

Very Grammatic - 'Street' Poets Beating About Nothing?



My throat is quite sore at the moment, having had a complete meltdown (a "top-of-my-lung" meltdown) a few hours ago as I got held up by an idiot in a Kancil crawling to the traffic light while it was still green. It probably is one of that rare moment when even I, the most peaceful of drivers on road, had a case of road rage. So, as I was typing this away in relative silence, other people are sitting in front of their TVs watching the BPL, all soaked in a glorious noise of shouts, groans, and celebratory hurrah.

Last night I had this rare opportunity of driving (albeit aimlessly) around Subang after my friend and I had a wholesome dinner at Bubba Gump's in Sunway. Our only reason to drive all the way from the fringe of the outskirt of the Klang Valley in a little town called Bangi to what is essentially a traffic gridlock, is just for this dish called Bourbon Catch of the Day. So, with dinner safely in our stomach and the time said it's only half an hour shy of midnight, we bravely decided not to go home yet. No, wait sorry - I was driving so I decided that we should drive aimlessly around Subang while giving a guided tour around what used to be my playground (grew up and lived in Subang for more than 10 years) until something hit us and provide something more meaningful that can be done.

To cut the story short, after 'browsing' through random parts of USJ, we drove over to SS15. You see my mate who was with me that night is currently in on a frighteningly expensive fixation called 'fixie', fancy name for what is honestly a technically useless and pointless bicycle. Technically useless, and dangerous I have to add, because the fixed gear bicycle had no brakes so I don't know, going down a very steep hill, you come to a complete halt by crashing into a tree I suppose? Anyway, so the fixie, I take it that it is pretty new here in Malaysia, and the place where these sort of people gather is a tiny, humble shop-cum-cafe called Grafa, lodged right in the middle of somewhere in SS15. So we drove past that place (thankfully it is closed) when my friend said: "Let's go to UYA!".

UYA! distro is best described as a concept shop of some sort; either that or it is a very stylish looking storeroom, because, as how they would promote it, the place sells everything from indie books old and new, music records, t-shirts, and anything in between which is fancy. In one corner they have this army-issue gas mask and magazine cases. The gas mask is for sale, which is about RM200 something (I forgot). If you think Sid from Slipknot looks cool and you dream of looking like him, there you go. The magazine case however I'm not quite sure whether it's there just to complement the army theme in that corner (they were selling camouflages as well) or if it is for sale.

The part that really grabbed my attention however was this small platform, near where they hang some random collection of ladies' dress, where they have two bookshelf with lots of books neatly stacked on it. On those two bookshelves I found lots of, what was promised, indie books; or to be more precise: literary books by budding senimans. These indie books mainly contains poetry and short story, written in the somewhat controversial method called spontaneous writing. I called it controversial because, to agree with what our great seniman A. Samad Said once said (I'm a big fan of him): "There can't be spontaneous writing because the act of the writer preparing him or herself to write is in itself planned, not spontaneous".

The only thing that I can feel for these budding writers and poets, other than some degree of respect, is pity - because I know how literature in Malaysia is like - it's an uphill battle that will never be won. We're talking mainstream literature here that was created to be served to the general masses and even that got unanimously ignored. Malaysians in general just can't give a flying fuck about literature, let alone an experimental one. And to compound on that matter, spontaneous writing is on the fringe of the outskirt of literature. It is a problematic creature because, as how spontaneity should behave, it is spontaneous - it jumps at you, the reader, spontaneously. It is not a coherent collection of thoughts or ideas. It just happened out of nothing, spuriously exist on a short burst of momentum, and then it ceases to exist, both on the paper and on the reader's memory. It ends as spontaneous and how it sta-



P/S: The video? Aw come on, it's spontaneous. What were you exp-

UYA! distro:
No. 26, Tingkat 1,
Jalan SS 15/8B,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia

The Off-Colored Officer - Arif Sağ



As promised earlier, continuing with our current interest in folk music from far-out corners of the Earth, today we feature another big name from Turkey: Arif Sağ. While our first feature, Erkin Koray, headlined the rock & roll movement in Turkey, our bağlama virtuoso here is more of a folk music hero. Again, as it probably is the norm with musicians from country where English is not the national spoken language, our research on Mr. Arif returned lots of websites in Turkish. But well, you know, sometimes persistence does pay...

Arif Sağ (born 1945 in Aşkale, Erzurum, Turkey) is a singer, bağlama virtuoso and leading figure in modern Turkish folk music, as well as a former MP in the Turkish parliament, and an academic. He taught more than 40.000 students in his music school ASM (Arif Sağ Music). He is a big influence in Turkish Folk Music... (Source)

Yeah, that is pretty much it that we could gather about him. I mean, you could give his official website (Resmi Web Sitesi) a shot, and with the help of Google Translate, we could be going somewhere further, but then that would have probably defeated the real intent and purpose of this post - sharing great music with the rest of the world. I'm not sure about other people but I prefer my foreign language songs to remain alien, so that the exotic remains as exotic as when it was first discovered.

Embedded at the end of this post are two of my favorite songs from Arif Sağ, entitled "Su Samsunun Evleri" (Yeah, very funny Google Translate) and "Osman Pehlivan". Plus, if you really have to find detailed information about the man, this here is it.

Until This One Feasts Our Eyes



So then, what is promised to be an engaging watch about Norwegian Black Metal is here. There is not much that we can say at this point in time since we have yet to watch it, but trust us that we will do our utmost best to get our hand on this documentary movie made by Aaron Eites and Audrey Ewell. We have had the chance of watching a somewhat similar documentary about NBM a few years back, albeit produced by Norwegian broadcasting company NRK (but it includes really cool cuts by heavyweights like Mayhem), so our expectation on this one is pretty high - we hope it covers all the essentials. Until then, we only have this short trailer to sharpen our bloodied ax to...



UPDATE: Holy shit, you know what, the said documentary about NBM that was produced by NRK is available at Youtube, albeit in parts. We're posting the shortcut to the Youtube page below since the video poster has disabled embedding.
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4

REVIEWED: Bardo Pond by Bardo Pond



If there ever is a reward for the virtue of patience in being a constant state of timelessness, for a (quite) brief moment, then one will probably find it in abundance in this Philadelphia's long-staying mainstay new self-titled long player. We'll just go straight to the point with this one since this album turns out to be quite a stretch before I could properly jumble up a few coherent thoughts to come up with this review; and the key word here is that patience can sometimes be rewarding, though it may disappoint you at first.

In essence, this album is pretty much just like about every other Bardo Pond's previous releases produced throughout their entire career in that it swirls sometimes violently, sometimes deliriously, over a long period before it all comes crashing down into a wall of noise, peppered here and there by an accurate taste of folk to create that brief moment of serene calm and clearheadedness, but the whole logic is always left somewhere in the middle, waiting for the listener to diligently pick it up themselves.

I have to admit that when it comes to BP, I am a pretty new pair of ears to their output, so I am quite tempted to pigeonhole them with Sonic Youth - where timelessness is their calling card and have ever since tirelessly slugging it out, producing materials that are neither here nor there. Most of the time they just remain perfectly stationary, neither moving forward nor backward, and that listeners would just occasionally visit them in their mold and leave whenever they are happy with it or feeling satisfied.

It's not really a complaint but when you get to "Undone", clocking in at a very comfortable cruise of 21 minutes in what is basically a repetition of listless nothingness, and followed by "Cracker Wrist" which, though is only for 9 minutes and with quite a surprising introduction, grinds out just as painfully slow, suddenly the reward in sitting down patiently and listening to it just kind of... cancels itself out.

The leading single "Don't Know About You" though is a nice addition to the album, not just for its' very brief playing time of 4 minutes and a bit, but because it briefly escapes the tedium repetition of sludge-whimsy sigh-sludge and its unforgiving trudging pace by replacing them with something that is a bit more urgent and uh, bone-crushingly awesome.

Otherwise, if you're looking for a more wholesome and rewarding record, this we afraid, is not it. It will appreciate, make no mistake, but over a long period of time because that is the true quality of BP - it's a grower, but one that grows very late and very slowly. But sometimes even patience can wear thin and when that moment does come, you will find this album absolutely rubbish. Wait for that rare moment when you have all the time in the world on your hand and you will learn to appreciate the disparaging quality of this album.

LISTED: Goosebumps Vol.2 - Elbow's Powder Blue
*Goosebumps is a new recurring feature where we highlight on songs that what we perceive to be a complete artistic statement in terms of its melody, lyrics, and to a certain extent, its video clip as well.



It's still drizzling lightly outside, though the December monsoon should already be at the tail-end of its wrath by now. The alarm clock on my bedside table says it is now close to midnight and the chill is starting to kick in. I huddled up my blanket and wrapped it around me, and returned to sit back in front of my computer. This is not the first time I'm losing my sleep over something... as various thoughts flashes through my mind. The only thing that I can think of right now is that... if ever such a thing is true, then I might be in for such a powerful, raw display of emotion that I've never been familiar with. This, ladies and gentlemen, is all started with the stroke of the piano keys...

According to Guy Garvey, the vocalist for the Mancunian five piece Elbow, the inspiration for the song "Powder Blue" was drawn from a 'tragically heartfelt' scene: "I almost feel guilty for writing this song. It's based on a withdrawing couple I saw in a bar. She was banging a coin on the bar really loudly and he came up behind her and put his arms round her, staying her hand and she burst into tears. There was a tragic magic to the situation that would have affected anyone who witnessed it." (Source)

Without taking in that quote by Guy, my initial thought was that this song is about a couple who are both staring at the face of death, considering the line: "China white, my bride tonight / Smiling on the tiles". That imagery alone was almost totally inescapable of how I imagined the guy seeing his lover lying on the floor, stone cold dead. However, the rest of the lines in the song didn't really tally with the initial image that I have in my head. Only after I did a research (Read: Wikipedia) on 'China white', after I got frustrated coming up empty-handed with 'powder blue', that I knew that 'China white' is a slang term for α-Methylfentanyl, or heroin.

What really grasped my attention the most to this song is how dramatic it sounded and felt, with the opening piano keys tumbling away in a discordant fashion before it neatly retreated back into a calm passage, and Guy's voice hanging in lower mid note, introducing the song - it is as if a tragedy had just befallen on the narrator. Then what proceeded is a four minutes uncontrolled weeping of a man who had 'lost everything', with the narrator pining for the memory of a soul departed in a longing weep: "Your eyes are just like black spiders / Your hair and dress in ribbons / Baby cakes". It was only by the second part of the first verse where the reference towards drug is apparent: "In despair or incoherence / Nothing in between". The way I understood this, when someone is high on drugs, they are in a constant state of incoherence, and when the withdrawal sets in and they are no longer experiencing the high, they are, well, to make it short, in despair.

So to carefully sum up the whole story, it is about a pair of lover who are hooked on doing drugs (and especially heroin, since it got a mention), and the narrator is just narrating that particular moment in which both of them 'administered' heroin into their system, and went through the motions together, as lovers, heart and soul and mind in unison ("Bring that minute back / We never get so close as when the sunward flight begins"). Ah, how romantic.

This One That Came a Bit Late But It's From a Far-Out Corner of the Earth Right From Where We Are So It's Kinda Okay We Guess - Los Savants



Hold it right there - yes, the header of this entry confirms that this could yet be another addition to our string of recurring features where it's basically still about music, and some random shit whenever we feel BS happy.

We are delighted to report that this precious find we stumbled upon here came all the way from Guadalajara, Mexico - a land where the media portrayed the people as sombrero-wearing, fajitas and tacos-eating cheap labors, and each year they celebrate something called Cinco de Mayo. And their folk music is something that sounds like a funfair called mariachi. Yes we are pretty much that ignorant about this country and their people; apart from their crippling problem with the drug gangs which recently made the news headline. Hell, we can't even recall any artist or band that came from this country. Our mind inexplicably directed towards Sepultura, but they came from Brazil.

We tried to mine for any information about this band (Read: Wikipedia), and most importantly one that is not in Spanish, but it came to no avail. So, armed with no more than the knowledge of their Myspace page, and their own website, we posted this entry and called the day off. They sounded something like a cross between Death From Above 1979 (track no.2 "2182A"; track no.4 "Misiles"), bits of Black Moth Super Rainbow (especially the part where they used the vocoder), God is an Astronaut (track no.3 "Benito Era Un Duende"), and Polvo (track no.6 "Las Jirafas Compraron Pijamas En Boston Y..."). We like to call this kind of marriage of sound as 'deliciously good'.

LISTED: Goosebumps Vol.1 - Doves' Snowden
*Goosebumps is a new recurring feature where we highlight on songs that what we perceive to be a complete artistic statement in terms of its melody, lyrics, and to a certain extent, its video clip as well.



"Snowden" is probably the only song by this British band that I properly liked, thanks in part to its introduction, which to my ear sounded like a choir of cherubs in the Heaven shedding blood tears. At first, I couldn't give that much of a care on what Jimi Goodwin was singing about, something which is quite odd considering I was a Literature student. For me, listening to music has almost always strictly been about the song and not much else because, well blame it on my early days of listening to Coldplay for one, I have always found that many songs, the feel or the real story behind it does not match with the lyrics that accompanies it.

I always felt frustrated listening to a really dramatic sounding song but where the lyrics left nothing at all to the imagination. However, along the way I did picked up a few songs that blissfully had a perfect harmonized combination of songs and lyrics, where the lyrics perfectly completes the experience of listening to that particular song. "Snowden" is among a few other songs which had that perfect harmonized combination of songs and lyrics that I was on about a few lines above.

Referring to this website, I found a few commenter touched on the subject of Joseph Heller's hit novel Catch-22. Snowden, a character in that novel, "...lies dying in the back of the plane from bullet wounds to the chest. His death haunts the main character, Yossarian, throughout the novel because he doesn't realize the extent of the injury before it's too late".

The one particular line from this song that captures my attention is "When is it our turn? / So why should we care?". If their discussion is correct, in which the song is about death and the certainty of it ("If this is our last summer / Then why should we care?"), then this song has got to be one of the most defeatist relative to its subject matter. Defeatist here is where the narrator of the song tells of his ready acceptance of his impending fate and chosen to let what was destined to happen, to just happen. There is no point in fighting against it because fuck it, that's why.

This 'easy' nature of the narrator in accepting his fate resonates very well with the overall feel of the song which flows languidly like a wind that blows in the early evening, gently rustling the leaves on a tree. The rustling sound spreads along with the wind but as it catches the nearest human ear, it only very softly did so in a way that does not trigger any alarm. It's a comforting noise, and it is as comfortable as how the narrator calmly accepts his fate. It's a very poetic combination, and that gives me the goosebumps every time I listen to this song - hence the name of this feature.

Brilliant song.

The Off-Colored Officer - Discomafia



I'm feeling a bit nostalgic today as I was browsing through my CD collection when I stumble upon this particular album by one of Malaysia's leading (at one time) electronic music powerhouse, fronted by the 'crazy' duo of Murali and Ghani (of the Syko-G fame). They were called Discomafia and at the turn of the century, they were really huge; albeit in the fringe, but it doesn't matter because they were really good.

It all started way back in the year 2000 when suddenly electronic music started to find a host of talented young men (and woman - just one, from my last count) getting their hands dirty dipping into the burgeoning scene, hoping to make a big breakthrough and strike gold. First there was Deanna Yussof (yes, that only female) who made a surprising switch from the TV screen to FM airwaves with what could possibly be the first (and perhaps the only) English dance music that made it into the mainstream media. Since then, Malaysian listeners, especially those with their ears on the underground scene, were treated with host of other Electronica acts like Discomafia, Spacebar, Herb Vendors, and Rabbit - the once mysterious artist that got the whole nation into a guessing game of trying to figure out who the Hell Rabbit was. But of course right until that moment when he won an award at the AIM for... something that I can't quite remember, when he made his first public appearance and revealed himself to be a somewhat fat Chinese bloke. (No disrespect there, just stating the fact)

The history of Discomafia, if to look at its entirety, is of course all boils down to one man whose stage name is (or is it was?) Syko-G, a.k.a. Ghani. He was once referred to as the "Godfather of Electronica" for his contribution as both artist and producer. He first came into the limelight in 1994 when he won runner-up in the DJ Open Competition held in Kuala Lumpur. Since then, he worked his way through by producing various albums and songs by wide ranging number of artists, with one particular song that got him listed for an award.

After his successful foray in the mainstream music, Ghani retreated into the dark and unforgiving world of underground music by producing his own composition, mixing samples from many popular Malaysian bands, into his own brand of industrial electronica. This was also when he formed the Metaldogg Records - the home base where Discomafia's first and only album was produced, entitled Attaque the Megaphone. It is suffice for me to say that as how it stands at this moment, this album now is a legend. It is a huge milestone where the development of Electronic music in Malaysia is concerned.

It all came to be with the ill-fated Melawati Jungle Rave party in the year 2000 where Discomafia performed at some club partially hidden among the wilderness (which is absolutely understandable because the Melawati area itself was purposely built to be 'in' the jungle). It was perhaps an entirely innocent party where a few guests had some drinks and live music was played but somehow one certain tabloid got a whiff of it and blew the Goddamn trumpet off towards the local authority, claiming it was some sort of 'wild party' that is taking place in the jungle. Here in the reserved, humble country called Malaysia, such 'wild' antic is a cardinal sin an therefore cannot be tolerated. No sir, no way.

Alas, despite the solitary bad note there created unnecessarily by those idiots at Harian Metro (they are a very famous tabloid here in Malaysia - famous for melting your brain every time you go anywhere near it), there were also a number of respectable achievements that Murali and Ghani received that is worth mentioning here. This album managed to be on the top spot in the charts for some time, and the leading track off this album, "Searching For..." made it to number 2 on the Malaysian English Top Ten chart in 2001. The now legendary publication Tone Magazine listed them at number 3 in their Urban Malaysia's Top 30 list. The praises just keeps on coming in until when the committees of the POPKOMM Music Festival got hold of the band, they instantly fell in love and listed them to perform at the festival, held in Cologne, Germany in 2001. From there onwards, they performed at festivals in Berlin and Amsterdam - of course, the homeland of Dance music. Sadly though, 2001 was also the last of which anyone would have hear on anything regarding Discomafia because Ghani then parted ways with Murali and soldiered on, alone as Syko-G.

Yes, just like Komplot, they too existed for only two years. Sad.



P/S: This was the only video of Discomafia that I can find after nearly one hour searching through Youtube. I would probably skip through to 4:30 where they broke out into the song that was track number 2 on the album (I forgot the title) in which they were really famous for among Malaysian listener. Their album is now a real rare item because even a good second hand CD shop don't carry their album. The only place that I somehow managed to find it was here. Thank God I already bought that album before it went almost extinct.

The Off-Colored Officer - Erkin Koray



Yes, the Off-Colored Officer has come back again after quite a long absence, making way for the 30 best albums list. And by the look of things, this should also spell for the return of One Day Holiday and Very Grammatic features as well. To avoid confusion over things, here's an itinerary of how these features will be featured in this blog:
1) One Day Holiday - This is the original feature in this blog where new albums are reviewed. But please do not confuse this feature with REVIEWED. Check number 4 (Hint: Some random thoughts are included)
2) Very Grammatic - When there is absolutely nothing (musically) to talk about, here's where random musings go
3) The Off-Colored Officer - If there is any interesting piece of music from the realms of psych rock, cosmic rock, or anything that is 'weird' that is worth raving about, this is the place to do so
4) REVIEWED - Here is where an album is reviewed, and nothing else. No bulshits, only cold hard facts baby
5) LISTED - When we've ran out of things to BS about, we'll come up with a list. Of things

To kick off 2011 in style, here I re-post again (if not in this blog then it must've been at my previous no-longer-existed blog) a video from Turkey's prominent figure in their rock music history, Erkin 'Baba' Koray. It was largely thanks to this website (quite an unlikely place) who introduced me to this Turkish rock music legend. There will be another Turkish musical legend making an appearance soon, so watch this space out. I don't know why but there is something quite hypnotic about Turkish rock music. Maybe that's why they call it psych rock?

I have absolutely no idea what this song is about but I know that it's one of my all-time favorite off-kilter song.

Normally I'm not all that in with these internet memes but when it involves music, and some of the bands mentioned are ones that we could relate with, it just have to be enjoyed. This one was found here at a site called BuzzFeed, a place where probably internet memes was born because they gauge each of their entries to see if it has gone viral or no. (Though from my previous reads I was led to believe that 4chan was the actual birthplace for memes)



Click on the link for more. It sure does make for a good laugh.

Oh thanks a lot XFM.

Finally some result after an hour scourging through Youtube...

Things We Missed in 2010 - Komplot



Since it's only two days old here in 2011, I guess the only thing we can do for now is to look back at things that happened or took place last year (besides the only thing that we were really looking forward for 2011 is Deftones playing live in KL this coming Valentine's). Thus it's a perfect opportunity for us here at Genuine Mind Zine to pay our last respect to one of the most exciting act to ever grace the Malaysian indie music scene. They were, at their time, at the forefront of change as many underground and indie bands managed to cross over the listenership barrier and became accepted by the mainstream audience, largely thanks to the efforts of Adly Syairi Ramly and the XFM team.

If my memory is correct (can't be bothered to Google on this one), the catalyst, should I say, that sparked the effort of bridging the gap between mainstream and underground was with the release of O@G's first mostly Malay album called Opera Radhi-o-friendly in 2001. O@G, or formerly known simply as OAG, had started out playing in the underground scene playing the sort of catchy pop rock with a very limited fan base and appeal, singing exclusively in English (which many believed was the reason why their appeal was limited to the underground kids only).

The situation here in Malaysia is a unique one because the milestone for acceptability among the larger crowd (read: mainstream) for any aspiring bands or artists is over the preference of language. If you want to appeal to the large crowd, you have to have to sing in Malay. If you prefer to sing in English, straight away you know that you will only be tapping the 'exclusive' niche market where the listeners are mainly teenagers and young adults living in suburban area. Exclusive we said there just now refers to 'small', or 'limited in number', if you don't already know it.

Even tougher it would seem to be if you are in a band where your greatest strength is in your ability to create heartfelt melody or mesmerizing atmosphere through inspirational use of the musical instruments, but your Achilles heel is in the lack of an able singer, something along the lines of Explosions in the Sky for example, then you are consigned to tap into a niche market of an already niche market. Your listenership would be so exclusive that it requires quantum physicists to uncover it (so to say - I'm exaggerating here).

Even today, after a decade has passed since O@G took the leap of faith, the situation has yet to change for the better. Underground and indie bands who wants a slice of the pie (of mainstream listenership) will still have to come up with two or three Malay songs in order to appease the demand. If you want to sing in English, we're not listening - so said the mainstream listener. Some people say such act is like selling one's soul to the Devil, but hey, for all that I care, if it is for the better of the Malaysian music scene, then who are we to criticize. Our music scene is very small and, before O@G did it in 2001, the market was over-saturated with wimpy 'rock' bands playing sappy overly-sentimental songs that covers on only one, single, solitary topic of unrequited love. They were remarkably painful and uninteresting to listen to that every time one song was played on the radio, my soul would commit suicide.

After 2001, we got to see more bands who were plying their trade in the underground and indie scene coming out of the closet and started to sing in Malay. Since then we've had bands like Flop Poppy (with the hit single "Cinta"), Pesawat (another of our favorite bands), Yuna, Couple (the power pop darlings), Bunkface (punk rockers), and Ana Raffali, all gracing the national radio with their Malay songs. But the one that really took the limelight from the rest with their funky styling that sounded like no other was Komplot. We would like to stress on the was part there because, as the headline of this entry would have suggested, they had officially disbanded.

Though their existence was of a really brief one, they had nonetheless managed to leave a lasting mark on the indie music scene here in Malaysia. Zac, after leaving the band, did recorded a song with Yuyun (ex-The Rhaman), a Malay number called "Hey". We're not quite sure what is or are Zac's future plan, but hey, from what we heard in that song, we're loving it just as much. Though we still would love it if Komplot is still together and released an album. It would be totally awesome.