Welcome 2009. Although I have been living and studying in America for four months since early August, I've been keeping tabs on the happenings on the local music scene back in Malaysia and from what I gather, we are on the up! Day by day, our strength grew by numbers with more and more diverse bands sprouting like cendawan selepas hujan supported by various organizers, mish-mash of indie clothing labels and weekly gig hangouts. There are still issues to be ironed out e.g. organizers paying bands little money, bands having difficulties promoting themselves to the masses and too many bands doing it for their 15 minutes of fame but at the turn of the year, we are storming the mainstream front.
/REBIRTHThe seeds were sown two years ago when the hit television series
Kami aired on national television whereby it incorporated the local indie scene as its setting and used songs from local bands in their soundtrack, sometimes having these bands perform in certain episodes. This helps promote our scene to the masses but it also attracted the unavoidable poseurs. More interest was raised when the band
Hujan came into the fray; they were the answer to the "Indonesian Invasion" of pop rock Indonesian bands who were conquering the airwaves at that time. With hits like
Pagi Yang Gelap,
Aku Skandal &
Bila Aku Sudah Tiada getting adequate airplay, Hujan, and to a certain extent
Meet Uncle Hussain, were the pioneers of our rise from obscurity.
//DANCE FLOOR2008 started off with a bang as
Bodysurf Music &
Theatrical Records did a one-day extravaganza
Independent Day Out Festival consisting of a full-blown gig, an acoustics/poetry stage and clothing/arts bazaar. This set the precedent for other gig organizers to do their own gigs at well-known jaunts such as the aforementioned
MCPA Hall,
Annexe Central Market &
Laundry Bar. With cover charge ranging from RM10 to RM25, one can enjoy around 10-15 bands per gig with a couple of them established headliners to pull the crowd. Expect yourself to be sweaty or bruised at a gig as we Malaysians are committed moshers.
Laundry Bar took an unorthodox method from the rest of the pack by charging gig goers absolutely FREE if they want to watch a show over there. They would either organize it themselves or invite other people to organize shows at this establishment. Monthly gigs such as
Project Bazooka, Moonshine (spearheaded by Reza Salleh)
and the ASEAN oriented
Crossborders helped our local bands to gain credence with the urbanites. Other gig hangouts in the Klang Valley worth mentioning include
Skizo Studio,
Gudang Noisy,
Cloth And Clef, One Cafe &
No Black Tie.
///BRANCHESInitially expected to be an exclusively "indie rock" scene, I was surprised at how this indie boom diversified and at the same time strengthened existing low-profile scenes; as months pass by a certain trend can be seen in gigs whereby organizers try to accomodate bands from different genres to attract a wide range of fans. As an example,
Supernova Independent Festival held by
Street Signal &
Andamedia have a wide variety of bands such as
Dashown (hardcore),
The Times (mod rock),
The Otherside Orchestra (elektro rock),
Funky Doryz (funk/jazz) etc in their set list.
Compared to the 90s underground era where majority of supporters of a certain liking fanatically stick to their own genre (
"grunge dengan grunge, oi dengan oi"), the youth of the millenium embrace each other's musical stance and some even become fans of other genres. They have come to an understanding that music is free to be enjoyed by all and there should not be any form of "genre discrimination" which is quite often mentioned and promoted by hardcore bands
Restraint &
Second Combat. On the other hand, if you still don't like that band you can always go to the back of the hall!
Currently, our microcosm consists of the initial "indie rockers" led by Hujan and Meet Uncle Hussain besides power pop personas
Couple (who was named in Rolling Stones Top 25 Bands In Myspace), the latest pop punk sensation
Bunkface, the retro disco-punk
Komplot, Brit-rockers revivalist
Bittersweet and countless more. On a softer note, the above mentioned
Reza Salleh with other singer-songwriters such as
Azmyl Yunor,
Jerome Kugan,
Yuna &
Estrella helped raise the profile of our acoustics/jazz scene by providing a platform for them and their peers to showcase their talents.
By shunning riffs, our own post-rock/progressive/shoegaze movement is starting to catch steam as bands such as
Telephony Delivery,
Deepset,
Furniture,
Telebury &
Citizens Of Ice Cream can manage to attract their own set of fans as far as Singapore. These genres are further galvanized with international acts such as Mono, Toe, My Disco & recently Mogwai hitting our shores. Looking back to the past, the reverberations of "
Punks not dead!" is in face still relevant today as there is still a punk movement (
Carburetor Dung,
Dum Dum Tak) albeit small; likewise, grunge (
Flu ,
Madhouse) and ska (
Plague Of Happiness,
Skudap-Skudip) has seen a revival as there are Malaysians who still believe in the music of Kurt Cobain and Sir Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, respectively.
////HXCEven though understated, the local hardcore scene must not be underestimated. Difficulty in gaining acceptance by the public due to it's "heavy" sound has not been a deterrence for them to expand
their reach to the international arena: as current as summer 2007, Second Combat had the honor to tour with France's Backsight all around Europe while EP collaborations (also called
split) between Malaysian bands with their South East Asian and Australian counterparts are increasingly becoming popular.
One of the major reason why the this scene stands out from their peers is the broad connection they have with the global hardcore community. Their ability to pull celebrated oversea acts such as Bleeding Through, Sick Of It All, Soilwork, Comeback Kid, Ignite and Caliban to come and perform in Malaysia shows that we are becoming a hot bed of hardcore activity. Only time will tell when our very own Malaysian bands start to tour the world and gain international recognition.
/////
ARTLABELSThe second coming of independent bands this time has led to a surge in indie clothing brands. These groups usually would sell their stuff at gigs and some have even "sponsor" bands by designing tees for them e.g.
WEARENVY currently has six to eight bands under their wings. On 1st January 2008,
The Super Sunday, a collective of four individuals who have a passion in graffiti, opened up a concept store at the famous Kuala Lumpur shopping district of Bukit Bintang. This store serves as a port for indie clothing groups and bands to sell their merchandise, making it more accessible to everyone.
During mid-2008, a collective of 18 clothing labels banded together to form
Angkatan Baju Malaya aiming to "...
organize clothing festival as demanded by the masses" and "...
educate the masses with our own unique perspectives and values in life through our wearable artworks." With the slogan "
T-Shirts For The Rakyat!" they set out on a tour to four major cities in Malaysia, supported by bands and gigs. However, the highest accolade should be given to
Pop Malaya who managed to grab the attention of
Time magazine in their article on Asian pop clothing
"
Your Logo Here."
/////FIESTA/Cranking it up to a larger scale, 2008 also sees to the increase of major music and art festivals.
RANTAI.ART hit it big in December 2007 with their RANtAi Art Event and their third edition a year later. This showcase is something similar to the Independent Day Out Festival but they focus more on the arts; there are still band performances but emphasis is more towards art exhibitions, indie clothing bazaars, poem recitals and indie movie screenings. A similar event include
KLue Urbanscapes which was held at the KL Performing Art Center.
For wanting a purely major music event, there was the
KL Indie Fest '08 held at Kl Tower where the organizers mixed current favorites with bands from the 90s underground days such as OAG, Dead Mushroom and A.C.A.B. The highlight of the year would be the annual (except 2007)
Rock The World (RTW) held at Stadium Merdeka hosted by Jason Lo. This year's RTW sparked a fiery debate on
Junk Online with many criticizing Lo for bringing in too many old crooners and too little bands (less than the usual 30+) performing. However, it was still a hit as thousands turned up for our very own
Glastonbury or
Big Day Out. There was also the
Sunburst Music Festival where local acts are pitted up with international performers such as Incubus, John Legend & The Roots. Hopefully our homemade talent will still be featured in this event in the future when it expands.
/////AIRWAVE & THE IDIOT BOX//
2008 was also the year our mass media begin recognizing the talent and potential of indie bands. Fly FM and Hot FM drew first blood by start spinning songs of bands such as
Hujan, Meet Uncle Hussain, Komplot, Estrella etc. Fly FM even created a slot for local bands i.e.
Campur Chart which is aired weekly
to gauge the best songs weekly.
Conversely, we haven't had that much penetration in television except being featured in interviews or highlighted in youth programs. But now, bands are coming up with their own video clips e.g. Hujan (Jiwa Kelajuan), Estrella (Stay), Meet Uncle Hussain (Lagu Untukmu) and Laila's Lounge (Mawar Khayalan) to show that Malaysians bands and video directors/producers have the creativity to show that their work is of high quality. In terms of the silver screen,
My Indie Rock Darling gained good reviews while
Kami The Movie, released on Hari Raya Aidilfitri, was deemed a hit.
/////EPILOGUE///2009: TIME TO REACH FOR THE STARS?Butterfingers has set a benchmark with their album KEMBALI, meticulously fusing progressive folk rock with traditional Malay culture of
pantuns and
peribahasa. On the world wide web various blogs, podcasts and networks have been set up to further promote the scene in cyberspace; examples such as
The Wknd Sessions,
Undergroundo.tv and
Gua has plenty of clips and news while the soon to be launched
MyIndie.Fm will be the first Malaysian indie streaming radio. Furthermore, following Hujan, Yuna, Oh Chentaku and Estrella will be heading to the UK for a tour sometime around March while Phunk Mob, GruvAvenue, 40 Winks, Mia Palencia, Couple & Yuna got invited to play at Singapore's
Mosaic Music Festival; Deepset, on the other hand, got rave reviews (8/10) from
The Silent Ballet on their LP
The Lights We Shed Shall Burn Your Eyes.
While 2008 was the year of soul searching and gaining a platform, I hope that 2009 will be the year we break out from the bubble. With the rapid growth of our scene and achievements being put to the books, we still have a lot of potential to harness especially in promoting it to the masses. Some commentators have lamented the demise of our mainstream music scene and it is high time for us to show that the indie scene has the willpower and sustainability to take Malaysia to the world!
This just in (17 January): Meet Uncle Hussain just won Malaysia's Anugerah Juara Lagu 2008 beating pop superstar Faizal Tahir. This is the second consecutive year an indie band won this annual award with Estranged winning it last year.
