Music

16.05.17

Keintiman HAIM dan Polesan Paul Thomas Anderson

Dalam studio yang sepi, Danielle memainkan piano klasiknya. Tatapannya tenang seolah ia sudah bersiap menyalurkan emosinya sejak lama kala intonasinya perlahan menyibak kesunyian. Menjelang , Este mulai menimpali pondasi yang telah dirancang. Sedangkan Alana berupaya memenuhi bagiannya dengan kontemplasi distorsi yang minimalis sebelum akhirnya mereka menuntaskan klimaks; pukulan perkusi dan teriak pengharapan. Gambaran tersebut merupakan garis besar dari terbaru trio asal Los Angeles, HAIM yang berjudul “Right Now.” Selain memiliki karakter kuat, “Right Now” juga ditunjang secara sinematik oleh Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA). PTA dengan baik menangkap makna nada yang termaktub; menyoroti keintiman melalui sederhana selama hitungan menit berjalan. Tak lebih, tak kurang. “Right Now” menjadi bagian dari album penuh mereka bertajuk Something to Tell You yang rencananya akan dirilis pada bulan Juli mendatang. Memuat 11 (sebelas) nomor, HAIM masih membawa nuansa pop-rock yang menyegarkan. Jika dihitung, butuh waktu empat tahun untuk HAIM melepas rilisan kedua setelah Days Are Gone yang banjir pujian.

15.05.17

Seleksi Karya: XL Recordings

XL Recordings merupakan sebuah kolektif turunan Beggars Group yang didirikan Nick Halkes, Richard Russell, dan Tim Palmer pada tahun 1989. Sempat mengalami reformasi genre yang dibawa di awal kemunculan, mereka berhasil melewati lintasan zaman sebelum akhirnya meraih kesuksesan. Melahirkan deretan musisi ikonik mulai dari The Prodigy, Radiohead, sampai Adele, berikut adalah beberapa album terbaik yang pernah dilahirkan XL Recordings.

10.05.17

That Fat Feline with Many Monikers

We had to conduct this in English because our long friend apparently speaks eloquently in this language. Continuing the hype of Defile for the past 4 episodes, this time the crew will visit Yogyakarta’s scene along with local heroes - Django, Android 18, Moustapha Spliff and not to forget to invite Ones, Ffonz and SKS to stomp the dance floor. For those who know better, Ffonz and Moustapha Spliff are pretty much the same person. But who is he and why he remains mysterious since the first time he got back to Indonesia? We got a chance to ask some fundamental questions to reveal who he is. Vinyl and cats? Let's start with cats. I basically grew up in a hippie-esque household where animals are able to come in and out as they pleased. Being Jakarta, these are mostly cats. So I always played with them as a kid. And when I was in Holland I used to cat-sit for friends before finally adopting a couple of cats myself. So yeah, there's this fascination from childhood. Plus they're strange and arrogant motherfuckers, something that weirdly endeared them to me. As far as records are concerned, I bought them out of necessity. Because it was cheap. Back in 2002-2004, after leaving Manchester to live in Holland, I found that most of the CDs I was looking for (mainly Dylan, Bowie, Pink Floyd, etc.) were going for 10-15-20 Euros each, which was expensive for a student who cleaned toilets for a living. LPs were going for around 5 euros and EPs were 1 or 2 euros. So yeah, it's an economical decision. Ffonz is me, the double F being a typo that I never seemed to bother getting rid of. Moustapha's my cousin from Istanbul. He came here a couple of years ago in a container ship transporting garden chairs. It just so happens that he likes psychedelic rock as well as his native Turkish joints and other middle-eastern crackers. Humphrey's an old neighbour of mine from when I was living in England, who moved to Jakarta a few months ago. He's a weird fellow. He considers marshmallows an aphrodisiac and likes to chirp like a bird every-time he's taking a dump. Ah Red Light Radio (RLR), one of the funnest times of my life. I was lucky because I was introduced to the guys who were running it (Orpheu de Jong and Hugo van Heijningen) just as they set up the station. I was invited as a guest for another RLR regular called Future Vintage to be interviewed and spin in conjunction with that Those Shocking Shaking Days comp.That was my first ever appearance on the station. Luck also had it that I was close friends with another RLR regular, Mark Cremins (aka Nose van Conk, Mark From Middlesex, Carl Cardigan), who was head distributor for Amsterdam's Rush Hour Records. Out of the blue he set up a slot for me at RLR, playing a jazz set with Mo Kolours. During that show Mark introduced me to Hugo and Orpheu, and being the nice souls they are, offered me a bi-weekly spot. Couldn't say no to that. And all those cats I mentioned above had an extreme diverse taste in music. From weird disco to bizarre spoken word records, greek electronica, various shades of hard rock/metal/psych/prog, middle-eastern folk and pretty much everything in between. Plus listening to the other slots on the station just added to that. So yeah of course it opened my eyes and ears. Interesting question as I never really pondered as to why. If I had to put my finger on it, I guess it's because I had a fascination with blues from a very early age. My dad used to play in blues bands so I was always drawn to the blue notes. I mean it's a style of music where the artists sounds sad and happy at the same time. How could you not love that? Jazz in particular has a strong blues influence, with many of early jazz records pretty much being sped up blues music with 4 pounds of swing added into it. Plus stuff by Louis Armstrong, W.C. Handy, King Oliver and the likes had the name 'blues' within their song titles. St. Louis Blues, Potato Head Blues, Aunt Hagar's Blues, etc. And that blues influence in jazz stayed pretty much up till the 60s. And all the other shades of Black American music I like, be it rhythm and blues, soul, funk, hip hop, disco, house, techno,etc. grew out of those two aforementioned genres. And what all these genres, from blues to techno and hip hop had in common was improvisation. Something else that attracted me from a very early age. The ideal party? One where punters don't ask the guy playing records to "put on some R&B" all the fucking time. - Sabtu, 13 Mei 2017 Taphouse Beer Garden, Yogyakarta 20:30 Django Android 18 Moustapha Spliff Guest appearance: Ffonz (W_Music) Ones (Casual Dance) SKS

10.05.17

Nada Dunia bersama Suarasama

Melalui bunyi dan melodi, Suarasama telah mengangkat khasanah musik lokal ke tataran internasional. Bekerja sama dengan Ruru Corps, Whiteboard Journal berbincang bersama Rithaony Hutajulu dan Irwansyah Harahap mengenai etnomusikologi, warna musik nusantara, hingga salah konsepsi world music.

09.05.17

LL/TCM Merilis EP “Morning Lights”

Marvin V. Saliechan (The Colour Mellow, Rekah) dan Dylan Amirio (Logic Lost) telah berbagi proyek ambient dengan nama LL/TCM sejak 2013 lalu. Mereka telah merilis 3 dengan judul Colour Lost. Rilisan teranyar mereka "Morning Lights" bisa saja dibilang sebagai Colour Lost IV. Ada jarak 4 tahun antara Colour Lost III dan Morning Lights. Di entitas ini terdapat tekanan gitar yang lebih berisik namun tetap mempertahankan kedamaian atmosfer ambient yang dibangun. Selain itu Marvin dan Dylan juga berbagi vokal pada beberapa lagu dan menjadikan EP ini sebagai satu-satunya yang baru memiliki muatan lirik di dalamnya. Eksplorasi dua personel yang memiliki latar karakter musikalitas yang berbeda, berbaur dalam satu gubahan yang seimbang. Karakter gitar Marvin dan eksplorasi bebunyian Dylan disulam dalam satu bangunan ambient yang mengharuskan mereka mengatur nuansa damai. Ada siasat yang cermat dari pemilihan nuansa setiap lagu dan pemberian judul dalam entitas ini. Membaca karya ini akan sesederhana mendengarkannya. Penyiaran Morning Lights sama seperti 3 EP lain yang sebelumnya yakni dapat dinikmati langsung lewat Bandcamp mereka. Morning Light by LL/TCM

08.05.17

Kolase dalam Album Perdana Dangerdope “Raw Chapter One”

Muhammad Zaki atau yang lebih dikenal dengan nama panggung DangerDope atau DJ Rencong telah merilis album penuh pertamanya bersamaan dengan perhelatan Record Store Day bulan April lalu. DJ dari Aceh ini telah menekuni jalan bermusik lebih dari 10 tahun dengan berbagai gaya lewat proyek panggung dan kolaborasi yang beragam sebelum ia menelurkan rilisan pertamanya. Bangunan dan kolase musik yang ia pilih disusun dari rekaman komposer tanah air seperti Bob Tutupoli dan Lilies Suryani atau juga rekaman siaran TV tanah air yang ia padukan dengan instrumen tradisional. Menarik bisa mendengar nuansa ritme hip hop di antara rekaman jadul dan bangunan musik tradisional yang dihasilkan oleh seruling atau rebab misalnya. Ia mungkin bukan yang pertama memasukkan nuansa tradisional tanah air yang dipadukan dengan subkultur hip hop, namun karakter musiknya berangkat dari kecermatan memilih serta mengiris nya menjadi satu komposisi yang dinamis. Lewat label PasPas Records yang juga merilis EP Ramayana Soul April lalu, “Raw Chapter One” bisa jadi alternatif musik yang layak didengarkan dan mari berharap akan ada “Raw Chapter Two” yang akan dihasilkan oleh yang kerap memakai topeng gas saat manggung ini.

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