posted by Joe | Oct 17, 2005
Jellybelly + The Obvious
The Twosome Takeover split-CD
(Nervous Records / Barbar Records)
Two melodic punk bands, one quite a veteran, the other is about 2 years old, both from Terengganu; well, in Jellybelly’s case some of the members are now residing in KL. Jellybelly is no longer an item nowadays, some members now concentrating on the harder Inikah Hidup (check out the band’s review here)
There are 11 tunes in this nice pro-CD release, 5 songs by The Obvious and the rest by Jellybelly. Sound-wise this is pretty crispy and clear, both bands took a lot of pains in having this offering palatable to those who’ve had massive aural problems with Terengganu-based recordings.
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posted by Joe | Aug 7, 2005
Through-out all these years, being a Terengganu guy myself, I’m always filled with pride whenever a punk rock band appeared along the beautiful beaches of the east coast state. One thing about Terengganu when it comes to punk rock, it’s mostly the “old school” style. yeah, we have a fair share of hardcore, emo and even crust and grind etc., but mostly it’s the old school that really rocks my boat, especially the ones digging back to the late 70s to early 80s of the UK and the US period.
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posted by Joe | Jul 17, 2005
Simon Chainsaw & The Hippy Killers
Told Me A Lie CD
(Tronador Music / Corrosion Productions)
Once upon a time, Ricecooker had a forum section which was not at all popular as people would rather bitch and rant on the comments section than getting into a proper forum. Anyway, the forum has since been killed by someone who thought that hacking is about annoying small time webmasters like me instead of sabotaging big corporations and government bodies. Here I would like to thank those few who were regulars in the ricecooker forum, sharing recipes to great films which they’ve seen.
One of the regulars was Simon Chainsaw, who would write all the way from Brazil telling us about his projects and his rock’n'roll adventures. It’s been a while since I heard from him but a few days ago I had a parcel in my mailbox and so here we are with two CDs by the man.
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posted by Joe | Jun 28, 2005
Inikah Hidup
Soundtracks of War and Destruction CD
(a joint release by Ronin Records, Nervous Rechords, xGustixKatilxDistro, Papakerma Records, Convert Distro & Chrome Records)
Right from the late 90s till somewhere earlier this decade, the little scene in Terengganu was somehow revitalised and churned out a lot of activities; there were a number of bands active, several distros/labels and also good zines circulating. A few gigs were successfully organised (try living there and you will know what a bitch it is to set a show there) and then there was a collective which (at least, for a while) was doing free-food servings and also running an autonomous space etc.
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posted by Joe | Jun 26, 2005
Polaris
Polaris CD-R
[Polar Records]
I’ve heard of the name and maybe had seen them live a couple times but when a few friends asked me, “how do they sound like eh?”, I would go, “I forgot la.” Well, this time the band made sure I would not forget, they gave me a copy of this “promo” yesterday at the Domestik Doktrin benefit show.
Anyway, there are three tracks here, all recorded at I-Seek Music, packed in a nicely designed sleeve and stickered CD-R. As a bonus, there are three video clips taken live in a studio and also live at Paul’s Place during the New Chapter gig recently.
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posted by Joe | Jun 25, 2005
Steve Towson & The Conscripts / My Precious
The Venom in My Veins split-CD
[Criminall Records]
Tell you the truth, I’ve never got into Steve Towson’s brand of fiery solo-punkrocker-with-an-electric-guitar tunes. The early solo releases are commendable in its unbridled passion and political concerns; but ultimately a let-down musically (at least for me!). When I first met him many years ago, I was expecting early Billy Bragg-type of folkie-punk, and that expectation was not that far off, only the songs were lacking in hooks and immediacy as Bragg’s early stuff. Steve’s offering was harder, faster and very, very distorted raw; effectively burying the melodies and charms I was looking for.
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posted by Joe | Jun 22, 2005
Harmacy
Here To Here CD-R
[BodySurf Music]
Without much ado, I would like to point out that Ipoh’s Harmacy (at least in its current incarnation) sounds like a bunch boys who grew up with nothing else but Dinosaur Jr in their musical diet; especially the latterday version of the trio. However, if the old Dino Jr. had “the other songwriter” Lou Barlow to sometimes come in and even things out with a bit of variety, Harmacy concentrates on the J. Mascis part of the equation. This singular and unwavering obsession makes Harmacy the one and only Malaysian altar of worship to the man who responsible in introducing the once spat-upon lengthy guitar solos to indie-rock.
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posted by Joe | Mar 29, 1999
My turntable is pretty unreliable, but here are some reviews done while sitting beside the old thing.
The Cozmick Suckers Comp: Volume Orange 12″
Shitkatapult
A German noise/electronica/industrial compilation from the label responsible for Stormbow’s excellent 10″. Down’t starts the disc up with Razor On Stone, a hypnotic drone/throbbing in a very minimalist, sparse manner without relying on typical rhythm programming - as troubling/enchanting as having a calm, static nightmare!
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