Lagu Cinta Psychotique

Originally from Singapore, the band’s influence can be derived from a wide range of genres, from funk to soul to punk. Having release several demo cassettes in their early days, they released their debut “Golden Lovesongs from the Evil Island of the Handsome Tropical Cannibals” in the mid 90’s. The Stoned Revivals have also contributed their songs to various movie soundtracks, most notably when their single ‘Goodil’, appeared in the movie “12 Storeys” directed by renowned filmmaker Eric Khoo. The album also spawned a single,”Stoned Alleycat”, that went straight up the charts in Singaporean airwaves, resulting in the band receiving an award from the Composers Association of Singapore.

Fast track to 2006, founding member and vocalist Esam Salleh, relocated to Kuala Lumpur and started gigging around the city under the moniker of Slowjaxx. His migration of sorts has also brought upon a new life and lineup for The Stoned Revivals, and are set to release a new single in the near future.

Interview

More info on the band here and here.

Malaysian power pop legends, Couple will be doing a 10 day tour to the UK this coming March. Organised by KNUKE, they’ll be rocking stages in Manchester, London and Liverpool. Unlike previous bands that went to the UK under the KNUKE banner (Hujan, SCTS, Estrella), Couple will be playing a couple (hehe) of additional shows in those cities.

March 19 – Students’ Union, University of Manchester, MANCHESTER
March 21 – Dirty Water Club @ The Stag’s Head, LONDON
March 23 – The Backroom @ Bumper, LONDON
March 24 – The Windmill, Brixton, LONDON
March 28 – The Fiddlers, Camden, LONDON

More info on their tour here and here

Attainable Things In Life

One can hear traces of  New Order, Nine Inch Nails and Joy Division in Lurks’ brand of electronica synth pop. Even Britain’s very own NME magazine cited Lurks as “carrying on the tradition of great synth pop acts like Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys”.

Started off as a hobby and a 1 man experimental project in 2001, Zach (vocalist) went on to form Lurks , releasing a demo in 2002 that was distributed internationally by the Peacework Music network. More active in the early 2000’s, Lurks have somewhat been under the radar these past couple of years, only submerging with singles in local compilations and on their myspace.

Interview

More info on Lurks here and here.

Teasing his fans with mypsace snippets and music video teasers, Altimet has released his new video for his latest single, Syukur. The video features cameos by the likes of Noh Salleh (Hujan), Loque and many more. Syukur, produced by Kartel Records, was directed by Kroll, a NY Film Academy grad, who also directed Butterfingers’ 1000 Tahun (mahu hidup) which won itself Best Video for AIM2009.

If you’re heading down to Singapore next month for the Mosaic Music Festival, do drop by  Straits Records for a fix of Singaporean underground and independent music. Having relocated to North Bridge Road, check out the 5 minute documentary below, done sometime in 2009.

Click here for more info on Straits Records.

Semboyan

From what started off as an exploration of computer-generated electronica, rigorous experimentation led to the formation of his namesake, Monoloque – founded by the guitarist and lead songwriter of Butterfingers, Loque.

The ‘project’ was originally an outlet for this Berklee College of Music graduate to realize its fullest potential by pushing the boundaries of his song-writing. Its preceding rock outfit, the Butterfingers was inadvertently put on hiatus following the departure of vocalist Emett – while Loque and remaining members, Kadak and Loco, decided to respawn in the form of Monoloque.

Halimunan Abad Ke-21

Deriving their influence from early Malaysian pop music (think R.Azmi, Saloma, P. Ramlee), Monoloque is set to change the face of Malaysian music in what it believes will be a ‘national’ renaissance.

For more info on the band, visit their official website or follow then on Facebook.

Interview

Having released it as a myspace single in mid 2009, Bunkface recently released their official music video for Prom Queen. Directed by Filipino music video director Raffy Fransisco (also directed some ’special interest’ movies).

Watch their performance on The Wknd Sessions here.

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