I was accompanying a colleague who was a really big fan for this ska-ragga band call 'The Aggrobeats', who were performing infront of Bukit Jalil Stadium for a KAMI concert. They were good, accept that they were the exact imatation for a American band called The Aggrolites. Ahak. Sweating teenagers were swarming the area, enjoying the big swindle by the major sponsor, Hotlink. I never like the idea of KAMI and i do find it all a bit cliche'. But as a young teenager, its good that they were in to this shit as for they had to start somewhere right. Its either in another couple of years they'll realize that the mass mainstream is just another small partial of plastic MTV crap, or they would just go and live in the fake world which limits their brain to think much more wider.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, i was able to grab this CD. Laila's Lounge new EP called 'Kosong'. I've always mistaken this band years before with a band who had a cool red headed chick as a vocalist, Cashmere. Anyway, if i'm not mistaken i remember seeing Laila's Lounge playing in Actors Studio, Dataran Merdeka before. They were really heavy on that Joy Division and at that time i knew that this band was really going somewhere.
Firstly, I really find the CD layout attractive, the usage of colors and the balance of the layout. I did judge this CD by its cover. I did'nt have much time to put it in my cd player and go thru the songs. So i brought it to work yesterday night and played it thru out the night.
I got high on the first track, Stargazer and I immediately recall the feeling of intense, high, glowing ambience and, most important, necessity in the music. Intermittently sweet vocals, and a rhythm section trained in the Stone Roses school of inflated urgency. If i did'nt know which band was playing in this cd, i'll certainly come to a conclusion that this is a really good European band. The first song brought me along to fade in to the second track.
The second track is called, Warm Cherryhouse. The guitars, keyboards (i presume) and textures does provoke sensual understanding. It's like sitting on a fluffy furniture. It's a salve, or a light gin with two shots of lime. I can't simply argue on how well the production of this local recording. The best release i could compare this with, Butterfingers past release 'Selamat Tinggal Dunia' which was pretty great in terms of production wise, but then instantly hold back the thoughts, and you'll realize that 'Nirvana has already listen to Radiohead now'. Cheers Laila!
Although, i still do find that the malay songs did something wrong to the mood of the music. I've no idea why, maybe its the melody or the pronunciations of a sentence. The fourth and fifth track doesn’t sound all that impressive until you realize there’s over a decade’s worth of music between those points. I was actually trying to differentiate Laila with all those typical malay wannabe Indon bands. Laila sounds way much more better, and i just hope that they could figure out how to blend a malay melody into really good music.
I'm still amaze on this local release. The songwriting is great and the production is awesome.
