No need to say too much about this band from Surabaya, so famous are they.. Their first appearance was on a compilation album and from that they immediatly blew up, leaving the rest of the groups in that album behind. Made up of Fadly (Vocals), Piyu(guitar), Yoyo(drums), Rindra(bass) and Ari(guitar effects) Padi’s self titled album contains 10 song incl 1 in English. it shows the band have reached full maturity and features intelligent poetic lyrics and have received production support from local music legends like violinist Idris Sardi on “Masih Tetap Tersenyum” (Still Smiling) and top notch Jazz pianist Bubbi Chen on “Elok” (Gorgeous) both of whom add some brilliant colour to the overall sound. Don’t forget their smash“Menanti Sebuah Jawaban” (Expecting an Answer) an OST for Ungu Violet telling a vivid story about love unrequited... a real heart melter //gino++

With 9 years of experience in local-indie music scene, this band “Navicula” a latino names for “Golden Algae” create a well shaped concept and hardened by time. A new album under the flag of Sony-BMG contains a sweet mixture of Seattle sound and a wee bit electro, think the bittersweet of Alice in Chain fused with a drop of DJ sampling that create by their own DJ Trolley. Song like “Kali Mati” (Dead River) that pretty enviro concious and “Supremasi Rasa” that shout to the freedom of personal jurisdiction. Got Robbie (Vocal,guitar), Dankie (guitar), Indra (bass), DJ Trolley (sampling box) and Gembul (drum) that made the drum set sounds more like a roar of a tank. A well concepted band from Bali. Expect Incubus with a bit hard in sampling section with some Island taste. May lady luck stand on your side in the middle of sassy-girlie taste of the market request. //gino

British Columbia band Hot Hot Heat have been bombarding the radio waves with their catchy new wave pop since their breakout debut Make Up The Breakdown two years ago. Since then, they’ve been joined by a raft of new bands riding the Britpop revival wagon (they don’t have to be British). The question was what would they do as a follow up? Try 13 tightly written, totally infectious upbeat tracks rarely running in at much over 3 minutes populated by vocalist/keyboardist Steve Bays’ teasing – even sardonic lyrics. Goodnight Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen, Pickin’ It Up, Middle Of Nowhere – hear them twice and you’ll feel like you’ve known them for years.

Vitalic (pronounced veetaleec) is Pascal Arbez Nicolas, a French fellah who’s been putting out slamming acid/techno/electro hybrid beats for some time now – which means that his debut album contains work spanning 3 years including monster tracks like La Rock 01 and Poney Parts 1 & 2. Vitalic eschews samples in favour of a raw synthesizer based sound, putting his occasional vocals through a voicoder. Robotic it may be, but his deftness at layering synthesized sounds creates some surprisingly poignant melodies, not least The Past and Poney Pt.1 and underneath it all, quick blippy, thumping beats. Full of vitality.