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LOCAL

Sarah Silaban
Self Titled

After working behind the scenes for a couple of years, Sarah Silaban, has come out of the blue with a surprisingly good record. While the world of pop music has been inundated with commercial hip hop and r n’ b and raucous metal guitar riffing, this chanteuse comes across with a fresh, simple style that may be likened to Alicia Keys or Norah Jones. Her lyrics are thoughtful and her delivery feels sincere while singing about life and its ups and downs. Her track, “JDBJ,” has already become a massive radio hit and the rest of the album has garnered critical acclaim and praise. “Pengecut” (Coward) is another stand out with its heartfelt, straightforward lyrics that complement the soft melodies perfectly and “Everything” is another tune, sung in flawless English, which really takes the listener there. Check this one out and fall under its hypnotic spell.

Goodnight Electric
Self Titled

This group of twenty-something’s hailing from Bandung, West Java, are part of that city’s burgeoning electronica scene, alongside the likes of RocknRoll Mafia, veteran Electrofuxx and his protégé Digital ID.
But whereas these acts have attempted to push the envelope with their more avant garde productions and sounds, Goodnight Electric’s stylized release is perhaps a little more derivative, oft begging comparisons to the spooky delivery of New Order vocalist, Bernard Sumner with music that also follows the same tip.
Most of the tracks on the CD are quite light, poppy synthesizer renditions of the instantly recognizable 80’s new wave sound, a style that is also represented by their on-stage gear consisting of tennis visors, matching sweatshirts with emblazoned logos, Chuck Taylor sneakers, and sunglasses.

The 4 members all play varying keyboard instruments that produce layered synthesizer sounds and electro backbeats that don’t especially vary from song to song. The one track that stands apart from the rest is also, unfortunately, the shortest. It’s the most innovative track featuring a dreamy beginning that progresses into a darker electro number with nice stabs of 808 and 303.
Not such a bad release from these Bandung scenesters, but hopefully their next CD will include a few fiercer tracks with fresher concepts.

INTERNATIONAL

Goldfrapp
Supernature

Goldfrapp built their reputation on music filled with subtle allusion, so on first listen Supernature sounds, for want of a better word, kind of brash. What’s more, in aligning themselves with what seems to be the musical paradigm of the moment, ‘80s synth pop,’ they’ve inevitably lost some of their originality. There’s nothing wrong with laser like synth stabs and 303 acid growls but over the course of an 11 song album, they start to grate. The production is tight and there are moments that recall the ethereal beauty of Goldfrapp of old, notably on Let It Take You and Time Out From The World, but their adventure in electro-pop, however creative it is at times (Slide In blends modern electronica with stuff that sounds like Cyndi Lauper & Prince) it all ends up sounding kind of generic, simply because everyone else is doing it. Madonna’s effort is better, maybe because of the added frisson of knowing she was right there as an icon when this kind of music was first being made. The bottom line: go listen to some classic Euro Disco productions from back in the day and see how fresh that sh*t still sounds.

Kate Bush
Aerial

It’s been some twelve years since Kate Bush released her last album, a hiatus which prompted feverish press speculation about a possible breakdown/reclusive nature. Judging by the veil of domesticity which cloaks her latest two disc album Aerial, she’s been doing nothing more tortured than bringing up her child.
Kate Bush has always seemed to occupy a different dimension to the rest of us though. Her four octave spanning voice has always found a home amidst rich orchestration and piano riffs and Aerial proves no exception. Perhaps she is a bit of a cultural recluse, because it is hard to reference her sound against anything except…well, early Kate Bush. The first disc A Sea of Honey features a track entitled Mrs. Bartolozzi, where she sings the refrain ‘washing machine’ over and over again in what is an ode to the latent sexuality in tumbling laundry. My blouse wrapping itself around your trousers…slooshy sloshy slooshy sloshy/Get that dirty shirty clean, she sings.

Who else could get away with that but Kate Bush? Joanni appears to be an ode to Joan of Arc, a figure who seems to resonate with her – “Joanni, Joanni blows a kiss to God..” and indeed there is something of the holy folly about Kate Bush.Disc 2, A Sky of Honey is a looser, more ambient entity, filled with birdsong, bells and percussion alongside the ubiquitous strings and piano.
Reverence and wry humour sit side by side in Aerial, as they always do with Kate Bush. Far from being an escapee, she comes across as one who finds magic in the everyday.