Joined: 02 Feb 2006
Posts: 25
Location: Kg Delek, Klang
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RADIO EMACM #3: MALAYSIANA
Hosted by Ayah Mejelis
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LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE:
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This third installment is long schlong overdue. Initiated a couple
of months ago but stalled indefinitely due to... Aisay, the excuse
being: light so much as shine on the depths of darkness and the evil
motion of banality, a flinch would kill the rat bastards propelling
Time. In other words, this Ayah has been awfully busy lar.
Doing what I hear you say? The unbearable gravity of running and
managing a commune is never far from simple and downright doggerel.
The women have a way of robbing every wink and sanity off of this
diligent amorous care-taker of the Children of the Earth (all
praise). Procreation calling dear sirs and madams...
These creatures are always in dire need of the Ayah's laborious
attention and sexy care.
We are definitely talking about wives and daughters here.
Polygamy and incest have ermmm... an overcompelling way of
distracting from the pleasures of running a committed and regular
cyber radio show.
But what the hell, without further ado and mucking about: Numero
Tre. M-A-L-A-Y-S-I-A-N-A.
Number 3 is our first show with only and all purely and
distinctively Malaysian produce. We provide infinite and eternal
assurance that every featured artifact here for this particular
shebang is made and produced solely by Malaysians. They are
as typically and uniquely Malaysian as the
big foot sightings at Batu Tinggi and that large teapot commotion
faux-cult up north in the East Coast,
and the odd serving of Roti Pisang with Horlicks (rare treat at
somewhere unearthly in Pandamaran).
Note: the Ayah will be taking a break and the next forthcoming
shows, if there are to be any, will be hosted by others. Others.
Get in touch with this sexy beast at ayahmejelis<at>gmail.com
1) Azmyl Yunor - Live at Five Arts Theatre, 2003
By now we are almost unconditionally certain the name Azmyl Yunor
evokes, in so many unadulterated terms,
more than mere faint familiarity and nothing less than an approving
nod from countless denizens of the
local indie/underground music scene (we could be wrong... I mean
kids these days with their fleeting attention span...).
Azmyl has always, in his inimitable process and accent, tried his
damnest to forge a Malaysian sense of
(without sounding like this synomously means your conventional
cultural references) ennui, through a prism of the marginalised
and the desolate abiding time in the periphery of our local cultural
situation, by assuming particular and recognisable (okay
not so recognisable for most locals) folk and rock traits and
mannerisms that came to bear throughout music history.
Whether or not he succeeds in this partaking remains to be seen
and may be beyond the present. But perhaps succeeding isn't
neccesarily part of the quotient, and all that is needed, instead
and indeed, is a loud shit-storm or a
thunderous bellowing of "Ah I've kicked the deities from seventh
heaven... damn!" of a 'tude.
And there you have it folks, closer to the folkie who wouldn't give
you a buck because you didn't throw him
a dime aeons ago, we may require more Yunors or more from Yunor in
the years ahead.
So what are we trying to say? Nothing much really. We hear a new
album is in the works.
To which we bid our best of lucks and brews. But all that is for
2006 and beyond. Here's something from 2003. Seated comfortably on a
creaky wooden chair (or so we're led to believe),
the guitar gently weeps (in forceful crescendo)...
2) St Lucian - A Whisper of Death (unreleased, 2005)
Shah Alam born and raised singer-songwriter St Lucian is no one
you'd have particularly
heard of. In fact he is no one (in the double sense of the
nihilistic (oh yea -- how absolutely ground zero!)
and the unknown) but a darkly romantic lyrical bard however you
situate and hear him.
An avowed fan of the later periods of European chanteuses,
Nico and Brigitte Fontaine -- periods that evoke diverse features of
austerity in their respective works following
a considerable participation in the psychedelic and ludic --, St
Lucian fanatically and obsessively endorses Nico's Fata Morgana
and Fontaine's Genre Humaine. Both albums that well... while we
think are wonderful documents aren't
exactly the stuff we'd recommend for the first-timer. Go for
Fointaine's work during the 60s with Areski Belkacem
(and there's one particular masterpiece -- Comme A La Radio -- which
features the Art Ensemble of Chicago)
and the Nico albums immediately after her departure from the Velvet
Underground.
Ah a digression... Back to St Lucian. So this song, A Whisper of
Death. Very briefly, we can see
where the Nico and Fontaine influences are omnipresent.
Most distinctively in the intention to elicit a vague and barren
dereliction that features
as the maddening thin line which separates life's fragilities and
strengths.
We're also reminded of Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen (circa Songs of
Love and Hate) and that whiny
git from Red House Painters, Mark Kozelek.
Rumor has it that the Saint globetrots as a male model of some
demand.
A foot model maybe? Watch out for a self-released full-length some
time this year.
No websites yet but you can always check out the divas he digs the
most:
Nico
http://smironne.free.fr/NICO/index2.html
Brigitte Fontaine
http://www.brigitte-fontaine.com/
3) Amid the Mimic - Zayin
So the myth goes that there was this local group (with a bunch of
guys mostly from that horribly sterile place called
Subang Jaya) circa 1995 to 2000 that embraced quite unreservedly an
entire gamut of adventurous rock exploits
past and present -- anything from the lo-fi aesthetics prevalent
during the early 90s of American indie rock
(Guided by Voices in particular) to the inchoate stirrings of "post-
rock" (or at times, slightly erroneously
referred to as math rock) from Louisville/Chicago of, say, Slint and
June of 44;
to the outre margins of 60s psychedelic rock -- you name it,
krautrock (Amon Duul (especially the first
incarnation), Faust, Can, etc.), early Floyd, Beefheart, the Red
Krayola, 13th Floor Elevators, the Velvets, etc. --
to the countless archetypal reference points for 90s
art/experimental rock: Dead C, Sonic Youth, Boredoms, etc..
Any truth to the myth? Well yeah perhaps... except during those 5
years of
their active sonic perturbation, most of the AtM crew had never even
heard a great deal of the acts listed above.
This featured track, Zayin, recalls a territory not far from
something a Barret-led Floyd's exploratory improvisational
session would muster. A good reference point being the two tracks
featured on _Pink Floyd - London 1966-1967_
(recently reissued on DVD with live footages), "Interstellar
Overdrive" and "Nick's Boogie"
especially the latter minus Nick Mason's armoury of percussions.
Imagine all the Floyd beyond Floyd
freaking histrionics present on those two tracks
sieved through a tighter post-punk arrangement after a comprehensive
overdose of, say,
Slint's Spiderland and Fugazi's Red Medicine (Voila! Your one-
sentence a dime reviewer-speak -- pay up ladies
and germs), you might come inchingly close to Zayin.
What exactly does Zayin mean?
http://www.inner.org/alefbeit/sigzayin.htm
AtM's claim to fame (check ranking no. 457):
http://web.telia.com/~u32207658/s401-500.html
AtM's website (long overdue an update and the email doesn't work
either):
http://www.yat.ch/atm
4) Yandsen - Jargon (Insight/Xing-Wu compilation [Xing-Wu, 2004])
We are sure that a large portion of the Malaysian underground
(particularly from the
broad section of the Malaysian-Chinese)
are well knowledged on Yandsen's past involvements in all things
forward-looking in underground rock
and may have been eager followers to an unabashed point of turning
into prancing copy-cats of
unrestrained plagirism. Reverrance would be an understatement.
(Again, we dunno... we're just saying these things for flatter
effect).
But it's such a colossal pity that very few of them (most likely
none) have followed him deep
into the nether regions of the psychically and artistically more
challenging. But admittedly the fault
goes both ways. You see, Yandsen hasn't exactly been the most
productive by way of releases
in his recent turn away from his "post-rock" shenanigans. As yet, no
sustained piece of
solo work has made its way onto a recording device, let alone an
official release (with the exception
of "Lines" on the recent Xing-Wu 3-way, Shang).
A shame as this featured piece, "Jargon", does suggest incredible
promise and depth of a singular vision.
Owing as much to Gyorgy Ligetti and George Crumb as well
as early Henry Cowell and Charles Ives (the "romantic" spectrum of
post-serial
20th century classical music or modern composition) along with the
marginal propensities
of a myriad body of ethnic or ethnological music (what has largely
today shuffled under the commercial
banner of World Music) -- take your pick of musics fostered by these
exemplary imprints devoted to
the beauty of musical ethnology -- Ocora, Smithsonian Folkways, Buda
Musique, etc., "Jargon" is a sublime
creation of beauty that must be heard again and again and again...
Xing-Wu:
http://www.yat.ch/xingwu/
Review of the compilation from Stylus Magazine:
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=2091
5) Goh Lee Kwang - XX05 (A Perfect Rain [desetxea, 2006])
Unlike the other two more recent local purveyors of the experimental
audial arts (namely Yandsen
and Tham Kar Mun), Goh Lee Kwang is a figure who cannot be guilty of
under-representing
himself. He has thus far been prolific and entrepreneurial but
perhaps not without some critical reservations
in relation to his work. You see, while we will pull all hairs and
strings in lending
massive and unrelenting support to GLK's adventures into the realms
of sonic experimentation (without any
whatsoever hesitation -- god knows Malaysia needs more of GLKs
around),
some of his work has been notably patchy and found wanting. They
generally suffer from a lack
of sustained direction, or any hint of substantial innovation, often
without the necessary focus that one normally
associates with accomplished pieces of work.
Nevertheless, his strongest document of a release to date, Internal
Pleasures
(recorded and released last year during his sojourn in Germany), is
a must listen for all (especially fellow Malaysians)
who desire their listening faculties challenged and probed from an
austere Onkyo-inspired tangent.
The Toshimaru Nakamura and Otomo Yoshihide influences are
unabashedly and prevalently noticeable but
GLK does inject some of his own universe into this work. Just listen
to the wonderfully ludic last track
on Internal Pleasures and tell me thats not some quotidian humour
only a Malaysian (or more specifically
a Malaysian-Chinese) could summon in a tick.
The track featured here isn't from Internal Pleasures but from a
release on Basque prankster, musician
and artist, Mattin's internet label, desetxea.
GLK website:
http://www.geocities.com/gohleekwang/
Herbal Records (go here to buy Internal Pleasures):
http://www.geocities.com/herbalrecords/
Mattin's internet label:
http://www.mattin.org/desetxea.html
6) Lau Mung Leng -- Antiseptic 2 (Antiseptic [Why Not Ltd, 2005])
Lau Mung Leng's Antiseptic is a release on Lee Kwang's Why Not Ltd --
one of the few imprints or label projects
stemming from within the province of GLK's astute judgement on all
matters adventurous and brilliant in contemporary music.
Another reason why we give salutary compliment to his industry and
enterprising ability in championing
and surveying a small but devoted following of artistry and
musicality that truly counts as
the REAL underground and edgy sounds of this Welt. Humongous props
and all but it is still such a grave shame that
local (i.e. in Malaysia) sales have been exceptionally poor. In
fact, last we remember, not one of the many wonderful
releases on Why Not have made a single sale.
Yes, utterly frustrating indeed.
When will the so-called (yes, SO-called) "Malaysian Underground"
finally realise that music (challenging music
as far as we're concerned) that matters does not necessarily have to
reek of anything remotely rock-ish?
It really doesn't have to smell and feel of "rock" or resemble any
form of "recognisable music" in order to be fucked up or constitute
anything significant and important. Open your ears and REALLY
listen.
In the same way that you'd open yourself to receive and apprehend
the most estranging, confounding and difficult moments that
life has to offer. Ah life... (cue: Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach
Zarathustra")
Go here and buy Why Not:
http://www.geocities.com/whynotltd/
Go here for the Lau Mun Leng's release:
http://www.geocities.com/whynotltd/00001lau.html
7) Tham Kar Mun - Confining Abstract in Zero 3 (Shang [Xing-Wu,
2005/6])
Tham Kar Mun is someone who could be, and in fact should already be,
a bona fide superstar in the world of
experimental music / sound art today AND tomorrow if not for his
severely fickle attitude and glacially
paced production of work. Yes he is THAT brilliant and capable of
legitimate and stupendous genius.
Certainly one could argue that it is precisely because of the nature
and manner of his workmanship
(the pace, the fickleness, etc..) that he is able to produce and
channel some genius. But that is not entirely true.
Anyone who has the good fortune of having heard his unreleased
collection of works
locked up in that voidless vault of treasures somewhere in his home
will feverishly report back
with good tidings but will inevitably be frustrated by the fact that
the works remain
very much "in progress". And that's not all, you'd find yourself
further frustrated once you realise that these works
have remained "in progress" for the last couple of months or so
(maybe years, who knows?)
and will continue to be (apparently) unfinished for months on
without end. Alas...
Tham has a gifted knack for piecing together seamless fabrics of
sounds with an execution
and approach that are often exceptionally ingenious and creative.
He has also this rare ability to craft and transform the most banal
and
ordinary into the phenomenally sublime and visionary.
But what makes him stand out most is that he has a signature style.
Every creation of his is marked by it. You know how they say that
some artists/musicians
are endowed with the capability to imprint initimitably their very
own signature
across all of their works (however different each work may seem to
be) rendering
recognisable the workings of the creator. Like when you listen to a
piece of Coltrane
(irrespective of which period of his work) without being told as to
what you're listening to
- say, a "blindfold" listening test -, but within a few seconds or
minutes into the piece, you just
recognise almost instinctively that you're listening to the Trane.
Well, Tham's got THAT.
The piece on show here isn't exactly the strongest of his work. Not
that you would know what
could possibly constitute his strongest work or would positively
have some measure as to what might be
indicative of his "strongest" since most of his works have yet to
see the light of day.
Anyway..., this track is the 3rd part of a 6 piece movement called
Confining Abstract in Zero
on the latest release from Xing-Wu.
Reviews of Shang:
http://www.yat.ch/xingwu/shangreviews.htm
 667 - i-Buy (excerpt) (Hello Neighbour! CD-r, 2001?)
Some old dude with an undying taste for tits and arses (but who
isn't?). Nice collage work mister. More please!
Tits and arse:
http://www.suicidegirls.com
9) Kok Siew Wai - Track 9 from Basic Beat Womb, 2003
Recently returned from the US of A -- having spent time there for 7
years --, video and sound artist, Kok Siew Wai is the latest
apendage to the
corpus callosum that is the EMACM.
A large and significant mass of her work has, thus far, been a
focused and close engagement with the audial and the visual,
and the cross polination that these two mediums are frequently found
to intersect. She has had the fortunate and rewarding (I would
assume) experience
of working and studying under such luminaries of
the aforementioned artistic mediums/expressions such as Peer Bode,
Tony Conrad, Andrew Deutsch
and Pauline Oliveros. All key and seminal figures in the multiverse
of sound, music and art histories.
And supremely cool people too we are moved to say.
KSW is currently running a few projects with other EMACM-ers. Not
least of all, an improv duo
with reedist and objectist extraordinaire Yandsen; and in the not
too distant future, expect her to be
running a space that will be home to a vanguard convergence of
cinematic and sonic fanfair
We also want to say that, on a personal note, she is quite possibly
the nicest person we know.
Hands down the most cordial and friendly personality within the
EMACM fold.
10) Aziz Ali -- Track 6 from Hollywood Efx (Hollywood Efx, 1994)
An objet d'art from 1994 -- a little history lesson for Malaysia
music/sound/art/dance (yes, dance) present and future.
Prepare you soul-seeking archivists for a moment of inspirational
dip into fecund dysfunction.
Not completely a liaison with psychosis, as we needn't assume all
artistic works of odd merit are
products of delirium; far far from it, this piece is as perversely
rigorous and punctilious as you can get this side
of Henri Chopin. (But ok this ain't Poeisie Sonore in case you
thought the reference to Chopin
is meant to suggest such a thing). This featured track, along with
the others from this release
from 1994, is a jugular coaxing or choking of sounds, rhythms, found
disturbances, pulsations and
good ole tomfoolery with and from microphones (or maybe it was just
one microphone -- pity that mic).
Sounds like Eliane Radigue's E = a = b = a + b or the many savoury
treats from Herr Stockhausen's Mikrophonie
collection.
We don't know what Aziz Ali is up to these days but we have reason
to believe that he may
be having a shindig with his right tit (salivation optional) and
double-pedaling to the sky heavens
RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE.
11) Klangmutationen - Session #002 (excerpt)
Klangmutationen is a newly conceived ensemble comprising of Tham Kar
Mun and Yandsen both
on reeds (specifically sax and clarinet), Tan Kok Hui on drums and
Yeoh Yin Pin on guitar.
More of an homage to avant jazz improvisers of the bygone past and
present but two legendary
figures stand out prominently:
Kaoru Abe and Masayuki Takayanagi (either in the guise of their solo
ventures
or together as the New Direction Unit). We can also think of no
wave/free noise/jazz
guitarist Rudolph Grey's The Blue Humans, which has seen the likes
of Arthur Doyle,
Beaver Harris, Alan Licht, et al. join ranks to blow out all ear
follicles.
12) Yeoh Yin Pin - Side B of Kaset #3 (excerpt) (Kaset #3, 1989)
If the Aziz Ali track is history, then this one track by YYP,
created entirely with a broken and worn out
walkman, must be pre-history. Straight outta 1989 but not exactly
something that is
in any way representative and definitive of this Klangite's audial
preoccupation which has spanned
roughly 15 years and counting. Nevertheless, this is a piece of
juvenilia worth excavating for the masses.
Part of a series of cassette artifacts totally around 20++
cassettes, which at the time were never
consciously regarded as works of musical or/and artistic persuasion
by YYP himself but apparently
more of a purported "science". To be exact: a taxonomy of "found
sounds" without the
"found" connotating anything relatively Duchampian or
phonographic or artistically conceptual. Not that he'd have suitably
articulated in those terms at the time.
After all, it was just a case of an average kid fascinated by
seemingly weird sounds wherever, whatever and whenever
possibly conceivable, and decided that he had to "collect" them like
an entomologist to insects.
13) Breve Historia - All Praise (excerpt)
Breve Historia has the distinction of having performed at the first
installment of Mejelis but in absentia!
The bastard! And contrary to some belief systems, BH is NOT that
Klangite above.
BH genuinely exists and we can confirm that he hails from Kuala
Lipis but unfortunately has yet to return
to these shores after embarking abroad for university (Hasn't this
always been the case with almost
every one of Malaysia's radically creative and craziest sons and
daughters? Have we drove them all away?)
A staunch Marxist-Socialist with a militant penchant for
revolutionary callings --
we can report that the man has been an absolute serial participant
in countless peasant uprisings and
guerilla movements throughout the Americas of the South and Central.
We kid you not!
We can also tell you that he is the only feral dude we know who is
capable of quoting substantial
sections of all 3 volumes of Das Kapital from memory. And what more:
in English and German!
For the moment, we are unsure of his whereabouts but we have reason
to hazard a guess
that he is presently somewhere in San Francisco copiously drinking
and smoking
himself to an early romantic death. Recent news have filtered through
over a brawl with the temperamentally quick-to-fight frontman of the
Brian Jonestown
Massacare. How fucking stupid can this white boy be?
Didn't your mama teach you never
to pick fists with a 6' 4" Chindian raised on warm goat's milk and
trained in the most up-to-date
technics of hand-to-hand guerilla combat? Needless to say, indie
rock white boy didn't last very long.
As for this track: if you can tell us where the main and sole (and,
we think, very obvious) source for this
piece of plundering comes from, you will be entitled to a prize. We
won't tell you what exactly is up
for grabs. GIve us the correct answer and be prepared for a
surprise.
Send your answer(s) to ayahmejelis<at>gmail.com
14) Thunder Coffee Club - The End (ENDS, 2003)
Indefatigable moments at the altar of freak folk worshipping
courtesy of a revolving cast of
friends and kins in eternal fraternization and rapport. They don't
f**k each other though... Hmmm...
(now how can that be?). Anywise, the assortment of characters aren't
on feature in this here
track. It's just this one fella who sounds like that guy on the very
top-end numero uno of this playlist.
Apt way to end this latest proceedings.
TCC
http://www.yat.ch/tcc/ |
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