Music
Seen in the Scene #013: January 2015 Roundup
Catch these men, play on half a court, orbit around the Earth, and discover your origins.
You’ve heard ‘Balcony’ in the last Seen in the Scene, time to listen to Dai-Kan’s EP in its entirety. Also featured is the return of Tenderfist (well, one-third of them at least), a South African producer with connection to the local scene, stellar electropop, and Kyoto Protocol – “the band, not the accord.”
Dai-Kan
© Dai-Kan
Dai-Kan’s Fields EP is Out!
Released at the end of January, Dai-Kan’s debut EP, Fields, is chillstep indebted to classical composition thanks to the upbringing of both bandmembers, Aizi and Faris. Hell, end track ‘Fields Part 2’ is a straightforward piano piece that has a movie score quality to it (less Philip Glass and more Alan Silvestri). Elsewhere, guest vocalists ZYSIA, Sabrina Ridzal, and Shrna add vocal textures to the music – and Dai-Kan didn’t as much have them sung on their tracks as much as they sampled their voices, turning them into another layer of instrumentation. Most of the words are garbled singing, but like the music, it’s more about the mood exuded than the dictation of lyrics.
Half-court
© Half-court
Half-court, one-third of Tenderfist
Faiq Zamir isn’t one to stay static after his band Tenderfist went into a post-debut album slumber. Now going under the stage name Half-court, his solo output thus far has been instrumental in nature. Don’t mistake the tracks for Tenderfist sans vocals though; while other older electronic acts might struggle with sounding current, Faiq’s music is effortlessly modern. ‘Now’ in particular is Majestic Casual-friendly, like something off Australia’s Future Classic roster – arguably one of the trendiest indie labels-cum-collectives out there. All of Half-court’s tunes of SoundCloud are labelled ‘demo’ at the moment – imagine what the finished product would sound like.
Yoshi
© Yoshi
The Origins of Yoshi
Yoshi isn’t Malaysian, not even Malaysia-based. However, Origins EP is released via Kuala Lumpur’s growing indie label Akhyla, which is fast becoming the premiere collective for forward-thinking electronic and dance tunes (it did attract South African, London-based Yoshi after all!). Like a good chunk of the label’s oeuvre thus far, the EP is a product of the post-dubstep scene in the UK, but with a strong ethnic and world music slant to it. Moody and elegantly elegiac, listen to the full EP below.
Stellar Dreams
© Stellar Dreams
(Not Quite Inter-) Stellar Dreams
The first single from Stellar Dreams this year, ‘Parallel’, is ambitious enough to orbit around the Earth (thanks to NASA’s public domain footage), but they haven’t gone as far as to cross stars quite yet. But that’s okay, the duo is at a good distance; they don’t sound like a local Kavinsky anymore while still maintaining that essential ‘80s aesthetic. Thanks to the vocals of an unidentified songstress, ‘Parallel’’s influence can be gleaned more from Scandinavian electropop – in an alternate universe, Robyn could have sung this.
Kyoto Protocol
© Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol is ‘Still Alive’
The first single of Kyoto Protocol’s latest full-length, Catch These Men, gets a music video treatment. Expectedly, the central conceit lies in the title of the LP – here the quintet is chased by faceless men in an abandoned building, culminating with a rooftop rock’n’roll session. It’s deceptively simple, like a callback to MVs circa post-grunge MTV in the ‘90s. Maybe in an era where freshfaced rock bands play at hip festivals only to quickly disband or be forgotten a year later, something classic is exactly what the doctor ordered.