muzik spiritual

Aku menulis ini di dalam catatan Menyelingkuh Hiroshima:

Di satu sudut, sekumpulan pemuzik jalanan mengambil tempat. Ada unik yang mengiringi mereka. Dua lelaki 30an dengan rambut rasta berserban, seorang lagi dengan gitar dan seorang perempuan menari joget. Muzik gendang fusion yang dimainkan – melangkau beberapa lagu – tetap menjadi magnet untuk melekakan aku kepada persembahan mereka. CD album pertama juga tersimpuh sopan di depan, di atas kain hampar yang comot. Orang-orang ada yang menari sama. Muzik bagi kelompok ini adalah ritual untuk merangsang spiritual.  Setengah jam aku duduk di depan muka mereka, menelan bunyi-bunyi yang aku rasakan cukup memukau. Kocek tak banyak wang tunai, dan CD mereka terpaksa aku abaikan, hanya sempat memegang dan membelek. Pengalaman muzik yang asyik boleh didapati di tepi jalan di Hiroshima.

Kalau mahu membaca catatan penuh, sila klik di sini.

reviu album: backspacer

Backspacer
Pearl Jam
Universal Music Group
2009

Apa memori terakhir tentang Pearl Jam yang masih bergema di dalam benak kamu? Ketika mula mahu mendengar album terbaru mereka ini – album studio ke 9 – seluruh kekaguman terhadap mereka terpaksa dilucutkan. Dilucut bukan kerana kecewa atau apa-apa, tetapi semacam satu persiapan untuk menerima hasil kerja terbaru ini dengan bersungguh dan gemuruh dengan jangkaan-jangkaan yang tak pasti.

Pearl Jam, sebuah grup rock yang terakhir kiranya mampu bertahan dari kelompok gerakan muzik Seattle 90an dan, mereka masih mahu untuk terus memahat tugu muzik sendiri dengan penuh rasa ghairah dan fokus yang bukan kepalang. Dulu, mereka sudah menutup mulut sinis yang mencebik bibir dengan gaya muzik muda-mudi yang mereka hasilkan. Tiga album terawal, Ten, Vs. dan Vitalogy mempamerkan stamina luar biasa mereka; bukan hanya stamina fizikal, tetapi turut merangkum stamina keberanian, stamina idea dan keyakinan terhadap muzik yang dibawa.

Kini, dengan Backspacer, ada lagi pernyataan yang disampaikan oleh album ini. Mereka kembali berkerja dengan penerbit Brendan O’Brien yang kali terakhir bersama ketika melahirkan Yield. Menurut satu kenyataan oleh Eddie Vedder, ini disebabkan kesediaan mereka untuk memberi ruang kepada ‘orang luar’ untuk campur tangan dan bersuara terhadap apa saja aspek muzik Pearl Jam. “Kami dapat tahu Bruce Springsteen juga memberi ruang kepada beliau (Brendan) untuk melontar pandangan tentang  kerja muzik beliau, jadi, kali ini, mengapa tidak kami juga berbuat perkara yang sama,” kata Vedder. Sebelum ini, apa saja idea dan pandangan Brendan tidak akan dilayan oleh mereka – sama sekali.

Pertama kali mendengar lagu pertama dari album ini – Gonna See My Friend – entah bagaimana pembukaannya menggamit semula ingatan kepada sebuah lagu lain, dengan judul Los Angeles Is Burning daripada Bad Religion. Dan, ia memberi isyarat yang agak jelas kepada mood keseluruhan yang terkandung di dalamnya.

Album ini kembali dengan tempo yang pantas, tona punk yang kembali pekat dengan semangat seperti dikala muda, oleh ahli-ahli dan grup ini sendiri. Dan itu mungkin penjelasan yang tersirat disebalik segala dentam-dentum dram, suara garau dan jerit gitar yang tersusun rapi pada Backspacer.

Bagaimana membaca Backspacer itu terpulang kepada yang mendengar dan memerhati perkembangan grup ini dari satu album ke satu album. Cuma, yang agak ketara ialah hal ini; Pearl Jam seperti mahu mengembalikan diri mereka menghampiri titik awal – dan melangkau ruang-ruang diantaranya – sewaktu mereka bermula dengan muzik yang sudah berkelansungan merentas dua dekad ini. Dan pastinya, perjalanan itu tidak akan indah tanpa ada yang meraikan – pendengar dan peminat.

Maka, dengan Backspacer, Pearl Jam mengulang masa dan ruang untuk menyuntik nostalgia muzik-muzik awal mereka. Walaupun pada dasarnya, muzik yang terhasil di dalam Backspacer ini lebih molek dikelompokkan sekali dengan dua lagi album sebelumnya – Riot Act dan Pearl Jam – tetapi ia mengandung tenaga yang lebih dan perasaan yang melonjak-lonjak untuk meraikan destinasi muzik terbaru grup yang sentiasa cemerlang di pentas ketika ‘live’ ini.

Bagi berkenalan dengannya, dengarkan dulu judul ‘The Fixer’, yang juga single pertama yang datang sekali dengan klip video di internet. Ia, seperti yang dinyatakan tadi, mengandung semangat dan arah keseluruhan album ini, yang menyuntik punk di dalam muzik, pada usia tua oleh pembikinnya – mungkin.

Kemudian, ‘Force of Nature’ juga sebuah lagu yang kuat bagi Backspacer. Dengan melodi sayu yang digenggam kuat oleh muzik dan tempo yang tenang, menyampaikan satu perasaan yang sarat dengan kesedaran dan bersiap untuk penyerahan kepada sesuatu yang ada diluar lingkar kemampuan.

Dua lagu balad, ‘Just Breathe’ dan ‘The End’ menjadi selingan yang lebih minimal, dengan seri yang tertumpu kepada suara tak lurus Eddie Vedder.

Secara muzikal, Pearl Jam masih mempunyai tenaga untuk terus berelaborasi dengan ruang lingkup muzik mereka selama ini. Pengaruh muzik-muzik baru juga masih tidak meresap banyak di dalam album mereka setakat ini. Jadi, ini sedikit melegakan kepada mereka yang selalu berasa terputus dengan genre muzik baru yang lahir. Sekurang-kurangnya, masih ada ruang dan muzik yang boleh membayangkan jiwa muzik kelompok ini. Terima kasih, Pearl Jam, kerana masih setia dengan diri sendiri.

“I don’t wanna hurt, there’s so much in this world that make me bleed.”  -Just Breathe, Pearl Jam.

 

*Backspacer dirilis pada 20 September 2009, seluruh dunia.

 

Hafiz Hamzah
5 Oktober 2009

lagu paling menjengkelkan

Majalah Rolling Stone ada membuat senarai lagu-lagu paling menjengkelkan. Haha.. cubalah dengar. Klik sini jika mahu baca penuh.

20 lagu paling menjengkelkan pilihan Rolling Stone.

1. Black Eyed Peas, “My Humps”
2. Los Del Rio, “Macarena”
3. Baha Men, “Who Let The Dogs Out”
4. Celine Dion, “My Heart Will Go On”
5. Nickelback, “Photograph”
6. Lou Bega, “Mambo No. 5″
7. James Blunt, “You’re Beautiful”
8. Spice Girls, “Wannabe”
9. Sisqo, “The Thong Song”
10. Cher, “Believe”
11. Aqua, “Barbie Girl”
12. Chumbawumba, “Tub Thumper”
13. Rednex, “Cotton-Eyed Joe”
14. Eiffel 65, “Blue”
15. Crash Test Dummies, “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”
16. Meatloaf, “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)”
17. ‘NSYNC, “Bye, Bye, Bye”
18. Ricky Martin, “Livin’ La Vida Loca”
19. Semisonic, “Closing Time”
20. Wham!, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”

forum ramadhan

Jemputan buat semua pembaca SM.

Tajuk :  Di mana Muzik dalam Politik Islam?
Tarikh :  02 Sept. 09
Masa :  10.00 malam
Tempat :  Studio Pocket, Puchong Utama

Panel :

Nasrudin Hasan – Ketua Dewan Pemuda PAS
Shanon Shah – Artis ( Pemenang AIM )
Zainal Abidin – Artis ( Penyanyi ).

Moderator :

Fathi Aris Omar

Penganjur Dialog :  MusicForum

Dialog ini berusaha untuk mencari titik pertemuan atau kesepakatan dalam memahami peranan dan tanggungjawab dari dua bidang, muzik dan politik. Teman-teman di jemput sama hadir. Bisa kongsi pandangan, ide dan kritikan secara terbuka.

Mazir Ibrahim,
MusicForum.

T: 012-3447099

les paul (1915 – 2009)

New York, August 13, 2009 – Les Paul, pemain gitar tersohor, penghibur dan pereka, meninggal dunia hari ini disebabkan komplikasi daripada pneumonia kronik di Hospital White Plains, New York, dikerumuni keluarga dan orang tersayang. Dia dilaporkan menerima rawatan terbaik ketika usaha terakhir ini dan masih menunjukkan kekuatan dan semangat yang tinggi untuk melalui detik-detik itu. Pihak keluarga mengucapkan terima kasih tak terhingga bagi segala ingatan dan doa daripada rakan-rakan dan peminat beliau. Les Paul berusia 94 tahun.

* Cebisan ini diterjemah dari laman web Gibson. Untuk bacaan lanjut, klik di sini.

New York, August 13, 2009 – Les Paul, pemain gitar tersohor, penghibur dan pereka, meninggal dunia hari ini disebabkan komplikasi daripada pneumonia kronik di Hospital White Plains, New York, dikerumuni keluarga dan orang tersayang. Dia dilaporkan menerima rawatan terbaik ketika usaha terakhir ini dan masih menunjukkan kekuatan dan semangat yang tinggi untuk melalui detik-detik itu. Pihak keluarga mengucapkan terima kasih tak terhingga bagi segala ingatan dan doa daripada rakan-rakan dan peminat beliau. Les Paul berusia 94 tahun.

* Cebisan ini diterjemah dari laman web Gibson. Untuk bacaan lanjut, klik di sini. Foto dipetik dari Boston.com. SM

perez hilton aka mario armando lavandeira vs industri muzik terkini

Satu artikel menarik, ini dipetik dari Lefsetz Letter

CocoPerez.com

My first reaction was how far we’ve come.

In the sixties and seventies, music ruled the world, if you were a kid and wanted to know what was going on, you put on a record.  And if you couldn’t afford the record, you turned on the radio, which rather than being beholden to the corporation, seemed to be tailor-made for you, with news that you were interested in, songs that piqued your curiosity and deejays that were your best friend.

Today, radio is filled with twenty plus minutes of commercials and songs that are tested to ensure that what you heard before is what you continue to get, we live in a lowest-common denominator world where you’re subjected to the crap the uninformed, casual users desire, and for this reason you tune out.

As for the man.  Today’s musicians EMBRACE THE MAN!  How can we tour without him?  We love money!  It started out as an urban thing, the underclass loving to rip off corporations, now all musicians want that big label money, and even better, that Target/Wal-Mart money and that Coke and Pepsi money!  Isn’t it interesting that music tanked the first time, in the late seventies, when it became codified and played to the masses, with the band members wearing outfits, and rock declined a second time, in the MTV era, when supposed hard rock bands sang ballads in the hair band era.  Rock and roll sold its soul.

And what seems to have replaced it is fashion.

Huh?

Doesn’t matter how well Duane Allman plays the guitar, WHAT IS HE WEARING?  We’ve got “Fashion Rocks”, what a load of crap that is, and all the supposed “rock stars” getting excited about Fashion Week, trying to sit in the very first row.  And  you wonder why mainstream music is in trouble.  Yes, we’re experiencing an under the radar renaissance, bands who are about music, but the mainstream is a vast wasteland.

Where Perez is very powerful.

My second reaction is the fashion business should be VERY scared.

The fashion business is just like the music business used to be, where you don’t offend Doug Morris or Jimmy Iovine for fear of your career. Anna Wintour rules.  Everybody kisses her butt.  But not Perez.

CocoPerez.com is the Napster of the fashion industry.  Well, not exactly, no one’s stealing product, but those who’ve ruled in the past need to be very afraid.

This is the power of the Internet.  And this is a power ALL of old media just can’t get over.  They want to complain to each other, getting ink in their respective publications, they want to testify in Congress, they want these upstarts STOPPED!

But if you don’t know the lunatics have taken over the asylum, you’d better be auguring for retirement, because your days are just about DONE!

Today there’s a site online, written by a fan, with more expertise than almost any reporter, with constant updates to boot.  A newspaper reporter does research, covers his beat.  I know, because they call me.  Most of the time I end up explaining to them how it works, like with Ticketmaster, how it’s a cover-up for greedy acts.  But those writing the blogs, they know this shit, because they do it EVERY DAY! They LIVE IT!

How many people are interested in fashion?  Not as many as care about gossip.  Still, tons. Just ask your teenage son or daughter.  Yes, boys care about what they wear too.  So, there is a market here for Perez.

Can he maintain two sites?  Can he be the king of all online media?  Possibly, but you can only do one or two things well.

But Mario Lavandeira, the real Perez, certainly knows how to run a website.  CocoPerez launched today with SIX pages of data, and a clean interface.  Shit, no one at a label has even figured out how to create a clean-looking site, and all their bands employ Flash, ensuring that people won’t return constantly, who’s got the time?  Ever notice that the most popular sites, like the HuffingtonPost and TMZ and Perez, use NO Flash?  Think about that.  And think that what people want most is data.  So, if you’re not supplying it on a regular basis, people are not coming back.

I don’t give a shit about fashion.  But if you’re interested in instant bucks, courting the people who open their wallets, you do.  If you’re mesmerized by big sales numbers, you care about Lady GaGa, who is Perez’s BFF.  Hell, he plays her song in the video that launches his site. And Perez makes videos on a regular basis.  They’re not PRODUCTIONS, that cost a fortune and are made for the old market, they’re YouTube expositions, one camera, including warts and all, that’s the new video.

Pay attention here.  Perez may crash and burn, but he’s more innovative than the mainstream acts.  And he realizes that to be successful, just like in the sixties and seventies, you can’t play the game, you have to appear independent, of your own mind, making your own decisions, as opposed to today’s music “stars” who won’t even give an opinion on their favorite breakfast cereal for fear of pissing off a potential sponsor down the line.

CocoPerez.com

My first reaction was how far we’ve come.

In the sixties and seventies, music ruled the world, if you were a kid and wanted to know what was going on, you put on a record.  And if you couldn’t afford the record, you turned on the radio, which rather than being beholden to the corporation, seemed to be tailor-made for you, with news that you were interested in, songs that piqued your curiosity and deejays that were your best friend.

Today, radio is filled with twenty plus minutes of commercials and songs that are tested to ensure that what you heard before is what you continue to get, we live in a lowest-common denominator world where you’re subjected to the crap the uninformed, casual users desire, and for this reason you tune out.

As for the man.  Today’s musicians EMBRACE THE MAN!  How can we tour without him?  We love money!  It started out as an urban thing, the underclass loving to rip off corporations, now all musicians want that big label money, and even better, that Target/Wal-Mart money and that Coke and Pepsi money!  Isn’t it interesting that music tanked the first time, in the late seventies, when it became codified and played to the masses, with the band members wearing outfits, and rock declined a second time, in the MTV era, when supposed hard rock bands sang ballads in the hair band era.  Rock and roll sold its soul.

And what seems to have replaced it is fashion.

Huh?

Doesn’t matter how well Duane Allman plays the guitar, WHAT IS HE WEARING?  We’ve got “Fashion Rocks”, what a load of crap that is, and all the supposed “rock stars” getting excited about Fashion Week, trying to sit in the very first row.  And  you wonder why mainstream music is in trouble.  Yes, we’re experiencing an under the radar renaissance, bands who are about music, but the mainstream is a vast wasteland.

Where Perez is very powerful.

My second reaction is the fashion business should be VERY scared.

The fashion business is just like the music business used to be, where you don’t offend Doug Morris or Jimmy Iovine for fear of your career. Anna Wintour rules.  Everybody kisses her butt.  But not Perez.

CocoPerez.com is the Napster of the fashion industry.  Well, not exactly, no one’s stealing product, but those who’ve ruled in the past need to be very afraid.

This is the power of the Internet.  And this is a power ALL of old media just can’t get over.  They want to complain to each other, getting ink in their respective publications, they want to testify in Congress, they want these upstarts STOPPED!

But if you don’t know the lunatics have taken over the asylum, you’d better be auguring for retirement, because your days are just about DONE!

Today there’s a site online, written by a fan, with more expertise than almost any reporter, with constant updates to boot.  A newspaper reporter does research, covers his beat.  I know, because they call me.  Most of the time I end up explaining to them how it works, like with Ticketmaster, how it’s a cover-up for greedy acts.  But those writing the blogs, they know this shit, because they do it EVERY DAY! They LIVE IT!

How many people are interested in fashion?  Not as many as care about gossip.  Still, tons. Just ask your teenage son or daughter.  Yes, boys care about what they wear too.  So, there is a market here for Perez.

Can he maintain two sites?  Can he be the king of all online media?  Possibly, but you can only do one or two things well.

But Mario Lavandeira, the real Perez, certainly knows how to run a website.  CocoPerez launched today with SIX pages of data, and a clean interface.  Shit, no one at a label has even figured out how to create a clean-looking site, and all their bands employ Flash, ensuring that people won’t return constantly, who’s got the time?  Ever notice that the most popular sites, like the HuffingtonPost and TMZ and Perez, use NO Flash?  Think about that.  And think that what people want most is data.  So, if you’re not supplying it on a regular basis, people are not coming back.

I don’t give a shit about fashion.  But if you’re interested in instant bucks, courting the people who open their wallets, you do.  If you’re mesmerized by big sales numbers, you care about Lady GaGa, who is Perez’s BFF.  Hell, he plays her song in the video that launches his site. And Perez makes videos on a regular basis.  They’re not PRODUCTIONS, that cost a fortune and are made for the old market, they’re YouTube expositions, one camera, including warts and all, that’s the new video.

Pay attention here.  Perez may crash and burn, but he’s more innovative than the mainstream acts.  And he realizes that to be successful, just like in the sixties and seventies, you can’t play the game, you have to appear independent, of your own mind, making your own decisions, as opposed to today’s music “stars” who won’t even give an opinion on their favorite breakfast cereal for fear of pissing off a potential sponsor down the line.

gene simmons ‘mengulas’ NIN di singapura

dipetik di blabbermouth.net:

KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons has posted a brief review of NINE INCH NAILS‘ August 10, 2009 concert at Fort Canning Park in Singapore.
Simmons, who was in Singapore on business, wrote in an apparently sarcasm-filled posting on his Facebook page, “Went to see Trent Reznor’s [NINE INCH NAILS mainman] band. About 1,000 people attended the outdoor event. On other days (it’s a three-day festival), it’sLADY GAGA and KEANE. Band was solid. Good lights. Lots of smoke in every song. Couldn’t see the band. But, boy, was there a lot of smoke. Terrific drummer, who played in perfect time with the tape loops. Good stuff… I loved it.”

Reznor stated in a recent interview that he’d “never want to be Gene Simmons, an old man who puts on makeup to entertain kids, like a clown going to work.”

When asked about Reznor’s comments by a fan in the “Letters From Fans” section of Simmons‘ web site, Gene replied, “No worries. Trent grew up on KISS and cut his teeth on our toons. When he was recording‘Downward Spiral’, he had two action figures on his mix console — Jesus and Gene Simmons.

“Once you’re a self confessed heroin addict, who used the stuff for years, you don’t look at life the way the rest of us do… I’m told.

“We all wish him well.”