![]() ![]() “To be specific, in Indonesia, my goal was to motivate people to buy physical releases again, as at that time people in Indonesia tended to download mp3s buy cassette, vinyl, or CD.” His contemporaries in 2009 like FFWD, Maritime, and Lovely Records focused on local acts, while Sustrino looked to bringing the international to Indonesia and vice versa. “The reason I started the label was simply to contribute something to the bands I admire,” he says. ![]() Inspired by Series Two’s efforts at connecting to indie pop bands from across the world, Sustrino started Shiny Happy Records in 2009. “Surprisingly, an indie pop label based in Nebraska called Series Two Records approached me and they invited me to join their international compilation,” says Sustrino. Here’s a whirlwind tour through some of the best.Įko Sustrino started out in Depok City’s hardcore scene, but a parallel love for indie pop pushed him to start the bedroom pop project Chasing Monday. Though some labels have come and gone in a flash, the indie pop scene in Indonesia still boasts a number of labels putting out releases old and new, as well as indie pop nights like This Happy Feeling. My life isn’t the same again.” Joz and Gaga from Maritime Records even threw a tribute event titled Let’s Call and Love Sarah, according to Muhammad. “It was year 2010 when Sharesprings released their first single, then they introduced me to Felt and McCarthy and some Sarah writings,” says Arief Bramantyo, aka Tiok, who runs the disanorak label and releases music as The Sensitive. “These kinds of statements, at that time, blew my mind,” he says. The fact that one didn’t need to be a rough-and-ready punk to stake out a claim to political resistance appealed to people like Muhammad. Pre-order buy pre-order buy you own this wishlist in wishlist go to album go to track go to album go to trackĪs with other global indie pop scenes, the political ethos of Sarah Records was influential to many in Indonesia’s scene. These bands were important in those eras, and I think they made the youngsters aware of this new kind of music.” “nd from Jakarta, there are Pestolaer, Rumahsakit, and Planet Bumi. “From Bandung, there are Pure Saturday, Cherry Bombshell, and KUBIK,” says Irfan Muhammad, author of the 2019 book Bandung Pop Darlings and Master’s student at National Chiao Tong University in Taiwan. “Indies” became a genre marker for a slew of sounds, a combination of shoegaze, dream pop, indie pop, and Britpop made popular by several seminal bands that turned away from the rock and metal sounds that used to dominate the underground. But in the mid-’90s, the advent of MTV brought the Britpop craze to the Indonesian archipelago. Of course, the history of underground music in Indonesia stretches back a few decades prior, a history characterized by punk, metal, and political resistance. While poptastic! would eventually end their activities, their impact still resonates in Indonesia’s current scene, and last year the tragic loss of Sutuq to cancer meant the passing of a mentor to many an Indonesian popkid. Their 2002 compilation Delicatessen became an early touchstone for bands like Mocca, whose twee stylings would become a hit in Indonesia and abroad. Combining influences and connections from their studies abroad-Nishkra in Australia, Sutuq in Germany-the two coordinated over mIRC and eventually formed poptastic!, a label and indie pop party that had its initial run from 2000-2006. This golden age was thanks in no small part to two mononymous popkids: Nishkra and Sutuq. Boy meets girl-so what? At the turn of the century, the city of Bandung in West Java became the center of a flourishing indie pop scene inspired by the ethos and sound of Sarah Records and similar labels. ![]()
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