‘Crashed Satellite’ by Home Court
A brief introduction: Home Court is DaeRiff is Dae Kim and Yang Ariff (an affiliated act of The Bat Cave and member of the now-defunct KLG Sqwad). It appears the duo is KL’s latest producer/rapper dream team; Dae Kim, the KL-based Korean beatmaker, debuts his union with Yang Ariff with a blend of skeletal synths, finding his counterpart and a common ground in the rapper’s loose rhymes, allowing Yang Ariff just enough space to flex his flow muscles. ‘Crashed Satellite’ comes across like chatter: freestyle, a stream-of-consciousness narration, laced with melody magic courtesy of Dae Kim. Promising potential, we think. Ng Su Ann
‘Tersengat’ by Emir Hermono featuring Leo Ari
Emir Hermono’s debut album ‘Karma Kisses’ is already one of our favourite recent releases. Other things we also want to happen already is for Leo and Emir to make more music together. There’s progress for Leo Ari here as the track strays away from his usual heartbreak routine and plays out more like a note-to-self. Emir’s beats are smooth, chill and danceable – it’s something that Joe Kay and the Soulection crew would definitely pick up on (if not already). Nadia Rosli
‘Junk Food’ by Jocelyn Stemilyn
You know Jocelyn Stemilyn, even if you haven’t yet put a name to the face – the barista-by-day, singer-songwriter-on-the-side is a bit of a muse to Dae Kim, having appeared in his music video ‘Baby Blue’. (He returns the favour though. He’s in ‘Junk Food’s music video too, directed by himself and Haverhuck aka Hqa.) She’s an actual artist: she acts and performs, and is affiliated with the theatre house ACX Productions. Jocelyn’s articulation of a pop vision is one that’s irrefutably, wholly hers – even if it’s slightly Dae Kim-esque in sound and in visuals – as she closes the gap between the artist she used to be and the artist she’s growing into.
The song takes you on unexpected turns: it starts off with a succession of quick-fire beats, lurking and haunting, that when her soft, whispery voice is folded in, you’re taken aback by the weightlessness of it all, and you’re gratified that a pop – fine, electropop – song can still take you by surprise. ‘The world is like junk food to my soul / it tastes so good but deadly,’ she delivers, the sonic approximation of actually floating or melting away. There’s a similar message in her accompanying music video for ‘Junk Food’ as well – a series of weird and wonderful scenes, in which she dances, twirls and wanders around; at turns she’s smiling, and then she’s sombre. Everything’s good. Everything’s deadly. Ng Su Ann
‘Warna’ by Phlox
‘Warna’ is a two-part song by psychedelic rock act Phlox whose last release was at least two years ago. In ‘Warna’, they break tradition by singing in Malay for the first time. The song is spacey with a drone-like echo playing in parts of both songs. Sound-wise, both parts are similar but the story behind them is what separates the two. ‘Bahagian 1’ hears the word ‘warna’ playing a metaphorical role as the desire for meaning whilst ‘Bahagian 2’ brings possible answers. Nadia Rosli
‘Port Bois’ Tobu with Madmaan and DJ Ash
Tobu is on his way to perfecting that ‘carefree youth’ sound, sometimes with his band Youth Portal (ICYMI, they’re DIIV-certified), sometimes by himself – although this time it’s with his ‘port bois’. The beats are dreamy, and the lyrics lazy: ‘Duduk lepak mata rabak atas sofa / Muka fucked up dekat laptop tengok Stoya’. It’s a short two-minute track that ended a bit too soon, but we approve because hey look, there goes our youth, if you catch our drift. Nadia Rosli
‘Let It Fall’ by Bittersweet
Bittersweet is definitely back. First they bring in ‘Control’ – a distinct blast from the past, as it sounds just like what we remember of the Brit-rock influenced band. Second, leading up to the release of ‘BTSWT’ the band has released ‘Let It Fall’, because we guess every album needs a sing-along track reminiscent of a slow day at the padang (or more aptly, a slow day in the slow lane that is the slow Malaysian traffic). Nadia Rosli
