purplepaige
Camisole Wars
[self-released]

by edharob

Snugly fitted into a delicious looking burgundy square envelope with a Flower Power Pink P label smack in the middle, Camisole Wars is just as tasty as it looks. This EP can be likened to a three layered kuay lapis, each layer distinct but just as yummy as the rest.

The first layer is ‘Camisole’ – a dreamy concoction reminiscent of shoe-gazer pop. Still palpable in the techie-pop and sweet distortion, however, there is a distinct 80’s ‘coming of age’ aftertaste.

And what exactly is this ‘80’s aftertaste’? I’m not quite sure myself. Perhaps a mix of rawness and puerility, coupled with delayed chorus effect and a light touch of my own sentimentality.

The words “fly away” are repeated quite a number of times throughout the song, hitting the right chords with escapists and dreamers of all kinds…

The middle layer is ‘Goodbye Tomoro’. This sounds distinctly more in tune with the band’s Malay roots. There’s a touch of dangdut and pop berat- and if you look hard enough a bit of J-pop. Definitely more rough and ready than the two songs, it makes a satisfying rock n roll track with ASIAN FLAVA!!! Conclusion: A substantial and comforting middle piece to bite into.

The third and finally layer (boo hoo!) is ‘Morning Sun’ is “home recorded”, unlike the other two and happens also be my favorite track. It reminds me of Belle and Sebastian and Norwegian group Acid House Kings.

The sweet vocals come out more clearly in this track pared-down semi-acoustic piece. The lyrics are evocative of languorous sunny afternoons spent sitting on the breakers in East Coast Park watching cloud formations. Definitely, more folksy elements are incorporated in this track which still remains electrified and not to a bad effect at all!

Backspace
The Lavender Room
[self-released]

by Lounge Lizard

This has been a prolific year for EPs for Singapore acts. Pop-rock quartet Backspace joins in the fun, releasing their debut offering The Lavender Room. Recorded at the latest go-to place, Blackisle Studios, the 5-tracks offering is an earnest effort in writing rock tunes with pop hooks.

Opening track ‘Running Away’ kicks off the EP with a gentle guitar arpeggio, only obstructed by the emo-punk-like drum stylings and the jarringly arrhythmic guitar chording. The soothing, yet assured refrain “And you’d know I’d try” peppers the song, setting up the mood. However, ‘80’s Poker Queen’ is a slab of power pop, punctuated by cliché indie-pop guitar licks. But that’s not a crippling fault. In fact, it’s highly reminiscent of the Singapore indie rock bands in the mid-to-late ‘90s. A sense of nostalgia creeps in and you realize the years have gone by so quickly...

Alrighty. Back to the review. ‘Without A Sound’ and ‘The Other Side’ returns to the same formula as ‘Running Away’. Lead vocals Johan Wong’s plaintive vocals anchor the songs while the band provides ample support to add flourishes and fill up the tunes. Actually, Backspace reminds me of another homegrown act highrise with their mid-tempo melancholic tunes.

The EP closes with the inauspiciously titled (for a debut EP) rocker ‘Last Goodbye’. No doubt, it serves as an upbeat number in the band’s repertoire but it does not have the same emotional resonance which the band excels in their slower songs. Nonetheless, The Lavendar Room is a highly commendable debut effort which shows a band yet to reveal its full potential.

Phorous
Timelessness
[Elintseeker Sounds]

by bbob

A flourish of zither-like sounds break the silence. The gentle and hypnotic guitar strums become an understatement for Phorous’ first physical release of their work. But Phorous has never been known to follow conventions in style and action, choosing the flying kick in the midst of the ballet melodrama that bands follow in manufacturing albums from conception to reality. Their debut album, Rollercoaster 2 Weeks, released online and totally free ( http://www.phorous.com/ ) is a testament to that.

This second release, however, seems to be a different beast all together. Holding the EP in your hands, the slightly coarse light-beige paper seems to suggest much about the simple direction that the band has taken in terms of packaging and material. ‘Timelessness’ begins as a soft climax of mad guitars and fades into a chilled rhythm where gentle guitars form the leaves and the soft flourishes of oscillating swells the breeze that sway them. The sense of unfulfilled climax and passion seems to begin here and pervade the whole EP as you chill/drive/lay in your favourite armchair/car/bed, and wonder if the journey leads anywhere. Eswandy’s vocals seems to float helplessly along as well, continually grinded by the occasional swell and frequent beat. Phorous’ attempt at shaping the vocal as an integral instrument to the song is worthy of note, and it makes sense once you take a look at the tree on the cover.

That sense of tragedy tinged calm continues for ‘All Paths Lead To You’, unashamedly a reference to a set of lines from ‘Shadowgraphs’, off their Rollercoaster 2 Weeks debut. Yet so subtly, the chill and the serenity builds into a soft but unbearable tension when you venture three minutes into the song, leading your ears to believe that the climax and gratification that the heart yearns for will soon arrive. But it becomes clear that the overcast skies won’t break and Phorous gently guides you back to the tragic sea of calm.

‘Gilles De Rais’ struts flippantly into the raunchy club as the calm gives way to the pounding faux House banging of the third song. Like following in the footsteps of paedophilic serial killers, ‘Gilles De Rais’ has you wandering round the playground with your raunchy beats and bass pounding through your MP3 player of choice. Sneering eyes gloss over the soft forms of the little children, beautiful and pure as the washings of the divine sounding guitars that weave around.

The stunted retake on ‘Shadowgraphs’ continues that sense of tragic calm as the pace gets continually punctuated by sampled male voices and dramatic sounds fleeting from ear to ear. Perhaps, Phorous got sick of the unfulfilled passion as the patient listener gets lush and loud delayed guitars and a dramatic increase in volume as the song enters the last minute of its performance. Fitting that Phorous arranged the remix of ‘Shadowgraphs’ to be here, as it marks the end of the EP for me, before a plunge into the ‘Timelessness’ indulgence spiral.

The radio edit of ‘Timelessness’ is perfect for those who can’t stand long relationships but love short romantic excursions. These people will never feel the peaks and troughs that time offers.

And we’re stopped by the quiet version, the last song on the EP, and definitely a show stopper. It’d seem a good idea to put your player on repeat and start listening to this EP starting from this song. When the full version hits you, you’ll understand how Phorous can drag me into the depths of ungratified emotions.

And I’m glad they did.

Electrico
Hip City
[Universal]

by Lounge Lizard

The quintet returns with its sophomore recording. As if to make a statement to avoid the cliché 2nd album curse, Electrico turns their amp up to 11 and blast its way through the 12 songs offering via a slickly produced pop sheen.

Despite bearing some resemblances to the current hottest acts like Franz Ferdinand and The Killers, the end product churns out one which is even more infectious than their debut. While debut effort So Much More Inside has been a guitar album, Hip City chooses to focus on keyboardist Amanda Ling’s synth washes, expanding the band’s sound palette. Debut single ‘Love In New Wave’, steeped in its, well, New Wave musical influences, sledgehammers its refrain into your consciousness.

Tunes like ‘Walk’, ‘Stay Away’ and the self-titled ‘Hip City’ carry on the formula of wrapping carefully crafted melodies around energetic rockers. A personal highlight of the album is the cutesy ‘Fever Fly’, a tune apparently about an Aedes mosquito, with its inspired interplay between Ling and guitarist Daniel Sassoon, creating swirling buzzes. God knows much I love the cheeky chorus riff. To cap the whole thing off, Sassoon let loose his inner guitar shredder, unleashing a blinding fury of notes.

However, the album is not without its flaws. Already a legendary story in its own right, ‘We Are Not Made in The USA’ is about an incident which a lady returned her copy of So Much More Inside upon finding out Electrico is a Singapore band. You’d agree that the faith and support we Singaporeans give each other is amazing. While I can empathize, and even agree, with the sentiments in the tune, the approach is a little too out of place. Their nationalistic fervour somehow got lost as the tune is far too rooted in American rock’n’roll to be an anthem for Asian pride. Tongue-in-cheek or unwittingly contradictory?

Though the opener on any full length should ideally be a call-to-arms, I can’t agree with ‘Electricorp.’, the band’s theme song being the one which kicks off the album. Don’t get me wrong. I like the tune just fine with its Beatles-esque Sgt. Pepper’s-era song structure and its nod to U2-likeguitar frenzy. With its tempo changes and arrangement, it would have work better right in the middle of the album, serving as a centerpiece than an opener. But that’s just me.

Hip City is a testament to bassist Desmond Goh and drummer William Lim Jr. as one of Singapore’s tightest rhythm sections. The pair works seamlessly together, packing a walloping groove which drives most of the tunes. Though no Leslie Low in terms of the lyrical department, lead pipes and principal songwriter David Tan has honed his songwriting craft, delivering sharp tunes which draw the listener back in for more. That, itself, is a feat to be patriotic about.