The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Robert De Niro welcomes baby girl Posted: 23 Dec 2011 11:29 PM PST  Jury president of the 64th Cannes Film Festival Robert de Niro arrives on the red carpet for the screening of the film Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, May 14, 2011. — Reuters pic The child is the second for De Niro, 68, and Hightower, 56. She is named Helen Grace Hightower De Niro, and weighed a healthy 7 lbs 2 oz at birth. The "Meet the Parents" star married actress Hightower in 1997, and the couple have a son, Elliot, born in 1998. De Niro also has a son and adopted daughter with ex-wife Diahnne Abbott and two twin sons with former girlfriend Toukie Smith. The actor can currently be seen in the star-studded, feel-good film "New Years Eve". — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Malaysian independent music in 2011 Posted: 23 Dec 2011 04:44 PM PST DEC 24 — This is supposedly the year where the album died here in Malaysia. So few of them are being made that the folks at the country's top music awards show, the Anugerah Industri Muzik, decided to scrap the categories for Best Album according to genres (like Best Rock Album, Best Pop Album etc) because there aren't enough albums to even have a proper competition. So what's left is the Album Of The Year category, which ultimately went to a "live" album by Datuk Sheila Majid. Such is the poor sales for albums nowadays that everyone's taking the now normal route of releasing only singles for airplay on radio and as digital downloads, with very few daring to take the risk of recording and releasing a full album. Although that might be the story when you look at the Malaysian mainstream, if you care to dig just a little bit deeper then you will find that very few in the independent music scene here are buying into that story, as it is chock-full of acts old and new excitedly releasing new albums this year. In fact, there are more new albums being released by indie acts this year compared to last year, even if people are saying that the indie fever has died down. Bigger names in the scene like Bittersweet, Love Me Butch, Pop Shuvit, One Buck Short, Monoloque, Pesawat and Liyana Fizi all released albums this year, and even though this is a rare year in which local giants Hujan didn't release a new album, defying the pattern they've set in the last three years of releasing at least one new album every year, it's definitely been a very vibrant year in terms of albums for the local indie scene. Outside of the aforementioned bigger names, relatively less well-known acts like Furniture, Hello Is This The Band, Ferns. OJ Law, Forty Winks, Round Robin, Silent Scenery and The Garrison also released full albums this year, which should be proof enough of the kind of noise we've been making even if the scene does seem a bit quiet this year, which I personally attribute to the decreasing number of venues available and friendly enough to gig organizers, especially within the Kuala Lumpur city centre area. Trend of the year definitely belongs to the "metalcore" genre which although didn't see much in terms of actual albums or EPs released by bands of the genre, ultimately showed its presence with its dominance over this year's line-up for the annual Rock The World concert. Current scene biggies Massacre Conspiracy, headliners of this year's Rock The World, very recently released their debut CD, and together with The Padangs (the lead singer is featured on Hujan's latest single, who's also reportedly recalibrated their sound to incorporate some of that metalcore sound for their next album) will probably carry the torch for this genre well into 2012 and maybe even beyond. A few years back people used to complain a lot about the shocking amount of amateurish or just plain bad new "indie" bands popping up like mushrooms in the scene, especially those singing in Malay. Although we can now say good riddance to most of that bunch, we can now say hello to a similarly shocking amount of amateurish or just plain bad new metalcore bands popping up like mushrooms in the scene. Some things may change, but some things will always stay the same. What about newcomers of the year? Personally I'd say it's a toss-up between the gorgeous noise of Kuching's Love/Comes and the "Clasher than The Clash" punk rock stylings of Kuala Lumpur's The Garrison, followed quite closely by English media darlings Kyoto Protocol and of course the unashamedly mainstream sounds of Awi Rafael. Just bear in mind that I'll only consider someone with an album or EP already out as newcomers. If I were to also include live performances into the mix, then the outstandingly anthemic instrumental rock of Sphere should also be added to the list, alongside the charmingly shambolic alternative rock of 300@9 and the gorgeous harmonies of The Impatient Sisters. And finally, as the year draws to a close, I still haven't been able to find any other local album that can dislodge "Subversion" by The Garrison as my favourite local album of the year. The closest anyone came to that is OJ Law, with his third album (but first to be released on CD) "Yesterday Is A Distant Dream" and the split album "Paraphernalia", shared between Partimelovers and the aforementioned Love/Comes. All in all, this has not been a bad year at all in terms of productivity and quality for the local indie scene. I wonder what surprises are in store for next year. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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