On the hope/despair dialectic.

I’m always carrying my little portable recorder around with me but I never seem to pull it out when a band is playing. But at last weekend’s Rock the Youth festival at Kompleks 3K in Subang Jaya I actually did pull it out and turn it on while some of the bands played.

I’m always drawn to youth festivals, or just the word ‘youth’ in general and it was even better that some bands I really like were playing as well. Comparing this one to youth festivals back in Australia, there was an absence of hip hop (none at all) and metalcore (usually the two types of music that dominate youth festivals in Western Sydney) but there were a number of “experimental” type bands, which is something that unfortunately isn’t present at most Australian youth events. Also, as with most Frinjan-associated events there was a bit of a political side to it too.

As I’m still new to the live recordings thing I’m sure the sound quality isn’t as good as it potentially could be. I’ll try to work on that. Hopefully next time the recordings will be better. Also, although there were many bands playing on the day, I only recorded three of them as I was afraid my battery was low.

Akta Angkasa
16 min 29 sec / 22.64 MB / 192kbps MP3
Akta Angkasa is one of my favourite bands from the KL area and as always they played a good set, just a shorter more condensed set without some of their slower and longer sections. This was also the first time I was able to properly hear the synths.

Space Gambus Experiment
13 min 34 sec / 18.64 MB / 192kbps MP3
I was looking forward to Space Gambus Experiment but I must admit I was a bit disappointed by their set which was shorter than their sound check. There are some nice quieter and minimal sections where the gambus is the focal point. However, the louder parts sometimes just sounded like a bunch of people playing at the same time but not necessarily together. I guess that’s just the hit-or-miss nature of the whole improv/experimental thing. And sorry for annoying background noise from my dumbshit friends.

Khottal
14 min 8 sec / 19.41 MB / 192kbps MP3
Khottal always seems like such a fun band to be in and at this show the audience was having just as much fun as the band – with stage diving, crowd surfing and at one point the stage was full of dancing audience members and band members. Khottal has about nine or ten members playing a wide range of instruments. Unfortunately some of the instruments such as melodica and xylophone seemed to get drowned out by the drums during this set. Maybe if you listen closely you can find them all.

I was saving the rest of my battery to record Monoloque but after Khottal played we were all informed that Monoloque had to cancel at the last minute. I wish I could have used the extra battery to record someone else like Liyana Fizi or Ben’s Bitches. Oh well, maybe there will be another chance. These shall do for now.