The first time we saw Risky Summerbee & The Honeythief performance was at an event held by a music webzine in Jakarta, at the lakeside near the center library of University of Indonesia. They mesmerised us with their smoky guitar sounds. The psychedelic atmosphere appeared as they started their music.

It was Risky Summerbee who led the honeythief. Risky started this band as his music project in the middle of 2007. He released his debut album ‘The Place I Wanna Go’ followed by his second album with full band format ‘Preamble’. They gained a lot of positive review from music webzine in Indonesia and around.  The band has performed at some clubs in Japan and Esplanade Theater in Singapore. Along with Frau, Risky performs a duet in song called ‘Days Elapsed’. They both are originally from Jogjakarta. Last year, Risky Summerbee & The Honeythief joined Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and proclaimed the war against corruption. The band drives us with an amazing composition both music and lyric, entitled ‘Subterfuge’.

Risky is a man with a huge passion in music, he’s not only composing his own songs or writing the lyrics, but he also did a new project with Flix Production, an independent movie starring Indonesia’s famous actor Rio Dewanto, Optatissimus, where Risky took a part as the music director for this movie. So, let’s hope in 2014 Risky can lead the thief to give us more music.

It’s one thing to be so arrogant that you pretentiously question the authenticity of pop music because it’s being serviced by a major record label but to not understand that it’s a form of performance art (real or not). It’s another thing to not respect it the way you respect music coming from an indie label. Why? Inauthentic is the new authentic.

Stars and Rabbit engages a do-it-yourself approach to writing and recording. Their music is a melding of pop and folk influences with raw simplicity of composition, arrangement, and performance. They formed in early 2011. The group consists of singer-songwriter Elda Suryani and musician Adi Wibowo.

Their single “Worth It” is their ladder into center of a stage. There are uniqueness in Elda’s voice and Adi could package it with deep music. Why should you ask? Listen them.

Three years ago, there was this lovely female musician from Yogyakarta who mesmerized us with the album titled Starlit Carousel.  The dulcet tones from her piano and her vocal was something we could not easily forget; you will be able to recognize any of her melody by the first few seconds. She enchanted us with the spell of “Mesin Penenun Hujan” and “Sepasang Kekasih yang Bercinta di Luar Angkasa”, and then she took a moment off.

Last month, she’s back.

Leilani Hermiasih picked the name Frau as her stage name. A singer and a componist, she produces her songs with a digital piano. After the hiatus, last August she released Happy Coda, an album of eight tracks available to download for free.

“Something More”, the song served as the first track feels tightly playful, building up enthusiasm to hear where Frau will take you this time. Close your eyes, she will serenade your way the land of fairytale with “Water”, resembling soundtrack from Disney movies. On the fourth track, “Tarian Sari”, she somehow could bring the image of her hometown Yogyakarta. This graceful track distinguishes itself with gamelan-like sets of tone and Frau’s occasional sinden-like vocal. While “Mr. Wolf” came as another enjoyable track as you can imagine her fingers playfully tip-toeing from key to key.

Happy Coda portrays happier image than Starlit Carousel, and also wider complex of emotion. From happy to mad, silly or sad. If Starlit Carousel was a person you adore from three years ago, then you would be more delighted to meet the charmingly evolved version, Happy Coda. If you haven’t met any of them, well now you should.

(Photo credit: http://literarybiennale.salihara.org)

You probably have read from Djakartamosphere’s twitter page that the tickets are selling fast or even worst have been sold out less than 2 days after their announcement about the events, but for those who haven’t heard about it, this what you’ve missed about; G Production collaborating with Rain Dogs Records, are making music concert concept tour for these three talented local Indonesian bands, Starts and Rabbit, Dialog Dini Hari, and White Shoes and The Couples Company, in three days, at three different cities. The tour itself will start from Bandung on March 6th, 2013 at Maja House, continue on the next day at Teater Garasi at Yogyakarta, and ended Taman Argo Bali on Macrh 6th, 2013. So if you really want to catch their live performance, you better make your reservation in a rush before its too late!

Suara Tujuh Nada:
G Production:
info@djakartartmosphere.com (081310081510)
www.djakartartmosphere.com

Bandung
Rabu, 6 Maret 2013, Pkl. 19.00
Maja House, Jl Sersan Bajuri 72 , Bandung
Reservasi: info@djakartartmosphere.com | 081310 081510

Yogyakarta
Kamis, 7 Maret 2013, Pkl. 19.30
Teater Garasi, Jl Bugisan Selatan 36 A, Tegal Kenongo, Yogjakarta
Tiket & Reservasi: Rp. 50.000 | Hani (0877 1991 1200 & 0857 4753 2000)

Bali
Jumat, 8 Maret 2013, Pkl. 19.00
Taman Agro, Jl. Hayam Wuruk 212, Denpasar, Bali
Tiket & Reservasi: Ticket box: Rp. 40.000 , On the spot: RP. 50.000
Idiom Garage: Jun (0878 6035 9544) & FBI Bali Radio: Rezka Fria (0857 7399 6701)

Motion City Soundtrack will have their first step in Indonesian soil in March 2013. After a very long wait by the fans, they finally confirmed that they are going to have a couple of shows in Indonesia. On their Asia-Australian tour, they will make a visit and exclusive performances in two cities in Indonesia. Heaven Records as the promoter of this event have successfully convinced them to play in Bandung and Yogyakarta, while most of the concerts are usually held in Jakarta. Bandung and Yogyakarta are locally famous for their creative industry and this has become one of the reasons of why the promoter would proudly introduce these cities to the world. Remarkably, Bandung is where the Indonesian punk / underground music scene was born.

Motion City Soundtrack’s Heaven Rawk Tour Indonesia 2013

Bandung: March 6th 2013 at Balai Sartika Convention Hall
Yogyakarta: March 7th 2013 at Boshe VVIP Club
For more info head to: www.heavenrecs.com / info@heavenrecs.com / Ph: +62 22 2038724.