i could never imagine malaysian indie band can play like this.

i have stopped following the indie scene for some time now. listening to ferns, it makes me excited again. you mean malaysian indie acts have progressed so much?

ferns play light-weight dream pop (or some call it space rock) with some influences from mogwai and sigur ros. brilliant arrangement to relatively complex music, ferns cooks up a thick concoction of sweet noise nicely peppered with great melodies and sunny optimism. i can't quite comprehend what the vocalist sings most of the times and whether he conveys sadness or happiness in his lyrics but ferns makes happy music to my ears.
truly, this is a great album by local standards. still, i won't say ferns have a sound of its own yet. perhaps, it may take a few albums to create a signature sound.
however if you are the old-school type of audiophile whose regular diet is emi fujita, jacintha and the like, you may approach this sort of avantgarde stuff with caution! icing on the cake is the recording is equally cool. very clean and spacious sounding. i am very impressed with the studio production of standingwave, which i heard is a studio in indonesia.
i have little doubt that this is the best local album in 2006.
sonics: 4 out of 5
music: 5 out of 5

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

actually.. standingwave is much closer than you think. it's a studio in pj, malaysia.

anyway, glad you liked the cd.