u n t y t e l d: Laundry Music Volume Two Received Massive Response From Malaysians!

I guess Laundry Music Volume 2 was one of the biggest events in 2007 as of today. Easily occupied with more than 1000 supportive crowds, Laundry was packed with a large number of music enthusiasts, both sexy and low-profile beings, family and friends a.k.a homeboys/homegirls of the performing bands to show some massive supports to both the event and the talented performers from Melbourne, Indonesia and our own beloved nation, Malaysia.

Held on May 12, 2007 at Laundry Bar @ Italiannies, the party started out with some enormous hardcore head-banging performance by local band Estranged. Too bad I wasn’t there to see how they performed. I was late due to the heavy traffic outside of The Curve (typical excuse from Malaysians, we don’t do timing). I reached when Everybody Loves Irene went up on stage, while they were waiting onstage like nutcases for the maintenance crew to fix on some technical issues. I’m not being a pain-in-the-ass, and this is not the first time, it’s time for Laundry to gear up some better sound systems, maybe adding on some additional stereo speakers, or some proper high-performance amplifiers and mixers, maybe some good quality mikes, cos’ it’s really tensing to get all the unnecessary feedbacks when you’re expecting some mysterious bands to perform their best pieces to their new crowd. Darn! Better do something, Laundry-io!

Estranged

OK! Back to Everybody Loves Irene. The band started an introduction with an instrumental track. Thought it was just another Mogwai-inspired band, not until, when their female vocalist was called up on stage, the moment she sung her first note, I told myself, “this has gotta be another band inspired by Portishead, and they are Indonesia’s Portishead!” I wouldn’t say they are ‘imitating’ Portishead, but highly inspired. Somehow, they have their style, but majority, it’s quite close to the English outfit. Basically, Everybody Loves Irene was tripping hop all the way with electronic synth keyboard rhythms, some heavy duty bass work, and vibro-guitar riffs, not leaving out the Beth Gibbons vocal style. Their final track performance was the best throughout their set. It was all quite down-tempo and calm when suddenly, out of nowhere, the climax just shoots up to the maximum level. All members, especially the keyboardist were whacking and banging on their equipments like it’s some cheap trash, to one extent, two crews were holding the keyboard stand in order to prevent the equipment from falling. The crowd went crazy when they finish their set. One massive performance by the Indonesians. I missed those guys on the way out to get their album entitled The Very First Thing You Must Learn About Flying is Gravity.

Everybody Loves Irene

Next up was a 45-minutes set by one of the most highly respected artists in Malaysia, three turntablists from three different renowned hip hop groups, consisting of DJ Cza (Ahli Fiqir), DJ Uno (Pop Shuvit) and DJ Fuzz (Teh Tarik Crew), forming up one crazy group called Stylustiks. They are known for using Kompangs along with scratch cuts with their turntables. I was standing in the middle of crowd and I heard people yelling, “I wanna check these guys out man!” “Hey! Let’s go upfront to check out Cza” That’s the truth. No lies. I was like, what the heck? A dude checking out a dude? But, it’s an exception, because it’s Stylustiks we’re talking about here. As usual, clean cuts with magnificent partnership within the trio, invisible fingers hitting on the crossfaders. The Kompangs was well-received by the crowd, and were highly appreciated for blending traditional and modern together as one. “There are no boundaries to music,” said Uno at a casual supper session.

Stylustiks

The last set was by Melbourne trio, Weapon X & Ken Hell, with DJ A-Style on the decks. Stage presence and energy was the first thing I told myself, “They are superb!” Although I don’t quite catch their verses when they rap, everything seemed so quick, some hip hop enthusiasts were flowing along together, and some were laughing and taunting respects to both X and Hell. The crowd went crazy when X and Hell threw freebies towards them, some t-shirts and mini-basketballs, some CDs too if I’m not mistaken. As usual, the Malaysian-style, squeezing and jumping for the freebie. The crowd were yelling “IFA” throughout the entire performance, which stands for Ill Flow Affiliation, a hip hop supercrew in Melbourne. Before the end of their first set, X and Hell invited Joe Flizzow of Too Phat and Toronto-based rapper Vandal up on stage to perform their collaboration track for Too Phat’s 360 Degrees album, 6 MCs. Not all six emcees were present, but the three has what it takes to make the crowd sing along and jumped along, with Illsteez on the PMC. Later on, they did a freestyle session and triggered US singer Jennifer Johns up on stage to perform along. The girls in the crowd went crazy and cheered for Jennifer on her superb vocals.

Weapon X and Ken Hell feat. DJ A-Style

The crowd started to leave after the first set of X and Hell. I guess the announcement wasn’t clear enough that the boys from Melbourne needs to take a break and will be back for a second set. Malaysians. But the crowd was good though. Not as good as compared to the earlier set. The party ended with DJ A-Style being the guest DJ for the night until 2AM. Resident DJ Nesh filled in groovy hip hop and R&B tunes for intermissions in between.

Here are some pictures of the event. Apologize on the quality of the pictures. Untyteld isn't generating any income, yet, so bear with us...