20 years ago the most exciting thing happened on the Malaysian music scene was a Scorpians rock concert. Fast forward to today and the scene is maelstrom of activity: hip hop battles are happening in hole-in-the-wall joints, local bands are storming the stage live alongside internationals like NERD, Korn and soon Kasabian, and you’re as likely to hear a song or watch a video by Estranged on mainstream radio and TV as you are one by Elbow. The local music scene has never been more alive or fiercely kicking.

August 31st marks 52 years or independence and while the debate about Science and Maths in English continues, for Malaysia’s musical youth, One Malaysia is just not political rhetoric as the walls that separate Malay, Chinese and even Tamil language contemporary music fronts continue to crumble as fans seek common ground in a scene that is increasingly crossover in nature. JUICE is as likely to be humming a Hujan track as we are to be seen front row at a Nao gig. We’re as excited to be bobbing along to Jin Hackman a he belts out another line as we are to cop a listen of a new Jay-Z track. The walls have come tumbling down. The journey to this point has been a struggle filled with high points and controversy. JUICE charts 10 revolutionary moments that leads us here and the music freedom fighters that went to the line.

#1 Positive Outlook
Created in 1993 by Jeff Siah and Kenny Tay, Positive Tone’s first ever release was Leonard Tan’s first album. But it wasn’t until Ahmad Izham Omar and Paul Moss from One In A Million joined that Positve Tone sprouted wings. Focus on producing music that was more progressive, OAG, Poetic Ammo, Innuendo, Nita, Brodwyn (which later became Juliet The Orange), Ferhad, Ruffedge, VE, Too Phat, John’s Mistress, Rabbit, Pop Shuvit, Deanna Yusoff, Sarimah, Liza Aziz and Reefa were all Positive Tone artists.

Other indie labels out there doing things DIY-style, but Positive Tone reached out to the mass. Focused on making progressive music accessible to the entire nation, Positve Tone’s target was to give everyone in Malaysia a chance to listen to the urban music local boys and girls are making. Izham explains, “We did all this because our hearts were in it. It’s not just a business, but it’s a mission. We all felt strongly that we need to inject more urban sounds to the Malaysian music industry. So when it becomes a mission, we went above and beyond to achieve it.”

When Izham wanted to release OAG questions flew. It’s in English?! What’s this thing called Alternative? And they are only 16? Who will play their music?” “Where can we stock their CDs in the shops?” There was no place or space for Malaysian artists making it in English.

Defying convertion Positive Tone ignore the infrastructure. “We decided to bypass the system. We went straight to the public. We gave out flyers, did underground gigs, e-mailed. We had no choice,” Izham rebels. Constantly broke at one point, he recalls his wife asking him to get a real job, even. Surprise, surprise. But OAG went triple-platinum and Positive Tone became unstoppable. It was a breath of fresh air - local music with edge.

In 1998, the label was sold to EMI, but Izham continued running it until 2003. It was then when EMI decided that all Positive Tone artists should carry the EMI logo and the Positive Tone logo began disappearing from all the releases, ironically the last album EMI released before closing down their operations in Malaysia was the Best of Positive Tone.

But Positive Tone spirit has never ended. It’s true when Izham tells us Positive Tone spirit ever ended. We asked Izham what did he learn from running Positive Tone and he answered “There will always be a way.” KY

#2 Naughtius by Nature

Rap and hip hop were only recognised in the early days of the Malay music scene with the likes of 4U2C, KRU and Nico. It was a joke until monstrous Naughtius Maximus.

Formed in early 1994, Naughtius Maximus is Malaysia’s first English hip hop collective, encompassing Ruffugeez, Whyness, Deceased and Under Pressure, and all came from diverse backgrounds. Ruffugeez met in the now-defunct classic DV8 club, and then met Jungle Jerry in Monkey Bar when he was a resident DJ there

Naughtius Maximus has a younger mass fanbase and they came from all over Malaysia. First lady of R&B Laydee explained, “We noticed that peeps from outside of KL appreciated us more because back then you didn’t have any access to YouTube or websites, so when peeps got wind of Nottimax performing at a specific venue, they’d get down to wherever we were, that’s how much love we got back in the day.”

With only that one album and much buzz about their hip hop release, they managed to squeeze a number of appearances on TV and radio such as Remaja, Muzik Muzik and Metro Chart Show. There were plenty of print coverage for Naughtius Maximus despite the ban from RTM whichaccused them in a letter sent to Articulate Records, Nottimax’s recoding label, that they were too “Westernized.”

In the end, it was hard to get everyone to come together to perform with busy studies and work schedules. Dee explains. “It was tough and eventually many of us felt we were pulling more weight than others, so one by one they left to pursue studying abroad and concentrate on their own careers. Then there are others who pursued personal projects of their own such as Mo, Illegal, Jungle Jerry, Nicky C. the latter 2 became local dance music’s early pioneers.”

Yet it’s undeniable : Naughtius Maximus opened a big door for the hip hop scene in Malaysia. Act that followed like Poetic Ammo to today’s Caprice own Nottimax a debt of gratitude. KY

#3 Video For TV

Back in ’94, grunge and the so-called alternative music movement were at the peak of their popularity. Thus the winds of change were slowly turning into hurricanes of revolution; we could feel it, but still, no one saw it coming until we heard good old Rahdi whisper the line, “This song is called…”

A relatively new band called Old Automatic Garbage (OAG) recorded a demo tape and sent it to producer Paul Moss of the fresh indie label Positive Tone. They were signed almost immediately.

Less than a year later, OAG’s self-titled debut album and single ‘60s TV’ were simultaneously released thanks to the marketing guidance from Positive Tone.

The band performed ‘60s TV’ live for the first time on the Metro Chart Show on new TV station MetroVision. After fanning well with the station’s ratings, a music video for the single was released.

The quirky video featured an odd couple watching OAG playing on their television set in a decrepit house full of vermin and other random things. Through flashes of live performances and clippings of old P.Ramlee movies, the song came alive and sparked the birth of indie pop in Malaysia.

It was the first time an English singing alternative rock band received such tremendous support. The band went on to win the Best New Artist category in the Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) Awards in 1996 and ‘60’s TV’ was also nominated for the Best Video category.

OAG is noted for breaking the mainstream music ideology of Malay rock and pop. By bringing the underground and indie into the spotlight, they inspired our local Gen Xers to pick up guitars and form bands. ‘60’s TV’ marked a change in direction for local music videos and became the benchmark for creativity.

Together with the talented roster of acts on Positive Tone, the new wave of musicians arrived on the scene and ultimately flushed away the outdated artists of the past. That is until internet networking picked up and the throngs of wannabies inspired by this initial 90s movement came about… But that’s another song for another generation…. BL

#4 Rumble in the Jungle

12 years ago, a bunch of world music enthusiasts decided to throw a party-cum-concert at the Sarawak Cultural Village. Going back to nature, the underlying goal for the event was to promote tourism and raise environmental awareness.

Within 2 years of its conception, the Sarawak Tourism Board took over planning duties and expanded the idea. Today, the Rainforest World Music Festival boasts an attendance of 30,000 people over the course of its 3 days and is one of the biggest and longest-running festivals in the region.

Nestled against the base of the legendary Mount Santubong, the Sarawak Cultural Village is as much reason for a person to go as the musical performances themselves. It is now a ‘living museum’ with volunteers from every ethnical group in Sarawak putting on performances at the site.

“It’s hard to believe that the initial turnout was barely 200 people. But it was exciting and very experimental,” quips Deepak Gill a blogger who has been there since the start. Like many others, Deepak has fond memories of the first instalment of the festival and has not missed a single one after.

Over the years, many spellbinding local and international acts have graced the stages. They include M. Nasir, Ramli Sarip, Joey Ayala – a hippie folkster from the Philippines, Mongolian-Russian throat-singing trance group Huun-Huur-Tu and Malines Issa Bagayogo aka Issa Techno. There was even an exiled African tribe ensemble that came from India called Sidi Goma.

However, ask anyone today about the Rainforest Festival and they’ll probably tell you that it’s getting a bit over-commercialised. “Back in the day when it first started, there was no security. I remembered halfway through the performance, a guy leaped up onstage and started acting like he was conducting the band. Later we found out that the guy was actually part of the security team! Yeah, tuak was easier to get back then as well,” reminisces Deepak. “It might have been the novelty of it – there were plastic chairs in front of the stage – but it was real. No huge corporate sponsors. Just you, the music and the forest. What else could you ask for?” BL

#5 J Lo Rocks The World

By the turn of the millennium, the local band scene was thriving with new acts ready to take on the world. Corporations started taking notes and eventually began aligning their brands with this movement in a bid to capture the ever fickle youth market.

With the success of his self-financed Days Without Dawn debut, local solo singer-songwriter Jason Lo put his natural business skills to good use and organised Rock The World – a massive free concert in the car park of 1 Utama shopping mall.

Sponsored by Panasonic, the concert saw more than 15,000 people rocking away to the tunes of local bands such as Lyme, Butterfingers, Juliet The Orange and John’s Mistress. On the concert day itself, bad weather conditions held back show for a couple of hours.

“I thought it was all over. When the rain subsided it was about 5pm, the venue was still empty. Then we heard that McDonalds had run out of food because there were thousands of people waiting out the rain inside 1 Utama. Then they came. 15,000 people easily,” recalls J Lo.

The show went on without much hassle after that and the new generation of concert goers displayed their own flair in supporting the bands - beach balls and toilet rolls flew overhead as screams of excitement came from every direction.

As for the performers, the highlight of the day was now-defunct nu metal band Lyme. In the middle of one of their songs, vocalist Xavier broke into a rant about death: “…there’s something not you, not me, not even f*cking Panasonic can escape from… And that’s DEATH!!!” The band ended their explosive set with Xavier stage diving across the barricade into the audience with microphone in hand.

In conclusion, Jason remarks, “It was a massive concert and marked the beginning of an annual music festival which celebrates all kinds of rock music from local musicians. Over the years, Rock The World has grown, evolved, moved into stadiums, seen the best bands in Malaysia come and go and witnessed the best crowd surfing. Every year it’s slightly different. Every year inspires new bands to be born, old bands to revamp themselves and dare we say it, inspires more similar events to happen?”

So who’s going to be playing at Rock The World 9 this year, you may ask? Jason answers simply by saying, “You are.” BL

#6 WOW on the Radio

Radio stations were about talking back in the days. It was WOWfm who gave the listeners something out of the ordinary. It started as a part of Encorp Group and as a sister company to ntv7. In the beginning it was part of Synchrosound Studios which was based in PJ, but later the station moved to the ntv7 building in Shah Alam. It brought it to another level especially its relaunched after a year in 2001 when iconic DJ Yasmin Yusuff took charge.

It started with DJs from theatrical and artistic backgrounds such as Huzir Sulaiman and Nell Ng. There was also George, which Yasmin referred to as “a character who walked a pretty thin tightrope and pushed the envelope as far as he could with the rules of Malaysian broadcasting.” George was definitely refreshing to the radio scene and probably likened to the controversial, yet funny Patrick Teoh. It was never revealed, but it was actually Jason Lo. Then when Yasmin joined the team, she brought in Malaysia’s original dance radio DJ Angie Ng, alternative rock DJs Kevin B and Manvir from AMP’s defunct rock station. By the time the powers decided to bring in a Chinese station, the DJs had built a pretty solid following.

Sadly the station had very little if no revenue for its first year and a revamp was a commercial necessary. It’s been the case with radio station since with the only recent exception being capital FM(98.9), yasmin says, “it was a real heartache for all of us and the end. So much hard work all gone down the drain. I felt so bad for the DJs.” It has not stopped from being one of the leading radio stations that rocked our stereos. “ I still meet people today who were our listeners and they loved our music, they loved our DJs, and that makes me very happy and proud,” Yasmin expressed her feelings as a person running WOWfm then continues, “Ultimately a station is nothing without its listeners. It was also our very eclectic music selection which I believe people liked, we always tried to be the first.” WOWfm did that. KY

#7 Tone Def

In terms of integrity, no other music publication has come as close to ‘telling it as it is’ than the now-defunct TONE Magazine. Working on the basis that its readers deserve a quality music magazine along the lines of Q, TONE believed that it could cover anything from rock to pop to hip hop, just so long as it was intelligently pitched.

TONE started off as a free magazine for Tower Records but soon outgrew its limitations and became a retail publication in July 2000 with Roger Sanchez on its first cover. The magazine not only covered great music but films and urban lifestyles as well. Its staff was made from thinkers who were highly opinionated and defended the idea of free speech.

Among the bright young writers was Adly Syairi Ramly, who now works with Xfresh. Adly brought a backlog of experience to TONE as an underground aficionado and was instrumental in persuading and convincing TONE’s publisher/editor Sheryll Stothard to give local bands more pages and credit where due. JUICE Editor Muna Noor and JUICE contributer Matt Armitage were also Tone founders.

TONE has never shied away from controversial issues. One of the more distasteful moments in the local publishing industry was when Ning Baizura was attacked by the Malay media for her ‘honest and candid’ interview with FHM. Even though TONE was relatively new at this time, it came to the forefront of the ideological battle and defended Ning’s stance while criticising her detractors as well as the spinelessness of FHM.

“Granted, rock and roll and politics goes hand in hand. Add in a former vice-president of an opposition party as the editor and a bunch of forward thinking, critical young Malaysians as the team and you’ve got a recipe for stirring sh*t, just ask Harian Metro,” relates Adly.

Another contributing factor to TONE’s edge was it willingness to fuse local content with foreign which was mostly avoided by other local entertainment magazines at the time. “It’s the only sensible thing to do. After all if you’d been reader, you’d know that TONE was the only local music magazine that didn’t discriminate between local or foreign acts. We treat our subjects the same,” explains Adly before cheekily admitting, “Okay, I’m lying. We gave our local acts more face.”

TONE also had several successful ground events that feature live performances from bands of the day like Naked Breed, Projekt AK, Teh Tarik Crew, Flop Poppy, OAG, Prana, Lyme, Gerhana Skacinta, Koffin Kanser, Butterfingers, Herb Vendors, Spacebar, Padi and even Camelia.

When JUICE asked Adly what he considered TONE’s greatest achievement to be, he replied: “Remember The Velvet Underground? The cliché is that not many people bought their albums during their existence but everyone who did started a band. TONE was in The Velvet Underground’s shoes to an extent.”

The esteemed publication eventually shut down in January 2003 due to lack of funding. “After trying our best to defy the odds, we had to come to terms that not enough Malaysians were reading and not many people with money believed in great content,” confesses Adly. And as a fitting end to the magazine’s 3-year run of uncensored rebel rousing, the last issue had none other than Eminem on its cover. The staff at Tone has since moved on boat in different medias. BL

#8 Chinese Indie Roars

Unknown to the masses, the Chinese indie community had been brewing a silent storm of their own ever since Penang-based label Hwang Huo came into conception in the late 90s.

Today with bands like Nao, Deng Deng and Citizens of Ice Cream, it’s hard to deny their looming presence in the local music scene. Indeed isolation from their counterparts in the Malay/English underground scene and mainstream has helped them crave out their own distinct personality.

But just as mainland China’s closed-door policy began to pry itself open in light of globalisation, this “sound of the local Chinese scene” was finally exposed to the masses at the Street Roar Independent Music Festivals starting in 2003. The events were widely hailed as the Chinese scene’s answer to Rock The World with free entrance and thousands of attendees.

Organised by the one-man show Soundscape Records, the first installment of Street Roar was held on the eve of Independence Day at Petaling Street and featured a mix of Chinese and non-Chinese scene bands like Nao, Love Me Butch and Damn Dirty Apes. A year later, its follow-up took place at Berjaya Times Square with bands such as Furniture, Citizens of Ice Cream and Sgt Weiner’s Arms.

After a 2-year hiatus, Street Roar 3 returned with its biggest line up ever featuring foreign bands like The Subs (China), False Alarm (HK), Kazumasa Hashimoto (Japan) and The Observatory (Singapore) among others. Held at KLPAC, the festival also gave stage to a young post-hardcore outfit called Deng Deng whose vivacious set was both applauded and revered.

“The most important thing about Street Roar was that it gave a platform for all these bands while maintaining a fierce Asian presence (none of the foreign bands were from the Western divide). It also united the local Chinese scene with its Malay/English counterparts,” says Mak, the founder of Soundscape Records.

Although Street Roar 3 was said to be the final installment, JUICE has gotten word from Soundscape that this year might see the return of the series. And following the tailcoats of Nao and Citizens of Ice Cream, who will be gracing the stages at the Terminals Music Festival at Taiwan soon, many are wondering who will be the next rising underground star of the hardy homegrown Chinese scene. BL

#9 The Goat Gate Scandal

Around 10:30pm on 31 December 2005, famous underground gig venue Paul’s Place was raided by the Brickfields Police after receiving an anonymous tip-off that kids there were participating in Satanic rituals which included the drinking of goat’s blood and drug-taking. The fiasco quickly turned into a media circus with unethical reports done by several Malay tabloids.

Kids attending hardcore punk gig This Year’s Final Threat, featuring foreign bands Crystal Lake (Japan) and Force Vomit (Singapore) among other local acts, fell victim to the unlawful raid. 380 gig goers were arrested under the suspicion that they were followers of Black Metal – a subgenre of metal that fuses satanic imagery with its music.

The pure logistics of the raid itself was questionable. Paul’s Place could barely hold up to 150 patrons at a time. Most of the kids picked up during the raid were actually sitting at mamak stalls within a 100 metres radius from the venue. They were arrested for merely wearing black t-shirts.

At the Brickfields Police Station, reporters from several dailies fired questions at a group of kids selected by the police to “represent” the deviants. The police then proceeded to tear a black banner which was confiscated from the gig while proclaiming to have “destroyed the threat of Black Metal”. However, the banner was really just promoting Suicidal Clothing – a DIY t-shirt brand.

Most of the detained kids were released later that night around 5am after urine tests for drug use came out negative. The next day, several dailies reported on the incident.

Infuriated by this travesty, members of the underground and indie music community lashed back by organising their own press conference. It was the first time scenesters from each segment came together in a united cause with activists and human rights lawyers. After much publicity of the case, the reason for the raid was shifted by the police from Black Metal to unlawful gathering to public indecency and back to Black Metal.

Finally, after several weeks, the police department decided to cover up their Black Metal mistake by charging Paul’s Place on 4 counts: operating a pub without a license, selling liquor without a license, not having customs/import permits for the liquor and displaying the Paul’s Place signboard without getting a DBKL permit. In addition to that, some kids at the gig were charged under the printing presses act for distributing printed zines and t-shirts without the appropriate permits.

Owner Paul Millot quickly defended his stance. Paul’s Place was never a pub to start off with. It is a jamming studio and the gig that night was a private function. Most of the bands that were performing that night had jammed regularly at his place. And liquor (that is whisky, vodka, rum, etc) was never sold at Paul’s Place. There was also no signboard at Paul’s Place.

During the trial process that followed, the magistrate in charge questioned the police why they attended to this matter when it was clearly under DBKL jurisdiction. After several court appearances, it was determined that the police had no right to raid Paul’s Place. The magistrate ordered the police to return all of Paul’s confiscated equipment.

It was a success for Paul’s Place and the rest of the indie community. The news of this victory, however, was buried in the middle of the newspapers it appeared in, as opposed to the front page coverage received when the raid first took place. Ain’t no goats here, Mr Policeman. BL

#10 Murder The Govern-man

It was supposed to be part of the entertainment at the opposition-led protest rally against the ruling government’s fuel-hike, but it quickly turned into a protest against one band.

Carburetor Dung is known in most circles as one of the pioneers and champions of the local underground punk scene. With its fierce DIY ethics, godfather of Malaysian punk Joe Kidd and his band were very aptly scheduled to perform in front of thousands of Pakatan Rakyat supporters at the rally at Stadium Kelana Jaya in July last year.

Somewhere during their set, vocalist Alak flashed his boxers to the crowd as part of the routine for their song ‘Mari Nyanyi Menjilat’ – a rant about selling out. The crowd was clearly aggravated beforehand no thanks to the band’s hardcore music and crass lyrics that most of them didn’t understand.

A section of the crowd, who were mainly made up from PAS members, hurled mineral bottles and stones at the band forcing them to stop the show. Alak was then assaulted as he descended from the stage. PKR Youth members whisked the singer out of the stadium but they were stopped outside the gate by an angry mob. They then brought the singer back into the stadium where he sought refuge underneath the stage.

Later, Alak and his bandmates secretly exited the venue, one by one. Alak sustained several bruises to his head. Activist, independent film maker and friend of the band Hishamuddin Rais, who was in charge of the entertainment that day, made an emotional apology to the crowd saying that he did not understand the audience’s unruly behavior towards his anak buah.

Some reports also got the title of the song wrong and called it ‘Liwat’ instead of ‘Jilat’. Presumably, if they got it wrong, the crowd might have made the same mistake and probably thought that Carburetor Dung was raising the Anwar issue.

Whatever the case, Carburetor Dung is unapologetic and has always been non-partisan. It would seem despite their own leanings when it comes to music most Malaysians are set in their preconceptions. Which beckons a bigger question: Are Malaysians ready for total freedom of expression? BL