Uptown/Downtown with Bassment Syndicate

By Cindy Low  •  18 Dec 2015 in Features

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Attentive, long-time readers of JUICE would recognise our Uptown/ Downtown segment amidst flashes of news in every issue of the magazine. Every month, we’d examined news that occurred and we’d group them into two distinct categories; Uptown for announcements that excited us, or Downtown for pieces of reporting that pissed us off. Since the revamping of the magazine, we’ve kept the segment at bay… until today that is. In resurrecting it, we got jazz fusion band Bassment Syndicate to rate what’s overrated or underrated to them.

Teh Tarik

Hiran Overrated. I like Teh Masala.
Marques I like it. I do enjoy it. It’s good. If it’s nice and hot, it’s underrated. If it’s cold…
Fook Overrated.
H When you first arrive as an expat, it’s like, “Oh wow. this is nice!” But we had it and had it…

Durian

M Overrated!
H Yeah, overrated.
F Underrated.
M It tastes like onions!

“Penang food is the best.”

H I think the hype is justified.
M I’ve never been to Penang, I’m ashamed to say.
F It’s not overrated, it’s not underrated.
H Yeah, it’s justified.
Omar I really enjoy it, so I can’t say that it’s underrated.

The Petronas Twin Towers

Consensus Way overrated.

Drake

F Everything about him is overrated!
M Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! This is a personal shot right now.
All (Laughs)
H Overrated. Definitely overrated.
O I guess so.
M The youth of today! But you can’t say he’s underrated because he’s quite rated, he’s deserving of his status. He works hard, man.

Celebrating Christmas

Razlan Shah (band manager) Oh, it’s heartless to say it’s overrated.
H The way it’s portrayed in the media is severely overrated. But the family aspect is, of course, very important.
M No opinions, it depends.
O I wish I got the presents. My family doesn’t celebrate it, so… maybe overrated, I guess. 

The new Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer

F I haven’t seen it.
M You haven’t seen it?! They gave away the movie… Dude! It killed it for me.

Ben Affleck as Batman

M I think he’s okay.
O I’ll give him a chance.
R Better than George Clooney.
M … and Val Kilmer — that was the worst one.

Read our Detonate piece on the band here. 

Bassment Syndicate will be playing at Raising The Bar Festival on Saturday 9 January ’16. 

www.bassmentsyndicate.com