After the Timbaland and Missy Elliot-aided r’n’b boom of late ‘90s and early ‘00s ended, there doesn’t seem to be a spiritual successor to Aaliyah and Tweet. The irony in that is later on towards the end of the noughties and the beginning of the new decade, Tweet’s ‘Oops (Oh My)’ became remix du jour among bedroom producers hip enough to be featured on Pitchfork. The sound of old Timbo and new-fangled electronica birthed from today’s generation of bedroom producers seem ripe for marriage, and lo and behold, it didn’t take long for a new wave of r’n’b acts to emerge. But the question remains, where’s the successor to the girls of that era?

That’s where Tinashe comes in. While the likes of Ciara and Cassie almost had it, they were weight down by the directions of others, lacking in Tinashe’s seamlessly singlehanded artistic vision. There’s a sense of creative explosion in her debut as a solo act – In Case We Die. After 4 years of being in an unsuccessful girl group The Stunners (whose most accomplished achievement was opening for Bieber), it made sense that the free rein given to her resulted in an album that sounded artistically unrestraint.

There’s that dreaded alternative r’n’b connection to her sound, but she is as much influenced by that as she is by the sounds of glitch hop, indie pop, post witch house drums, and the music of bedroom producers the likes of Clams Casino. And just like them, Tinashe recorded and engineered the entirety of her oeuvre in her bedroom (don’t call it #bedroompop). Unlike them though, she has the looks of a pop star. Even beyond that, Tinashe doesn’t do the static singing associated with alternative r’n’b. Indebted to her failed pop star roots, she still does choreographed dance routines, aiding to our notion that she is the spiritual successor to Aaliyah.

Much like her male contemporaries (The Weeknd, Frank Ocean), she extricated herself from pop obscurity through the power of social media – YouTube, Tumblr, and Twitter. Like them, her free release In Case We Die garnered her a record deal with RCA Records. Despite that, Tinashe’s next release was another free mixtape, Reverie, which strengthen her bedroom producer connection with the involvement of XXYYXX in one of the songs. The record furthered its predecessor’s spacey atmosphere and darker mood, to the point that one critic got to claiming first single ‘Stargazing’ as reminiscent of The xx.

It remains to be seen whether her debut physical album would be met with record label meddling or they’d trust her enough to let her do what she sees fit, ala Frank Ocean. In the meantime, quality r’n’b and pop still exist on the internet.

Download Tinashe’s free releases at tinashenow.com.

Heineken Green Room
Date Saturday 15 June 2013
Time 9pm
Venue KL Live, Life Centre
Ticket RM88 (Presale) / RM108 (Door)

Past Green Room events have proven that Heineken is possibly the only beer brand here that gets it – they are cognisant of pop culture the youths are into. And yes, that means going beyond just the increasingly tired EDM phenomenon. With a résumé of lineup that traverses the genre spectrum, Green Room has bagged the likes of Gossip, Arts Vs. Science, The Rapture, 2manydjs, Filthy Dukes and more, going anywhere from indie, electronica, rock, electropop to a combination thereon.

This year’s iteration continues that tradition. Heineken is bringing Brooklyn’s indie pop outfit, The Drums, and the UK’s irreverent electronic demigod, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED) – on point combination reflective of this generation’s zeitgeist where indie and electronic often time overlap. Joining them are our local equivalents; old timers Twilight Actiongirls, current it-collective of alternative club nights, Deer Society, and indie electropop savant, Darren Ashley.

Celebrating their 10th year of providing KLites with indie anthems even before Pitchfork approved ‘em, Twilight Actiongirls’ involvement with Green Room is expanded to playing pop culture curators. DJ Bunga, ChaseyLain, Ribut 10:59, and DJ Xu. Collaborating with Callen Tham aka themancalleduncle, the TAG boys will be curating the art installations and content that have become a signature of the event. They are remaining mum on what those might be, but if the previous Green Room events are anything to go by, expect a multi-sensory experience beyond just your audio senses.

Heineken has also partnered up with Spotify in anticipation of Green Room. They’ve roped in the entirety of Malaysia’s scenesters (including JUICE) for a playlist that echoes the ethos of the event; danceable tunes that aren’t necessarily of the EDM persuasion. Look for it by clicking here.

It’s easy to choose the safe route by sticking with what’s already proven and following a template set by others. We’re glad that at least one alcoholic beverage is willing to take the risk and actually do something that speaks to the Pitchfork generation. Heineken, you’re an alpha hipster. 

Presale tickets are available at all Rock Corner outlets (till 14 June) as well as on www.myticket.my (till 7 June). To be part of Heineken’s exciting calendar of events, stay tuned to their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Heineken) or Twitter (www.twitter.com/Heineken_MY).

In a scene where one of its most famous acts claimed that albums aren’t really important anymore, it doesn’t surprise us that mainstream dance records have a tendency to sound haphazard. They just don’t care about the craft – it’s all about the big singles. But that’s big picture dance music, you’d only need to look beyond the raves to find more substance in the frankly vacuous scene. Oddball Hamburg-based DJ Koze is the sort of veteran who is perplexed by the EDM explosion (“… it’s a big grotesque,” he says in reference to commercial festivals), which makes him exactly the kind of DJ-producer who would release a transcendental dance record.

Amygdala is his first release in 9 years, and he intends to make it matter – Koze had ambitiously made the claim that it was going to be his Sgt. Pepper moment before. While his statement was hyperbolic (an artiste’s ambition can be an annoying thing), we rather have that than a DJ who claims albums don’t matter. And what a release this is, even if it doesn’t reach Sgt. Pepper’s level of transcendence (it doesn’t), it’s still a great album. Amygdala rethinks techno as a psychedelic journey filled with jarring tunes only to later segue to more relaxing melodies, all anchored in emotional aural storytelling. Just as the bizarre cover suggests, it’s a bizarre ride of a techno album.

Koze has always been exploratory though. Before he got to this point of his career, he was a hip hop DJ in Fischmob and then a part of electro trio International Pony. As a solo act, his remixes have garnered him praises, and it was within this framework that he grounded himself to techno and house. Eclecticism had been part of his modus operandi and it shows on Amygdala, which makes techno accessible to those who normally wouldn’t give two sh!ts about it. As one clichéd music critic praise would go; it’s that one album you would pass to someone who would normally hate the genre.

Most of the time eschewing techno’s electronic precision and replacing it with organic instrumentation, the album introduces soft, dreamy organs (listen to ‘Royal Asscher Cut’) and lush vocal features from numerous guest artistes. Those familiar with Koze would find the latter especially startling, considering he is notoriously known for being anti-collaboration. Perhaps in finding likeminded people who similarly take electronic music and morph it into something else, he has finally found a reason to make guest features not only work, but gel perfectly with the rest of the album. Koze is an electronic auteur, he doesn’t just get Caribou’s Dan Snaith for the novelty of it – Dan doesn’t even begin singing till halfway through ‘Track ID Anyone’ – he invites him because he knew he would complete the overall plot of his craft.

In fact, the best songs off Amygdala are those with vocals. Matthew Dear’s contributions to the record are the most potent, particularly on ‘Magic Boy’. His digitally discordant voice is married to beautiful anodyne bass and soft keys, the texture of traditional dance is given new life in its coupling of organic instrumentation. Most of the album has this consistency, until you get to ‘Marilyn Whirlwind’ where the repetitive nature of techno rears its looping head. Even then, there’s something off about the song, something that’s too random to be the by-product of electronics’ algorithms.

The record is named after the part of our brain that controls anxiety, fear, and depression. Despite that, in crafting Amygdala, Koze has made a techno record that is less about the dread and desolation of grimy, artful techno (think Andy Stott), but one that is a digital tableau of joy, whimsy, and humour.

LISTEN TO: ‘Magical Boy’
IF YOU LIKE THIS YOU’LL DIG: Apparat
RATING: 4

TRACKLIST
1. Track ID Anyone? (feat. Caribou)
2. Nices Wölkchen (feat. Apparat)
3. Royal Asscher Cut
4. Magical Boy (feat. Matthew Dear)
5. Das Wort (feat. Dirk Von Lowtzow)
6. Homesick (feat. Ada)
7. La Duquesa
8. Marilyn Whirlwind
9. My Plans (feat. Matthew Dear)
10. Don’t Lose My Mind
11. Amygdala (feat. Milosh)
12. Ich Schreib’ Dir Ein Buch 2013 (feat. Hildegard Knef)
13. NooOoo (feat. Tomerle & Maiko)

www.pamparecords.com 

It’s only 4 months away from being 2 years old, yet ‘We Are Young’ remains a sing along staple at bars and alternative club nights. fun. (lowercase and punctuation intentional) is far from being a one hit wonder though. Not many knew that Some Nights was actually their sophomore – the band had a promising debut in Aim and Ignite. Even beyond that, their second album consists of authoritative big rock’n’roll choruses with bubble pop tenderness, all anchored in vocalist Nate Ruess’ doubtful, self-effacing lyrics. JUICE put the frontman himself on the hot seat and asked him everything from his hip hop inspiration to the burden of having such a huge hit in a single.

How does it feel performing for Future Music Festival here in Malaysia?
It feels great! We’ve been doing Future Music Festival for… oh jeez, 3 weeks now. Which is so strange, I was looking at a map today and just looking where we’ve been for the last 3 weeks and then comparing it on how far away we’ve been from all of them. We’ve been miles far away from home but it does not feel like we’ve been far away from home. That’s a testament to the fans that had showed up for all these shows.

Nate, you were initially with The Format although it wasn’t until fun. that you achieved more success. What do you think made the difference this time around?
I think that it’s just years of learning the whole thing and as far as there are the 3 of us – not to discredit The Format – but it’s just the dynamic in fun. is that we’ve found in each other at the right time, creatively and as friends.

Prior to Some Nights, you listened to a lot of hip hop which inspired you to the point that you got Jeff Bhasker, who had produced for Kanye West, Jay-Z and Drake. What specifically about hip hop inspired you to craft Some Nights?
I remember that before we go and make an album I like to sit and kind of conceptualise and think stylistically what the album would be and I think that could be inspiring and most of the stuff [I had done] was always about like, “How do I take the music from the past and kind of modernise it a little bit?” There never was a thought like, “Wow, there’s great music now how do I use that as an inspiration?” With hip hop, instrumentally, there’s so much forward movement and it’s just the way that I write songs… because I don’t play instruments, it’s all in my head. It ebbs and flows so much that I think that for this album I really wanted to just have a beat and then just write over the beat, which is essentially how hip hop songs are created. So there was a lot of that [on Some Nights], I’m proud of it. I was just listening to a hip hop album today and I’m thinking about how it could stylistically fit for the next album.

Oh yeah? What was the hip hop album that you just listened to?
I was listening to Pusha T’s Fear of God II.

Dope album. After winning the Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Song of The Year, what’s your next goal?
The Grammy’s were never a goal, maybe it was when I was a little kid it was a goal. I’ve learnt that early on in my old group. I mean, I’ve been signed to a label when I was 19 and I’m 31 now. So, I’ve given up the thought of having a massive hit. For me, it’s all about making the art and being completely focused on the art that you’re making and going out, putting a great show. Fortunately, since 19 I was able to make a living just doing that. So for now suddenly to have songs on the radio, winning the Grammy’s, and things like that, it’s interesting because it changes your perspective a little bit as far as what is in the realm of possibilities. But it doesn’t change the fact that Some Nights was made specifically as a piece of art and never as a collection of singles. So, for me the next goal is to make another album that is just about the art, not about the singles. And if people catch on to it, that’s fantastic and if they don’t, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that as an artiste, we’re happy.

You mentioned that Some Nights is not a collection of singles. Does it bother you that a lot of people seem to associate fun. with just ‘We Are Young’? Does that single feel like a burden now?
No. Because it has opened the door to a lot of people, probably more people than what we could ever possibly imagine. It’s more their loss, in my mind, to not listen to the rest of the album. Especially in the States, ‘Some Nights’ is barely behind it as far as how big of a song it is, and ‘Carry On’ is moving its way up too right now too. That [fear of being a one hit wonder] is like… meh.

Interesting that you know how your other singles are doing. Do you keep your eye on the charts every week?
It’s a weird thing, I would never ever check out charts before and now I find myself… well, I’m a competitive person, all things aside, the only thing I do on the internet is look at basketball and check basketball statistics. So, looking at the charts is kind of the same exact thing (laughs). If it keeps me busy and keeps me away from social media then it’s all good.

GROWTH AND RECESSION
Tyler, the Creator might be too self-reflexive for his own good – on new album Wolf he’s ditched a lot of the shock rap but still addresses criticisms he’d faced one too many times. Take ‘Rusty’ for example, it’s an otherwise incredible Wu-like posse banger. But here he ruined the adrenaline rush that was set by Domo’s OB4CL-channeling verse and his own introspective-braggo rap by talking about his use of the word ‘faggot’ and sexist language yet again. It’s a little annoying, but it’s probably just as annoying to him that he has to endure all the weird protest held against him (“Saying I hate gays even though Frank is on 10 of my songs”).

Ignoring that, Wolf is otherwise an exemplar of a formerly juvenile kid becoming something more, a good number of the tracks are about his awkwardness with girls (the Neptune-worthy ‘IFHY’), the death of his grandmother (‘Lone’), and his love-hate relationship with fans (‘Colossus’). Incredible still is that Tyler is capable of writing about the issue of cocaine in relation to the black struggle with precise deftness, as is on ‘48’ (which has a surprise guest appearance by Nas, Tyler’s favourite rapper).

Like Goblin before it, the record is wholly produced by him, unlike Goblin though, Wolf features acts beyond OFWGKTA. Everyone from the aforementioned Nas to Lætitia Sadier of Stereolab make an appearance. If we were to read anything from this, JUICE would say it’s a reflection of Tyler growing out of his own insular collective.

LISTEN TO: ‘48’
IF YOU LIKE THIS YOU’LL DIG: The entire OFWGKTA family
RATING 3.5

www.oddfuture.com 

Passion runs deep in these denims. In JUICE x My Levi’s® brand 501® interpretation, we hear it from the horse’s mouth as we get down and personal about the brand with 2 interesting individuals from different career fields – Hanif Idris, a lawyer that’s gaining traction as an art collector and a vintage denim enthusiast and Vincent Paul Yong aka VPYP, fashion photographer, vintage denim collector and passionate Levi’s fan.

HANIF IDRIS Lawyer / Art Collector / Levi’s® brand 501® enthusiast

Hi there, tell us about yourself.
I’m an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya.

You are both a denim and an art collector. When did your passion in collecting begin?
I wouldn’t call myself a denim collector, I’m more of a denim enthusiast, even then I’m only interested in vintage Levi’s® brand 501® jeans. To be specific, I only collect vintage 501® jeans, those which were made up until 1978. I got into collecting vintage 501® jeans back in 1993 when I met the son of a vintage denim dealer from Bangkok, in University.

As for art, I’m a very young art collector- I started only 5 years ago.

Acquiring denim and art, how is it similar yet different?
It’s similar in that you must have knowledge and passion and above all, money. You’ve got to find and work with a trusted dealer. I’ve been lucky enough to have met a few vintage denim dealers from Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Japan, Amsterdam and America, in my years of collecting denim.

When I started collecting vintage 501® jeans in 1993, there weren’t a lot of resources, as far as I knew. There wasn’t somewhere I could look up and read up on “How to Collect Denim”. I had to learn through experience and through working with the dealers, collectors, and friends.

Art however, there a lots of books written on art and art collecting. There are curators, art critics, galleries and magazines on art and only recently are there books, writings, magazines and a burst of social media on vintage jeans.

Why denim?
It’s such an ubiquitous item. But if you look closely, you can find these hidden diamonds in the rough.

How many pairs of denims do you have in your collection and do you have a favourite pair?
For my every day use, I have quite a few Japanese raw denims, and I mean every day, the ones which I wear almost every day.

Since 1993 till today, I’ve been buying and selling vintage 501® jeans, always trading up for better vintage 501® jeans.

What I have my in collection now, the Levi’s® brand Vintage 501® jeans- a pair of 1937 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E (buckleback), a pair of 1947 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E, a few pairs of the 1955 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E, a few pairs of the 1966 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E and a few pairs of the 1978 Levi’s® brand 501® small e. I’m still looking for the right pair, for the right price, of 1944 World War 2 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E, something that won’t cost me my arm and leg.

Do you remember the exact moment when you fell in love with denim?
Not the exact moment, but probably sometime in 1990 when my brother bought me my first pair of 501® jeans.

Denim collectors and fans wax lyrical about the Levi’s® brand 501®. Why is that?
Because it is the iconic jeans that is worn by everyone who is anyone.

In your personal opinion, why is the Levi’s® brand 501® jeans loved by politicians, icons and the everyday man alike?
The Levi’s® brand 501® jeans is not a trend, but is a lifestyle.

What draws you to a pair of jeans – in this instance – Levi’s® brand?
Its rich and deep historical background.

Do you have any fond memories with a pair of Levi’s® brand?
Back in 2005, I was bidding online for a pair of 1955 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E from an auction house in Pasadena, California. There were 4 other bidders driving the price up, and I had to stop at USD900.00 and the winning bid was USD1,200.00. 5 years later, I stumbled across the same pair of 1955 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E and nabbed it for USD1,000.00 from a dealer in Bangkok who was clearing out his inventory. Turns out the dealer was the winning bidder of the jeans at the auction and I saved USD200.00.

From a collector’s perspective, how has the local denim scene changed over the last 10 years?
Everyone in Malaysia has always been wearing jeans, especially Levi’s® brand jeans. I’ve never been into the local denim scene but recently I have seen a growth of local independent jeans-maker, such as Ceremony Fine Wear, where they produce good jeans.

I think people are more aware of the jeans that they wear, used to be that they wore jeans, but now it is what jeans they wear.

JUICE has met many passionate denim collectors who share this common obsession with collecting vintage 501®s and we’ve experienced firsthand their process of meticulously rummaging through kedai bundles for that perfect pair. Are you like that? How do you explain this sort of passion to non denim fans?
There’s a certain thrill to sifting and rummaging through kedai bundles for that perfect pair. There’s no promise that you would find that perfect pair, but that anticipation that builds up as you search through the shop and that sheer delight and the glorious feeling of finding that perfect pair is well worth that meticulous rummaging.

Most of the dealers I know from the States find their vintage 501® jeans from thrift shops, the Salvation Army and garage sales, just like here except we call them Kedai Bundle.

However, the days of rummaging kedai bundles are behind me, I rely mostly on my trusted dealers from Bangkok, Singapore and California.

What is the market price in Malaysia for a vintage pair of 501s®?
When you deal in vintage 501® jeans like me, a pair of 1966 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E in mint condition, with a common good size of around 32 or 34, the price can be between RM2000.00 to RM3000.00.

But the price of a pair of vintage 501® jeans depends on the year it was produced, the size and the condition of the jeans.

The most expensive transaction I’ve ever dealt with, in Malaysia, was RM6000.00 for a pair of 1947 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E (still in mint condition).

Does the Levi’s® brand 501® have any personal significance to you?
Levi’s® brand 501® jeans has taken me across seas, to Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Amsterdam, Japan, and who knows where else I will go in search of those perfect pair of vintage 501® jeans.

Do you have a favourite pair of Levi’s®?
My 1937 Levi’s® brand 501® Big E (buckleback).

How would you wear your pair of Levi’s® brand 501®?
Just like how the Levi’s® brand 501® jeans are design to be worn.

Most interviews often focus on how a pair of jeans looks on a person but we’d like to know how you feel in a pair as iconic as the 501®? What kind of emotion does it stir in you?
I wear Levi’s® brand 501® jeans not out of fashion, but out of passion.

Lastly, if you were commissioned to create an art piece with a pair of Levi’s® brand 501®, how would you envision your masterpiece to look like?
Tracey Emin’s Hate and Power Can Be a Terrible Thing, 2004.

Most ‘90s-borne bands don’t last past that decade – it’s hard to extricate yourself from the proverbial ‘90s rut when your sound is so indebted to a specific era. In Stereophonics’ case, it’s britrock. But the band won’t have any of that cliché dictate their career, even if it had been 16 years since their debut Word Gets Around. A quintessentially Brit-sounding band that ascended that label, Kelly’s whiskey-soaked vocals and the band’s early pop meanderings led them to bigger mainstream success in the early noughts. With Graffiti on the Train, Stereophonics seek to escape mainstream competition in the charts and make an album that is anti-record label format – they’re not seeking pop validation anymore. JUICE spoke to founding member and bassist Richard Jones on breaking their 2 year gap in between releases tradition, whether Kelly is an auteur in the studio, and found out about the new album’s movie potential and sequel in the process.

What’s good Rich? What are you up to?
At home at the moment, just doing interviews.

Just to pre-empt you – sorry, we’re planning to take the bulk of your time! Anyway, the latest album had the longest release gap from the previous one, was there a reason why you guys broke the 2-year rule?
I think the main reason was that last year the Olympics happened in the UK, and that kinda took the media focus. It wouldn’t be the best timing for us if we were to release it last year even though we had the album by February [of that year]. So we just waited until the Olympics happened, then focused on the album and worked on it to its full potential. Other than that, we spent 12 months in the studio. It was the first time we had our own studio space, so we were able to take our own time writing, recording, and just creating something that change the perception of the band from the general public’s point of view. We wanted to create different sounding songs and we achieved that with songs like ‘Graffiti on the Train’, ‘Roll the Dice’, and ‘Violins and Tambourines’.

We’re actually quite curious about the whole 2-year gap thing before Graffiti on the Train in the first place… was it a contract obligation to release a record within that time span?
No. Usually we are really quick when we are in the studio recording. Then it would take 16 to 18 months to play the album live around the world. That’s the only reason why we take 2 years in between every release. It’s a good way to keep up the momentum of what we do, y’know. I don’t think it would work well if we took time off, even though we’ve taken the longest space of time between releasing the last album and [Graffiti on the Train], we haven’t really taken any time off from what we do as respective members of Stereophonics, be it playing live or recording in studio. [Taking the time off] is not something we’d like to do – we are working musicians after all. [Music] is what we like to do and that’s what takes our time up.

You mentioned that the band wants to change the perception of band among the general public. What exactly is that ‘perception’ that needs to be changed?
We realised that [in the past] we competed with a lot of pop artistes in the charts and what have you. We didn’t want to do that on this album, we have some songs which if we tried to chop into a 3-minute pop song, they won’t have the same impact and won’t do them justice. That’s mainly what we are trying to do, show people there’s a lot more to the band than what they hear in the charts. That’s why we want to bring out this type of record.

The album seems ambitious – it was inspired by a Paul Haggis screenplay as we understand it. How much of that was retained in the finished product though?
The conception of this album came about when 2 kids were using Kelly’s roof to get on the train tracks behind his house. He confronted them one night, and they said they weren’t breaking into his house, they just wanted to graffiti the trains. So he took that idea and worked a story around it about 3 friends from a small town being not very inspired by the town. Then 1 of them died, turning the others wanting to leave and find more about themselves and the world. That’s the screenplay idea, very briefly. That influenced a lot of the lyrics writing on this album – being situations those friends can get in and the different relationship things going on between them. That’s the idea of the screenplay, which is in development at the moment and hopefully we can get into production in the next coming 2, 3 years.

Bildungsroman, a literary staple. We’re surprised to find out there might be an actual movie based on that in the offing though…
There will definitely be something out there regarding the screenplay.

We read that Kelly would walk into the studio with 40 unfinished ideas at one go. That sounds like a lot of work to filter through. What was the process like?
Because we have our own studio, we can take our time working through those ideas. Kelly brings the ideas in, sometimes just as a melody of a song with a guitar, sometimes he would put different instrumentations there, and we would construct something around those ideas. I think we have about 30 to 36 songs recorded over the 12 months we were recording Graffiti on the Train. Hopefully we’re gonna bring out the volume 2 [of the album] probably about around this time or May or June next year.

That’s another thing we didn’t know, that the album was supposed to be a 2-parter and will have a sequel…
That, there will be (laughs).

Kelly produces and writes. It almost seems like he’s a bit of an auteur. Is that assumption right or do you guys get to contribute more than we thought?
Yes! We do our own thing within the songs, y’know. Like myself, I play the bass, so I create the bass parts, and the drummer – whoever it was at that time (ed’s note: they changed drummers during the course of recording) – would list down what he thinks is the right drum pads and sometimes we’d need to tweak that. Kelly, being a songwriter, he has the full scope of where he can see where a lot of the songs are going to. Therefore he produces a lot of the songs in that way. Another way is by leaving the band to create its own version of song and then he deconstructs them by using certain parts. But yeah, like I said, we all got our jobs within the band and Kelly, being the songwriter, he likes to take a lot of the production role.

AMBITIOUS POP
The 20/20 Experience was recorded in just 20 days, and some have speculated its release was due to contract obligation, nevertheless it’s still JT’s best record since his debut in 2002 (holy sh!t, it’s been that long?!). Jointly produced by frequent collaborator Timbaland, J-Roc, and JT himself, the album sees Timbo at his most inspired again, a relief considering how much he had sucked recently.

JT must be something of a muse to him, but beyond the man himself, The 20/20 Experience is obviously inspired by the recent new wave of r’n’b acts. Frank Ocean had one amorphous song that spans 9 minutes, JT decided he should one-up that by having a whole album consisting of 7 to 8 minute long tracks. It’s pop at its most ambitious, which makes us wonder how well the general public is going to receive it.

While the somewhat Balam Acab-esque beat of ‘Blue Ocean Floor’, super on-the-nose sex as drug opener ‘Pusher Lover Girl’, and lead single ‘Mirrors’ work perfectly, some of the tracks do meander too long that we lost interest by the time they switch up to a more interesting sound. Cut up to 2 separate tracks, songs like ‘Spaceship Coupe’ and ‘Let the Groove Get In’ might work better.

That’s really a minor issue in the end, but what’s unforgivable about the album is that trademark inclusion of Timbo’s own voice. Thankfully the biggest offenders are just bonus tracks (‘Dress On’ and ‘Body Count’) – woulda been an actual 20/20 experience had the album ended on its highest note, ‘Blue Ocean Floor’.

LISTEN TO: ‘Blue Ocean Floor’
IF YOU LIKE THIS YOU’LL DIG: Robin Thicke, the RT to JT
RATING: 3.5

www.justintimberlake.com

Trance soothsayer and cultivator Armin van Buuren has been on a worldwide expedition to bring trance to every nook and cranny of the Earth. It began just as a radio show, but A State of Trance (ASOT) quickly evolved into a worldwide phenomenon in a matter of years – travelling as a moving rave with every centennial edition of the show. Last 15 March ’13 saw the show visiting Malaysian grounds in collaboration with Future Music Festival Asia ’13, little did most non-trance heads know though that it all really started with a grassroot social media campaign by fans. Read on as JUICE speaks to the man himself on his touring MO and EDM trends among other topics.

What’s the modus operandi with your tours?
I make it my mission to promote my music and promote new talent. And also to do new cities every time, so on this tour there are only 3 cities that I think we’ve been before. Out of the 12, there are 8 or 9 new cities. And I want to promote this music to people who are maybe not aware of it. For example, we did a big show at Sao Paulo few weeks ago in Brazil. Trance music is big in Brazil but it is not as big as it could be. So by bringing trance music there, I hope to appeal to a bigger audience, draw people away from the house sound, get them more into the trancy sound. This is the way I like to see it.

What made you decide that you want play in Malaysia?
Why we come to Malaysia right now is because out of nowhere, people started campaigning online, on Twitter. We didn’t do this, we didn’t facilitate to anything. I just mentioned it on my radio show and I saw that there was a lot of following for Asian accounts. And it made me realised the potential, so I went to my manager and asked “Why didn’t we go to Asia yet?” And we all thought we should do something [about it].

We were looking for the right event, and Future Music Festival Asia is a company that we’ve been working with for a long time, we had a good relationship with them. Also I want to stress that it’s not easy to do A State of Trance party, because we have to make sure there’s a satellite connection, we have to make sure there’s good loud sound. We have a lot of demands to do a good show. So we really want to make sure that everything is perfect. So every ASOT is a lot of stress – there’s a team here that’s already been here for a week to set everything up. But I think it’s worth it, because I hope to get a lot of more Malaysian fans!

More than any other genre, EDM has got to be the one that’s heavily trend-based. House had its days, then trance, techno, and dubstep’s popularity is waning while the aforementioned genres are still relevant. What new trends do you foresee in the next few years, or what is coming back?
I think trance will always be there, and I think it’s cool right now that it sort of has this underground vibe and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t think necessarily number one, two and three in the Top 40 should be trance tracks, leave that to the more commercial people. We’re cool by being a little underground. I’m not necessarily here to get a mass commercial crowd, I’m trying to persuade people to like trance. If they’re open for it then the trance family embraces you. To answer your question to where the sound is going – I think sound is always evolving.

If you look at the history of music, any type of music – Bach used to listen to Beethoven, The Beatles used to listen to Bob Dylan – if you listen to the first Beatles album, it’s completely different than the last Beatles’ album. When EDM started it was just house, and then like you’ve said yourself, all the other different sounds coming up.

Within trance right now, it’s not only trance – there’s tech-trance, euphoric trance, uplifting trance, vocal trance, psych trance – there are all these genres.  So I think what would happen is that, there would be more styles evolving from trance. It’s funny to see a lot of house records actually used trance riffs and a lot of dubstep incorporates house sounds. So it is normal for music to develop.  I’m sorry to say this to the idea of a safe haven for trance; there is no safe haven. Because music will always merge and new styles will evolve and this is what would happen continuously.

Are there any non-EDM artist that you listen to, can you share them with us?
I basically love all kinds of styles. I think if you want to be a DJ, if you want to be successful – you got to have an open mind to what people like. Sometimes I hear a track and I go “No way! Is this track a hit, is this big?” Then I listen to it a couple more times because my job as a DJ is to understand what music does to people.  I’m a big fan of ambient music and I’m a big Coldplay fan as well, but I basically like any kind of music. If you look at my CD collection at home, you’ll laugh so hard. Because I’m curious, and I think every DJ should be curious about music in general – classical music, hard rock, EDM, non-EDM, ambience, children’s music, gospel, whatever opens up your world, whatever opens up your mind. Try and be interested, this is how I view life in general, to be open-minded about all kinds of people, to all kinds of religions and beliefs and cultures.

JUICE was in a state of trance at Future Music Festival Asia ’13 Presents ‘A State of Trance 600: The Expedition World Tour’ on 15 March ‘13.

www.arminvanbuuren.com

WordsManifest has been with JUICE for a long time. Intermittently as it was – he left as a writer and rejoined as a photographer-cum-columnist – he had a hand in shaping the magazine during our mid-years and continued to do so until now; this is his last piece of article for us. Issue #132 marks the end of his stint with us. As he had written below, we gave him a lot of sh!t for being homies with Jesus H. Christ back in the day. But we do it out of affection, much like how the high school bullies really just want to be friends with you… except that we were the skinny bespectacled kid and he was the 6 footer giant. We’ll miss you, Wan.

As Alif Omar Mahfix loves to remind all and sundry in his promo posts for my column on Twitter and Facebook, I am JUICE’s resident old man. I guess I am. Most of what I write hearkens back to days gone by, when things were simpler, yet inexplicably more dope, and whatever’s here now is either just a pale facsimile of past glories or a superfluous innovation that isn’t worth my time.

That, despite my general level of crank, is not necessarily always true.

I get that we have a fair amount of heritage to preserve, be it in culture, or architecture, or in the form of our cherished LaserDisc collection. (I’m kidding about the LaserDisc collection. I’ve never owned a LaserDisc in my life.) There are a lot of things I have been sad to see go, never to see again. A Bukit Bintang you could skate through with minimal police harassment, for instance. The Samurai Burger. Kedai game. Also, the old National Art Gallery, now converted into the Colonial Wing of the Majestic Hotel. The KL Bas Mini system (if you could call it a system), cramped seating, blaring dangdut music and terrifyingly high mortality rate notwithstanding. The putu mayam uncle making rounds on his motorcycle. All those things are gone for me, and won’t likely come back any time soon.

There are also things from my past that are still around, and for these things I am generally thankful. Sungei Wang Plaza is still a wretched hive of scum and villainy, and I never want it to be any different. I can still get the unhealthiest plate of nasi kandar ayam madu in not one, but two places along Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, and KL’s best kuey teow kungfu is still just across the street from one of those places. Hasbullah Awang is still commentating on live football telecasts, and he is still sublimely horrible at it. By some amazing happenstance, Taman Tasik Titiwangsa is still a thing that exists, even though any Federal Government worth its alleged kickbacks would have sold it off to YTL for premium real estate valuations, with nary a tear shed.

But even the things I cherished in my youth that are still around must give way to the new things emerging here and now, things whose eventual absence my children (all 1.5 of them, according to socioeconomic statistics) will grow old bitching about: smartphones with screens larger than my face. Fuss-free online shopping. The Pirate Bay’s Android app. One prepaid card to pay for my all my public transportation options. Hilariously casual racism on TV. Female rappers who obviously can’t rap worth a damn but are still famous because hey, it’s a girl who raps! Also, Will Smith’s kids.

Every time I spend a few days in Penang, I’m reminded of how KL used to be 15 years ago. That’s not a diss to Penang. I like KL 15 years ago, and Georgetown is its own city with its own merits. But 15 years ago means Penang is like KL in 1998. 15 years from now, I’m going to miss Penang in 2013, and KL circa 1998 is going to be gone forever. You can’t win. If you hold on too much to the past, you’re just setting yourself up for dark days and long sour drinks by yourself because your old friends are either dead or bored of you. I choose to remember the old days fondly, as I fondle the new phone I want to buy (but can’t yet afford) and check out the latest version of Sense UI. I’m not trying to forget the past by immersing myself in the present; I’m trying to build myself a pleasant set of memories for the future by trying to live now.

Thanks for being all I was surrounded by for so long. There’s nothing else I would rather have be in my rearview, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

Man, I suck at goodbyes.

Peace.

www.about.me/wordsmanifest