IF you're looking for easy-listening, saccharine serenades crooned by a soppy troubadour, then veteran singer-songwriter Azmyl Yunor's latest album 'John Bangi Blues' is not the place to be.
Rather than tugging at the heartstrings, his fourth full-length release launched digitally on September 16 this year, delivers a scathing, incendiary social commentary in all its raw goodness.
Set against the backdrop of middle-class Malay suburbia, the 10-track rock and roll critique of the community's tendencies stands as a counter-narrative to the culmination of its mores and cultural sensibilities. Briefly put, there's no room for romance here, but rather a banal reality that bites.
The opening track, "Penghasut Blues", sets the tone for the record. The title and theme direct themselves at the corrupt, arrogant leaders of the recent past. It touches on their unenviable fall from grace, as evident in lyrics to the humbling third verse which reads "Macam tupai, engkau lalai, ingat pandai, sekarang kau cium lantai."
Sonically, the twangy character of Azmyl's traditional butterscotch Fender Telecaster guitar stands out like a beacon. The distortion of the instrument is dialled up to a tipping point where it almost saturates into an inaudible fuzz. And it is this sort of bare-bones, zero-effects, non-verbose sound and style of playing that permeates throughout the rest of the record. The riffage in "Penghasut Blues", and by extent the rest of the album, resides in a plateau where Jack White meets Neil Young.
The second track “Lori Hantu” is an overture to illegal land clearance, and as with the following tune “Orang Kita”, is filled Malay street slang and colloquialisms like “siapa contact lu?” and “apa lu mau?” in the latter.
Meanwhile, “Skodeng Blues” celebrates the voyeuristic quirks of religious moral policing in the country. “Orang selalu tanya aku ‘Do I enjoy my job’?” read the lyrics prior to the punchline: “Everytime tengok orang beromen, kasi handjob.”
The rhythmic and language monotony of the first four tracks is broken with “I Don’t Wanna Buy Anything,” which is perhaps the most enjoyable track in this record. The bass line in this number brings U2’s downtempo single “With or Without You” to mind, but a short contrasting phrase at the tail end of the song could have been anything taken out of the Sex Pistols’ “Kiss This” album.
Perhaps Azmyl, who has been churning out tunes since 1997, is more at home writing English songs, which explains the appeal and more authentic feel of the fifth track. Not that his Bahasa Malaysia tunes were lacklustre, but the artist has conceded that embedding the national language in his compositions can get fiddly at times.
Also, the musicality in “Kapuk”, an ode to the iconic affordable-yet-flimsy acoustic guitar one could purchase at stationery shops, best reflects the spirit of John Bangi Blues. Earlier, Azmyl had told The Vibes that apart from the shots taken at politics, religion, and consumerism, the album pays homage to the average man with a typical name like John and who is from a run-of-the-mill town like Bangi. More tracks along these lines could have made the album even more memorable, if not evergreen.
In the track “It’s Not Easy”, Azmyl again showcases how his English compositions make great folk and rock and roll anthems, and how it comes more natural to him as someone who is deeply influenced by the greats such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash.
If one were to ask Azmyl, “Padah” would have been the standout single of the album, but its sheer resemblance to the following track “Penipu” makes it easily mistaken as an extension of the earlier song.
Nevertheless, where the album lacks certain variations and minor grievances involving production quality (the vocal mixing in particular), it more than makes up for it with flawless and hearty instrumentation from Azmyl, who is backed by adept drummer Ammar Khairi (Vega, The Maharajah Commission) and Kristopher Chong (of Salammusik) on bass.
And true to form, the entire album – co-produced by budding singer-songwriter Ariff Akhir – was recorded in Penvia Studio, which is nestled somewhere in the blue-collar fringes of industrialised Puchong, in a matter of three hours late last year.
Overall, John Bangi Blues is an album we never thought we needed, but seeing how neighbouring Indonesia has an Iwan Fals, and the Philippines has a Freddie Aguilar, Azmyl Yunor has a window to join their ranks, but that is if only the country was ready to embrace his craftiness in decades to come. A solid 4 out of 5 stars here. – The Vibes, November 8, 2020
Listen to 'John Bangi Blues' here:
