Bands to Watch : Fathullistiwa Soundscapes

Bands to Watch | The Party Crasher | July 20, 2010 at 1:54 PM

Fathullistiwa Soundscapes (Fathul) released his first album “Romantikarat” back in 2006, consist of 5 songs including Fakta Nyata and Sirna. This one-man operation band by Fathul, also well known for his art work only made few gig appearance ever since. Later he released another split e.p/compilation with another 6 bands.

Fathul terms his work on Romatikarat as “pop pontianak” (vampire pop), that is grounded in “zaman silam yang akan datang” (the futuristic past). Yes, it’s pretty out of this world, especially if you have been cooped up in nothing but Akademi Fantasia’s world of manufactured pop. Truth be told, the musical influences on Romantikarat are various and to the untrained ear, “clashing”. It’s like a meeting of 80s synth-pop (from Depeche Mode to Yazoo) with post-punk goth (Sisters of Mercy to The Mission) with early 90s indie rock (Curve) and also bits of hip-hop, dance and, of course, the recent Indonesian indie-rock sound that’s taking over the country like the smog coming in from Sumatra!

Whatever you may call it, and it is up to the listener to take it the way he or she wants it, the main feel is still “pop”, not necessarily the radio-friendly, safe, tame and “common” pop, but “pop” in the sense that it’s hugely accessible to whoever who would just open-up to the possibilities of new ideas and adventure. In a way it’s a bittersweet album, some parts dark and sad and some parts fun and sunny but there’s always this exhilarating buoyancy in the delivery. As a singer, Fathul’s voice is deep, inventive, forceful, honest and full of confidence. There’s a sense of clear aim and purpose to the stylings featured, and that’s what making Romantikarat fresh and different. It’ll be hard to find another Romantikarat, that’s for sure !

Fathul also setup a website to get the Romantikarat songs here http://romantikarat.110mb.com/

For more info, visit his official Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/fathullistiwasoundscapes

text by Joe Kidd taken from http://www.reverbnation.com/page_object/page_object_bio/artist_235283

also visit Joe Kidd’s blog at http://ricecooker.kerbau.com/