No
matter what your musical inclination, you’ll find your groove at
this year’s Mosaic Music Festival. By Hidayah
Salamat
You are:
You’re the skinny jean-wearing, album-streaming crème de la crème
of music elitists. You don’t listen to the radio. You get turned on
by unknown bands with weird names. You'll like ...
65daysofstatic
(GIG CANCELLED)
Mar 13, 7:30pm, 10pm, Esplanade Theatre Studio
Sheffield-based post-math-rock (you like the sound of that, don’t
you?) band creates immense electronic soundscapes with their
atmospheric, crunched guitar and contemplative tinkling of the
piano, (See interview, next page). $40 inclusive of
one drink from Sistic and $48 at the door.
Goodnight
Electric
Mar 14, 8pm, 10pm and Mar 15, 7:15pm, 9:15pm, Esplanade Outdoor
Theatre
Armed with a fondness for '80s synthpop, synthesizers and
computers, Goodnight Electric has been rocking stages all over the
country. Free.
Khottal
Mar 16, 7pm, 10pm, Esplanade Outdoor Theatre
Armed with an accordion, glockenspiel, ukelele and other fun
instruments, Malaysian 10-piece outfit Khottal skips among
unpolished pop, indie rock, funk and fey melodies that perk up the
consciousness of their audience. Free.
You are:
You like to dress down in a flannel shirt with unwashed hair.
You’ve painted the wall of your room black and get off on madly
hypnotic melodies, dark lyrics and vampires. You'll like ...
11th Hour — Melody Gardot
Mar 13, 11pm, Esplanade Concert Hall
Melody Gardot has mesmerized audiences all over the world with her
smoky, sotto voice quality. Sink into the plush depths of night
with this songbird as she croons haunting ballads, including an
especially sultry cover of "Over the Rainbow." $40-80
from Sistic.
St.
Vincent
Mar 15, 7:30pm, 9:30pm, Esplanade Recital Studio
St. Vincent is 28-year-old Annie Clark, niece of fingerstyle guitar
virtuoso Tuck Andress, whose deliciously husky voice and dark,
melodious music has won her critical acclaim. Experience her
beguiling charm amid the chamber melodies that exude a film noir
feel.$30 from Sistic.
Dinosaur
Jr.
Mar 16, 8pm, Esplanade Theatre
The '80s gave birth to the legendary Dinosaur Jr., the slacker
revolutionaries of a new crushingly loud sound, or alt-rock, as
defined by today's Nirvana and Pixies. Witness history in the
making as they perform decibel-defying sounds off their latest,
most critically-acclaimed
album, Farm. $40-100 from
Sistic.
You are:
You have big hair (or none at all) and (secretly) know all of Boyz
2 Men’s songs by heart. Everyone you’ve ever dated plays an
instrument; more commonly the sax. You'll like ...
Omniform
Mar 12, 7pm, 10pm, Esplanade Outdoor Theatre
A 10-piece jazz outfit headed by saxophonist Greg Lyons, Omniform
has been treating the jazz-loving crowd to their funky and soulful
tunes since 2007. Free.
The Greg Lyons Quintet
Mar 13, 6:15pm, 9:15pm, The Concourse
Go on a wild musical ride with famed saxophonist Grey Lyons and his
band of merry all-star musicians as they surprise their way through
the All That Jazz set. Free.
Jackson
Twinz
Mar 15, 7pm, Esplanade Outdoor Theatre
Get ready for some soul with the Jackson Twinz, back again with
their powerful vocals. Free.
You are:
You write, think and sometimes even talk in rhyme. Most of your
clothes are twice your size and you refer to your neighborhood or
home as “the ghetto.” You are most likely to live in the east or
west side of Singapore. You'll like ...
D-Coy with the Beatmathics
Mar 14, 9pm, Esplanade Outdoor Theatre
Put together the west coast and east coast sounds of hip hop and
mix them up with a dose of fiery Filipino flavor, and you'll have
yourself D-Coy and the Beatmathics. Cheer these guys on as they
deliver a brand of hip hop that's unique and a lot of
fun. Free.
Mar 19, 11pm. Esplanade Concert Hall
Neu-folk chanteuse Vashti Bunyan shunned the music industry after
her debut album 1970’s Just Another Diamond
Day failed to make impact on the charts. Coming out of
the woodwork 30 years later with the
critically-acclaimed Lookaftering on indie label
Fat Cat Records, Bunyan has gained more musical ground than ever
before, with high-profiled collaborations with other folk faves
like Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsome, Idlewild and even, Massive
Attack.
How does it feel like to make a comeback and be labeled one
of the pioneers of neu-folk music?
Growing up, I spent a great deal of time listening to pop songs
actually, like those clever little pop songs by Buddy Holly. As a
musician, I try to keep to that formula as much as possible—which I
believe I have and still do! I find it amusing that I’m being
labeled as a folk singer because I’ve always considered my music to
be pop! (Laughs).
Why took you so long to make a
comeback?
After Diamond Day didn’t happen for me, I turned my back on music
altogether … and I tried to make myself forget about music as much
as possible and do as little to remind me of it. I had no idea that
people would be interested in my music and didn’t know that this
could actually be happening now; especially after Just
Another Diamond Day got a re-release in
2000! I realized then that I could still write … it has been buried
for so long that I had to get back to it very slowly.
But success has finally found you, with the critical raves
for both albums and the many collaborations that you’ve worked on
since…
I believe that as long as you keep your head in the right places
and keep pursuing what you ought to pursue, it’d be alright. The
collaboration with Massive Attack happened instantaneously
actually. Someone sent me an email to ask me if I wanted to do the
project (performing a tune from the classic Ridley Scott
film Blade Runner with the Heritage Orchestra),
and I said yes! Who knows, if another artiste sends me another
email about working together and it feels right, I’d probably do it
all over again! I’d certainly love to work with Lambchop’s Kurt
Wagner for one.
So what can we expect at your gig for
Mosaic?
I’d be performing all my self-penned songs for sure, and there’d a
band, some guitarists … (laughs). And I’d try to sing a little
louder too, as I heard it’s a big venue!—Terry Ong
$40-60 from Sistic.
The band is known for its fascination with the literary
world. Which author has heavily influenced your
sound?
As a band, we read a lot and have been inspired by a lot of
different authors. Apart from Kurt Vonnegut, the Japanese writer
Haruki Murukami is someone we all relate to, probably due to his
sense of the magical destruction of the world, something that we
have tried to capture in our music.
How has the 65days sound evolved?
Well, we sound less moody. I reckon our latest should be considered
our dance album, and has a more accessible sound compared to our
other albums.
So what kind of a gig can we expect from 65days for Mosaic
2010?
A chaotic, noisy and intense one for sure. When we walk on stage,
we feel lucky that they (audience) have come and feed off their
wild energy. Oh, and we would be playing material from our new
album too.—Patrick Benjamin