PLAGUE OF HAPPINESS – Kawan CD
PLAGUE OF HAPPINESS
Kawan CD
(Nyaring Records)
After so many recording attempts for this project; time and time again being ripped-off by studios, dragged around by crap production people, offers by a major label (who threatened them with total boycott if they didn’t sign the contract!) etc., Johor’s main ska-punk proponent PLAGUE OF HAPPINESS finally decided to give their best in a posh studio in Singapore; self-financed, self-dictated!
It took around four long months; scrapping for money during the week days and visiting the studio at weekends. Tonnes of money spent, and it’s not cheap; actually if you would go by normal DIY punk rock standards, the money spent could have been used to record 20 DIY punk rock EPs!
Anyway, the band is finally at ease, they have now in their hands their very own, long-awaited album and here’s the result – a colourful pro-printed CD with 10 songs encased in an equally colourful digipack and a poster; all under their own label Nyaring Records.
So how is it? Well, lets go on the plus points first. The band has always been dishing out singalong-friendly positive lyrics, a bit like what Youth Brigade or 7 Seconds would dish out in their early days; positivity, empowerment, geddup-standup etc.
Musically they have always been playing modern ska, a style which aligned itself to the “3rd Wave” – so it’s an amalgam of the Bosstones to Catch 22 etc. The one thing which would annoy me to no end in the early days was that “metal” sounding rhythm guitars and solos which “plagued” their previous recordings. BUT… that is now no longer a problem. The guitar has gone proper crunchy “rock” ala all of them mid-90s pop-punk bands.
As a whole though, the production is so bloody clean that it’s almost on par with fuckin’ No Doubt! Maybe I’m exaggerating here but I hate it when the “dirt” and “recklessness” of proper snotty punk rock being washed away with antiseptic-like recording. And that explains my preference for trad-ska, late-70s ska revival or skinhead-ska “boss” sound instead of this, or the dirt of Ops Ivy instead of Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
That said, there are some songs which are still jumping wild though. However, I do believe the way to experience Plague proper is to check out the live shows. The guys can go pretty manic and jumping all over the place, so I will be waiting for that instead.
[rating:3.5/5]
AVAILABLE AT THE RICECOOKER SHOP, RM25
[audio:https://thericecookershop.com/mp3_wp_rc/poh_kons.mp3]
Konspirasi by Plague of Happiness
I totally respect the band, P.O.H…Nas (the frontman) and the drummer of Full Pledge Munkees travelled the whole Malaysia, even went to Sabah to give the CDs to kids/DIY-friendly shops for consignment. That’s totally D.I.Y to the bones, man. I think this is the first band from Malaysia doing this. And it’s all done quite ‘selamba redah’ kinda way. For example, they don’t have any contacts in KB when they decided to go there and sell these CDs. And he’s planning to expand his ‘distro’ thingy and bring along stuffs from other labels like Broken Noise, etc. And it’s not even a full-time job. That’s so punk rock!
I hope I have the time and money to do the same for my little label.
berapa harganya joe?nanti nak singgah ricecooker nak beli. 🙂
i bought it lastnite at mcpa. bes!
mcm kemuri pun ade.
@xnizangx
Aku rasa kemuri memang one of their influences.
Ya Joe, clean sounding music kadang-kadang macam hilang taring. Too polised, sama kes macam Hujan. Demo version berkali gamba lagi syok dari pro recording. low fi, raw, rasa macam zaman budak skolah, ponteng ko kurikulum pergi jaming. Bukan tak best, cuma feel dia.
Apa pun tahniah. Plague still the best!
lagu malam memang best…
buat aku tergamam tentang keindahan lyrics dan lagu..
nas nyer suara memang best..
yeah..!!!