Day 181.
Optic Sevens 3.0: now you can pre-order the new series of 7″ reissues by Optic Nerve. The new series include 7″s by Chin Chin, Girls at Our Best, The Servants, East Village, The Nivens, The Siddeleys, Beat Happening, Camper Van Beethoven, The Desert Wolves, Weeping Messerchmitts, The Clouds and The House of Love. This is not to be missed!
The Catherines: our Hamburg friends have a new CD out! It is a 4 song EP titled “Okay Then…” that jangles a lot! I would love to get a copy of course, especially as the CD version comes with an extra track, so 5 for CD, 4 for the digital EP. And who’s on the front cover photo? Is that Heiko?
Weedipus: Lets head to Barnsley in the UK to check out the “Demo Tape EP” which is actually out on CD! The four songs included, “Honest”, “Broken Boy”, “Places to Go” and “We Both Know”, are amazing! Fuzzy, poppy, dreamy and with great vocals. Definitely a band to keep an eye!
Todavía: I have recommended this Los Angeles band in the past and so it is no surprise I will do it again now that they are releasing a cassette album titled “Orange Faint of Sky” on October 2nd! The album will include 11 tracks and you can preview 4 of them now on Bandcamp!
Pastel Coast: I think it is a great idea to finish this quick review of new indiepop in the world with the video for “Rendezvous”! The song is included in the second album by the French band Pastel Coast. It is summery and feel good, and I believe that’s what we all need now!
—————————————————————–
For May I thought of the band Fantastic June from Indonesia who recorded a song called “May”. Of course!
After making this decision I noticed I had written a short piece about them some time ago, recommending their latest release “Dancing With Flowers” which is available on Bandcamp. This one dates from 2020 and includes 10 songs, “High”, “Maybe”, “Smile”, “Blue”, “Rain”, “The Winner”, “What Do You Want”, “Nothing in this World”, “Merindu Waktu” and “Bad”. As always all these songs were written and performed by Ridwan Yuniardhika, the force behind this project.
He got help from some friends of course like Ganesha Mahendra (electric guitar on “Maybe”), Anzarra Djahran (keyboards on “Maybe”) and Carryna Pratiwi (backing vocals on “The Winner” and “Bad”). Carryna also did the beautiful art that we see on the cover. But what about the song “May” you say?
The Bandung based project started in 2004. It was in early 2005 that the band would release a free CD demo (which songs were on this one? we need to find out!) and those were his first recordings. Later, in 2007, the band would release an EP called “An”. It is on this one that the song “May” was included.
I am looking at the band’s website. Here you can purchase both album and EP. This is great news. Do they ship to the US? I need to find out. What about Europe? The websites that you are taken to to buy the CDs seem to be in Indonesian which is not helpful for me that I don’t know the language. Maybe some Indonesian friends will help.
The “An” EP was released according to the website not in 2005, as the bio says, but in 2007. Maybe there was a previous release in 2005? Maybe CDR? Can’t say. This EP had 6 songs, “May”, “Fool”, “I’ll be There, Alexia”, “Lost Without You”, “Love Ship” and a hidden track.
Looking in Youtube I found some live performances of the band. First one dates from December 31, 2010. Just in time for New Year’s. Here they play live at “New Year’s Honour”, in Yogyakarta, the song “May“. Then a video of Ridwan and friends playing the song “Bad” at a recording studio perhaps? And also “May” at a different studio or rehearsal space.
The band also has a Facebook page. In it I find out that they performed at a festival called Euphormatics in the city of Semarang. I also stumble upon a WordPress blog by Ridwan, in Indonesian though. I notice he is a fan of SS Lazio. Also a Soundcloud for other sort of music he makes under the name of Weggy Johnsy. Not really indiepop, but have a listen.
Lastly it is worth mentioning that the song “May” appeared on the compilation “Series Two Compilation Vol. 7” in 2008. You know I was never a fan of this label, but the band makes good music and I need to cover the whole discography.
I keep googling, trying to find anything else by the band. For example what happened to the project between the EP and the album. It was at least 13 years in between! I see an article on Vice Indonesia from April this year. Here they recommend his album. That must be an important showcase for Fantastic June I guess.
SEA INDIE which I mentioned too in my last post, included them in their first compilation, like 9 years ago. The band contributed a remixed version of “May”, “May (Lucky Misu Lo Fi Remix)”.
And that’s it really. Now the big question for me is, how do I get the records? Has Ridwan been in any indiepop bands? Other pop projects? What happened in that interval between EP and album? What is the future for Fantastic June? Answers are welcome.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Listen
Fantastic June – May
