Music Review: The Trees and The Wild "The Age, The Age"
I stood for a few minutes with my laptop on my lap after listening to the second album from The Trees and The Wild, Zaman, Zaman. No, not because I was hit hard or fascinated with their latest musical potion, but I was taking the time to understand what I just heard. The Trees and The Wild's second album is a long wait of the Indonesian folk giant, after a stunning debut that leads them to a column in TIME magazine. I think that's a very good reason to start talking about this album.
I may be lucky enough because I am not one who listens to The Trees and The Wild religiously. Even if you want to know, I do not really memorize the songs that poured in Rasuk's debut album. That fact actually helped me in seeing the album Zaman, This time without the glasses of The Trees and The Wild of Rasuk period. I am more free to judge, describe, and also interpret what they want to convey without the burden of comparing.
This album practically only has seven songs only, but the seven songs they serve each of long duration. Ample duration for Joyce Manor to record two albums at once. Their longest song titled "Empathy Tamako", when I saw the duration of the song, I thought they were very brave. The song with a long duration is like two sides of the sword. If executed properly will create a masterpiece, such as Jimmy Eat World's "Goodbye Sky Harbor" or, of course, Sufjan Stevens's "Impossible Soul". What if it fails? Of course you already know how. What caught my attention when Zaman's album, Zaman began to play was the noise noise that became the opening gate, like a gradually flowing welcome. The resulting sounds are like crystals that exchanged an echo in an ice cave with minimum air circulation. Interesting because they are really trying to tap into the new reality, a new age built on TTATW's confidence in combining instruments in one surface.
However, the problem is the merger of the instrument is only able to provide temporary shock effects alone, the rest nothing that really makes me excited or make my hair stand up. For example the song titled "Empathy Tamako", this song has tremendous potential. With the familiar opening lyrics for TTATW listeners. All parts of this song are thought to draw a positive empathy for the compositions they bring, at least until the repetitive part of the vowel reads "The light you crave / lost everything you ask" comes. If I may describe the feeling I experienced when the part began to flow, I would say, "This repetitive part is like a leaf that drifts by the river water. Although I can not find where the location of pleasure. Like just passing by or just like an endless maze. An attempt to create a beauty mess that I unfortunately failed to understand. There is nothing substantial, just the sounds that collide with each other. "
I admit, maybe this song "Empathy Tamako" will sound magnificent when performed live. Maybe it's just my brain is not sophisticated enough to digest it. After the song "Empathy Tamako", it occurred to me that this album might have a story to say when Charita Utamy sang the stanza "All silent wailing and disappearing". Unfortunately the story is still vague for me to catch.
The only thing I can still capture is how one song with each other makes each other's networks bridge. Speaking of the production side, the vocal departments of the Age, the Age tend not to be heard at all or do they deliberately do so to provide a sacred effect? Vowels with decibels as low as this is actually never a problem. To be sure, the decrease in vowel volume does not change the fact that the volume of other instruments actually sounds overlapping, as less cohesive. Even so, I love the bass stuffing on this album. I think Tyo Prasetya sounds very straightforward and dynamic with his bass. Some of the pieces he managed to steal my attention in the middle of the rumble of noise created. After listening intact, I can conclude that Zaman's album, This age is like a hit and miss. Some parts sounded so great, like the TTATW kids did have a big idea on this album, but not a bit too ordinary parts even seem overdone. I personally love the song "Monument" which I think sounds and has the impression is so colossal.
Represents what a monument is literally. Interestingly, after I reread the notes I wrote, I found a relationship that might help me in closing this album. The song "Monument" not only sounded to have a high idea, some parts of this song is also interesting. Likewise with the song "Saija", this song is good enough in playing the role as a cover. Through the song "Saija" also I finally realized that this album is like an incorporation between the traditional music of the archipelago with extraterrestrial sounds. Interesting idea.
The second album The Trees and The Wild, Zaman, Zaman is a very ambitious album. We should praise their courage in exploring something that has nothing to do with what is on their epic debut. Nevertheless, I must underline that some of the parts they are working on sound too exaggerated and thus obscure the goals that can be further explored from this release. But, at least through the Age, our Age comes to know that The Trees and The Wild have a bombastic idea of the music they play.