Showing 1 - 10 of 14
In Plain Language
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 07/06/2020
» "And that's fine/ I'm wasting away," vocalist Ian Devaney announces over nervy guitars on Tournament, the opening track to Nation of Language's debut album, Introduction, Presence. "I took the long road home/ And it never paid off for me."
Death Becomes Us
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 03/11/2019
» Well, what do you know -- Foals have managed to pull it off after all. The English indie-rock mainstay finally follows up their Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1, released back in March, with the second and final instalment. In Part 1, frontman Yannis Philippakis and co got political with tracks like Exits and Sunday while dutifully filling the quota for danceable indie bangers with On The Luna and In Degrees. On the production side, it swung from indie rock and new-wave to funk and disco -- a classic Foals album through and through.
Forever is a long time
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 29/09/2019
» Let's be frank, bands like Metronomy are hard to come by these days. Call us myopic, but we honestly can't think of any up-and-coming groups who would be savvy enough to come up with classic indie jams like A Thing For Me, The Look, The Bay and Everything Goes My Way. A knack for blending eclectic genres seems to come naturally to the UK quartet, a gift that served them especially well from 2008's Nights Out through to 2014's Love Letters.
What's in a name change?
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 15/09/2019
» It's been an intense week for Thailand's deputy agriculture minister, whose dubious past as a drug runner has been revealed in an exposé in The Sydney Morning Herald, written by one Michael Ruffles.
And There's More
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 19/05/2019
» Behind the moniker MorMor stands a Toronto native named Seth Nyquist. The 25-year-old singer-songwriter only started churning out music last year and his name is already on everyone's lips. This is mostly due to the strength of his debut EP Heaven's Only Wishful, a nifty self-produced collection of five songs boasting the lush bedroom pop DNA and the sultry sophistication of R&B and disco. Clocking in just under half-an-hour, the EP managed to showcase Nyquist's knack for seamlessly blending genres and creating the sound and narratives which are entirely his own.
J-pop gone rogue
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 07/04/2019
» Anyone who's been to Japan (or spent a decent amount of time on the internet) would have probably come across T-shirts with puzzling or badly translated English. Perusing CHAI's pastel-hued website gives you a similar experience except that everything actually makes sense -- "We Are New Exciting Onna (female) Band From Japan! NEO KAWAII ! COMPLEX IS ART!," its meta description announces. A click and a quick scroll down also give you an overview on the group's "NEO KAWAII" ethos, which essentially goes against any notions of the classic kawaii ("You don't need to have big eyes or have skinny legs to be KAWAII! There should be many more types of KAWAII, and everyone is KAWAII in her own way … Our insecurities make us who we are. The insecurities become art. KAWAII is a never-ending journey!").
Anthems for the end of the world
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 24/03/2019
» If you happen to recall the indie explosion that came and went during the mid-noughties, you're most likely to recall how UK math-rockers Foals were perched right on the forefront alongside the now-nowhere-to-be-found groups like Kasabian, Hard-Fi and Maxïmo Park. Although not the first band to come up with it, they're largely responsible for spreading the gospel of that intricate, tightly-wound guitar work that's gone on to more or less define the genre. Over time, the Foals' signature hectic romp that was the backbone of their 2008 landmark debut, Antidotes, has transformed into something a little more polished and more mature. Subtle sonic shifts can already be detected on their second LP, Total Life Forever (how much of a revelation is Spanish Sahara?), and even more so on the subsequent records, the unabashedly potent Holy Fire and What Went Down.
Footloose and fancy-free
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 17/03/2019
» Over the past decade, Beirut's Zach Condon has been a go-to guy for what I like to refer to as "speciality indie rock". This is just a fancy way of saying that the music is unlike your typical indie sound. Beirut are masters when it comes to injecting world music elements into their repertoire, which has accumulated into a sizeable discography since their 2006 debut Gulag Orkestar. And although the boys may have faltered somewhat with previous effort No No No, they're back stronger than ever with their latest, Gallipoli.
Who is our Oscars Favourite?
B Magazine, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/02/2019
» The most important of all unimportant things, the Oscars arrive on Monday morning, Thailand time. In a year that seems more muted than usual, Hollywood's biggest jamboree has striven to stay relevant with the inclusion of blockbuster titles such as Black Panther and Bohemian Rhapsody, besides the more edgy and less popular films that have claimed much of the headlines, such as Roma and Green Book. While there are many cinematic awards around the world, the Oscars still seem to matter the most, and the ritual of predicting the winners is at once a frivolous parlour game and an annual survey of the vital signs of mainstream cinema. Don't bet on it, but we offer our takes here.