Luncai Emas
Rock, 2004

The local rock scene in Malaysia has never been my cup of tea, honestly. When I returned to Malaysia from Singapore, the first thing I heard is about this band, Spider, and how they make wonderful and innovative music. After listening to the catchy Rela Ku Pujuk, I am compelled to purchase this CD.

I am expecting more tracks like Rela Ku Pujuk, an infectious song about a man determined to stalk his lady love until she relents and reciprocates his feelings for her, but instead I get more of the rather typical head-banging Malay rock sounds that I have never truly learned to enjoy in Nazraku. One of the things I find problematic about Malay rock is that the songs tend to have only one single hook and the band will repeat this hook again and again while playing their instruments (guitar and drums, mostly) at the highest volume, as if volume can be passed off as melody.

Nearly all the tracks here qualify as very typical Malay rock tracks. Perhaps they are more innovative than their rivals? I cannot say as I don’t sample enough local rock bands to make a qualified assessment. I can only say that I have heard pretty much the same music from Search, Gersang, Iklim, and Lefthanded – groups that were popular in the 1980s, mind you. It seems as if the loyal rock scene has never progressed much in the last twenty years!

I do like Rela Ku Pujuk, as I’ve said, but I must admit that even that track feels like it has heavily borrowed its influences from Zainal Abidin and the like. Mr Abidin’s beautiful Manis from his fabulous Hijau album could be the father of this song because of how similar the two songs sound at times.

Perhaps I’m just not the target audience for Spider. Ah well, at least I did my part to the local music industry and bought this CD in its original version, I guess.