Underground music

 

The Malaysian underground music scene (also known as the Malaysian independent or urban music scene, with the term "urban" introduced only in the late 90s) is an established localized underground culture within Malaysia. This is as opposed to mainstream music, which usually, in the Malaysian context refers to artists with strong ties or are engaged in direct contract with fairly large recording companies, giving them a more commercial and popular image.

Artists and musicians who are involved in the Malaysian underground scene are usually guitar-driven bands with inclination towards rock music, although there are a number of acts with differing musical influences such as Folk, hip-hop, electronica and dance music.

One of the other characteristics of this local scene is that most of the musicians are independent, entirely or partially DIY-driven groups or bands who emphasise on creating, sharing and experiencing music, together and collectively. Materials that they produce, such as albums, demos or EPs will usually be independent works, most of the time funded entirely or to some extend by themselves. Also, small musical performances known as gigs are organized regularly showcasing these bands.

The state of Terengganu was known as the Malaysian capital of punk rock throughout late 1979 and the 1980s, but there were no bands then as the punks were too poor to afford the equipment. The scene then was more a covergence of pioneering punk rockers trading pre-recorded music and fanzines acquired from pen-pals and friends from overseas while dabbling in home-made DIY punk fashion. This early Malaysian punks started in 1978/79. The early punk scene in Terengganu hit its peak in the early 80s before gradually dying out in the mid 90s. A new generation picked it up again in the late-90s with bands, DIY labels and intermittent gigs.

The first rumblings of a bonafide "underground music scene", as in real bands and original recordings. in Malaysia actually started in the city of Kuala Lumpur in the mid-80s with bands such as Punisher, Nemesis, Rator etc. These pioneers paved the way for a huge explosion of bands in the early 90s and it continues today with bands and acts of many different permutations, from political, anarcho punk (Carburetor Dung, Relationsheep, Mass Separation, The Bollocks, FSF, Pusher, The Mindless Show, Injustice System Acceptance etc.), streetpunk/oi! (A.C.A.B., The Official, Roots 'N' Boots, etc.), hardcore (Chronic Mass, Basic Rights, Disaster Funhouse,N.E.T., Reprisal, Noisemonger, Cramp Mind, etc) Metal (Koffin Kanser,Sil-Khannaz) to experimental, avant-garde noise (Amid the Mimic, Maharajah Commission, Ta, Goh Lee Kwang, Eerie etc.) to singer-songwriters (Rafique Rashid, Pete Teo, Meor Aziddin Yusof, Azmyl Yunor, Jerome Kugan etc.) to Chinese indie (Moxuan, Lang Mang, KRMA, Nao etc.) to instrumental post-rock (Furniture, Before The Meltdown Sgt. Weener Arms etc.} to improvised/ eclectic music (The Experimental Musicians and Artists Co-operative Malaysia (EMACM)).

Lately, more than half of the underground gigs are coming from the hardcore scene with established bands (Cassandra, Love Me Butch, Second Combat, etc} leading the pack of uprising bands (H.A.N.D., Creamson, I Quit Antartika, etc.); and also from the burgeoning folk singer-songwriter scene with established performers such as Azmyl Yunor, Reza Salleh, and Mia Palencia playing an average two to three gigs a month, a prolific average by the independent or underground scene standard.