Ben of Bens Belinga's Quartet is an enigmatic fellow. He is loud like his African-American counterparts yet there is an aura of African mysticism and jazz around him. He is one who does not mince his words as you will see later. We also found out that Belinga is a family name.



Disclaimer: Some parts of the interview may have been lost in the translation from French-Cameroon into English. Special thanks to Michael (Singapore) for playing translator.

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See part 1 here.

Before I proceed, I was privileged to meet Maria who told us she reads our blog regularly. Thank you for your support! It will surely spur us to improve our coverage of local gigs and events.

Alright, here's part two:



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Guess where we step foot into last Friday Thursday?


Stairways to Music Heaven!


Where is this lamp located?


Oh my gosh! Roslan Aziz's bass drum?

That's right! No Black Tie for the Moonshine event.

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Album Review
Title: Dawn Of The Downed
Artist: Poseidon
Launch Date: 12 August 2005



It is simply inevitable - a band, forged through musical friendship and bubbling over with zeal, energy and passion will come up with a snapshot of the present as a time capsule for the future benefit of underground afficionados.

Poseidon's penchant for originality and desire for freshness reverbs throughout "Dawn of The Downed". Not exactly a "commercial" album, but certainly a must-buy.

In a profanity-free album that shouts throughout of experimental finesse, various genres are married to each other through manipulation of modern rock riffs, hints of the classical, quotes of the avant-garde, sprinkles of East-meets-West motifs and borrowed elements of deep improvisation in varying textures.

Such an endeavour merits artistic collaboration with sessionists; though not always successful as we will see.

Set for posterity and quite possibly a landmark first, "Dawn of The Downed" merges successfully the roles of an engaging storyteller and a captivating musician in its unique opera-rock like musical narrative.

It tells a sad, dark tale of one Craig, who rose from humble beginnings and reached the pinnacle of success, only to fall hard from grace, beyond redemption.

Enough of all that bombastic lingo, let's move on to the songs.

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Looks can be truly deceiving. At first glance, Juwita Suwito's debut album "Brand New World" appears to be "another one of those", but upon closer scrutiny (yes, I do read the details in the CD jacket) it was surprising to discover a number of Malaysia's top musicians in the credits!

Featuring several of the best of Malaysia's top artistes i.e. Steve Thornton, Andy Peterson, Jamie Wilson, Lewis Pragasam and Aubrey Suwito, the album does command some attention with good quality music. But vocals-wise, this album really packs a punch thanks to Ms. Suwito.

Just who is Ms. Suwito? I found myself wondering aloud when I first heard one of the songs from her album "HEY! (Making a Change) playing on Malaysian radio a few months back. Well wonder no more.

Ms. Suwito was the vocal coach for the recent Malaysian Idol competition on Malaysia's pay-for satellite TV, Astro. She also lent her voice to sing "Menuju Puncak", the theme song for Astro's reality talent show, Akademi Fantasia last year. She is also a founding director of Oops-Asia the label that Altered Frequency (frontman, Andy Yeoh) comes under.

One realises that Ms. Suwito not only possesses a fine voice but she's quite an adept songwriter too. She wrote 5 of the 10 songs on the over 40 minutes album with her style ranging from R&B to pop-rock. As a testimony to her writing skills, also playing quite regularly on the Malaysian airwaves (xfresh.fm) are her songs "S.M.S." and "Only in the Dark".

"S.M.S" features really catchy lyrics (check this out: You send me an S.M.S. / saying it's an S.O.S) and tune and I found myself occasionally swaying to the R&B-flavoured beat of a this teeny-boppy song. "Only in the Dark" features a sweet melody and is quite inspirational to listen and lift one's spirit up.

The albums features other great songs, each worthy of their own. Overall, the lyrics are inspirational and free from the negativity, depression, sexuality etc. that usual peppers the songs of some of her contemporaries. What a welcomed change from the usual fare!

It is also worthy to note that Ms. Suwito does not fail to give tribute to her Creator through the slow-numbers "You in Me" and "Benediction".

After all has been said and done, it is quite evident that Ms. Suwito has make strong inroads in the local music scene and it would be quite exciting to see where she takes off to a few years from now.

Brand New World is produced by Aubrey Suwito (also the pianist and musical arranger), engineered by Peter Chong at Synchrosound Studios and mastered by Fauzi Marzuki.

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