It should be a lively underground music scene in Indonesia nowadays, well worth a further in-depth investigation soon. We are already accustomed to several excellent dreampop and shoegaze bands that are showing up in the last years, based in the main cities of Jakarta and Bandung and around the Kolibri Rekords and Gerpfast Kolektif labels, groups like Hellens (new stuff on the way soon), Noirless, Gizpel, Heals to name a few, but also from the post-punk camp are emerging some brilliant bands recently like Knurd Hamsun, the very promising Ultraviolence and last but not least Pullo.
The young post-punk four-piece from Medan have just released their self-produced first 4-track EP “The Age of New Life” at the start of August. The foursome play a surprising 80’s inspired raw, solid and mature post-punk to rival many Western counterparts, exemplified on ‘Rye’ (about a boy born in a brothel) and on their first ever song and single ‘Strained’ (inspired, as their name, by the Roman Centurion Titus Pullo) by dark propulsive guitar-driven lines alongside gloomy emotional vocals where the light never gets a look in; on ‘Lonesome’ (about depression and loneliness) if the rhythms slowing down a bit, but not the darkness and the intensity, only the beautiful ‘poppiest’ ‘Another Policy’ (the story of a degraded man) featuring Sarah‘s female vocals apparently brings a glimpse of light into a particularly bleak and cold atmosphere showing some mid-period 4AD influences.
An excellent stepping stone with few weaknesses for a very young talented band that, with more time and experience, will only grow stronger in personality and songwriting skills, if then they also added some industrial linings, as big NIN fans, they would further broaden the scale of black of their sonic palette.
Keep up with Pullo :
