Deepset - The Lights We Shed Shall Burn Your Eyes (KittyWu Records)

Deepset is a band from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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"They are in fact so special that I don't even know where to begin. Shimmering guitars, bombastic drums, pretty washes of distortion: there are a limited number of adjectives and nouns that I can use to describe this sort of music, and one of my major regrets is that I've wasted them on all releases of a lesser caliber. Seniority cedes the Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, and Caspian to other writers, often leaving me to sift through the dregs, and I guess I never thought I'd get a CD of such merit all to myself. So now that I'm faced with the opportunity to critique what I feel to be one of the strongest releases of 2008, I'm beset with a writer's block of the worst sort. I can't think of any way to tackle The Lights We Shed Shall Burn Your Eyes except to filter it through my own subjective lens."

By Andy Kissner
Taken from The Silent Ballet
2008
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For more info, go to: Deepset on Myspace
Available only for RM18 (including postage) or USD12 (including postage)

The Upstairs - Magnet! Magnet! (Magnet Music/demajors)

The Upstairs is a band from Jakarta, Indonesia. They have performed in Malaysia last month.

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"The Upstairs beginnings were DIY in the truest sense. They produced and distributed their first EP, Antahberantah, in 2002 by themselves and simply through word of mouth and audiencde reaction it, sold like hot cakes. Known for their free form style of lyricism, eschewing rhyming, the band members include Kubil Idris (guitar), Beni (drums), Alfi Chaniago (bass & keyboard), Elta (keyboard & synths) and Dian (backing vocals). Looking at how the band came together, its clear that theyre not just a bunch of wannabes, copying big names acts like The Killers or Franz Ferdinand but genuine domestic pioneers with their own ideas. FYI, The Upstairs even had formed long before those two nu-wave international acts were born."

Taken from:
THE BEAT Magazine
[August 2006 edition]
www.beatmag.com
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For more info about this band, you can go to: The Upstairs on Myspace
Available only for RM27 (including postage)