Shakespeare once wrote,
If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.
On which he lamented if music could cure the obsession of unrequited love. So much that it could take it's place instead. I have no idea how am I going to relate that phrase to what I was meaning to write in the first place - the band Khottal, but I did have them pictured in my mind when I was reading the phrase.
I love writing about music. The sound they omitted, not the collective individuals who made them. Khottal in essence, fits perfectly in that standart of mine (just because I've never, (a) Read a full length interview about them (b) Interviewed them before. So, this basically cancels out the previous sentence.). This is because, when interviewed, personalities are unfold. And personality goes a long way, like how Jules from the movie Pulp Fiction argue why he doesn't consider dog as a filthy animal as to pigs,
I wouldn't go as far to call a dog filthy, but they're definitely dirty. But a dog's got personality and personality goes a long way.
Now now, I'm not comparing Khottal to either dogs nor pigs. But without the so called charisma, they're a mystery (at least to me), which is a good thing (like the Bermuda Triangle, the real indentity of Jack the Ripper and lightsabers.), as long as you play good music - for a band of course. The 'personality-charisma' rule is an exception for Khottal, I believe the band's music speaks for them (atleast now). Just like how Bob Dylan and Pete Doherty did with their music (not if you count answering reporters' question reluctantly and mumblings as a masterful charisma).
As far as charisma goes, one of the band's track; Woo Song is like the Martin Luther King of songs (if you prefer our own, take Mahathir or Anwar. Either one, you choose.). In abundance of indie rock songs popping up these days, most of them are not able to deliver what 'Woo Song' has - clarity, OR, HOW HARD IT ROCKED YOUR FACE OFF!
But I find it hard to ignore the fact that 'Woo Song' sounds a lot like Arcade Fire's 'Wake Up'. Mostly the part where the 'woo' comes along and most of it's music arrangement. While they did state that the Canadian indie rock outfit is one of their influences alongside The Vaselines, Belle & Sebastian, The Velvet Underground and Broken Social Scene, they humbly infer themselves and their fans that there's still a lot of work to do to be calling them Malaysia's Arcade Fire when interviewed by KLUE, "Many people out there compare us to Arcade Fire or Broken Social Scene ... we're still not that good, man!".
Consists of ten members, a rare quality to our local scene, the band thrives on producing baroque-esque persona music much like the band's influences. As of now, they had a single on their resume which came out in September entitled "Woo Song"1.
In a way, relating to the aforementioned Shakespeare quote, maybe they could cure unrequited love.
Either that or this is another failed copy of Arcade Fire. Let's hope for love's sake they're not.
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1. For details on purchasing the single, check out their blog, and Facebook.
