CLASH FM
written January16th 2006 c. Peter Brown 2006
to
add a comment e-mail: lemang@tm.net.my
Last night
I spent a wonderful two hours listening to Malaysian Radio. What?
I hear you say - Malaysian Radio? One doesn't listen to Malaysian
Radio - you just have it on and it sort of half irritates you, half
soothes you in a sort of miasma of cloudy indifference, until the ads
come on and then you switch over to another station exactly the same as
the first - the same old dreary ballads and pretend rock music -
singers trying to sound sincere and emotionally caught up but failing
miserably, interspersed now and then with a favourite from the
Cranberries or Phil Collins, to grab your attention and keep you
hanging
on.
But no, I
say, last night was
different
oh, so very
different. I was glued to the radio, more specifically one
station
throughout: Red.Fm. I had to keep listening. Because there
were these two journalists from The Star actually behaving like DJs
were supposed to behave, long before this format radio was
invented. They were introducing the bands, introducing the songs
the bands were playing, telling us dear listeners about their history,
their musical development, their scandals and misfortunes, playing not
one endlessly repeated single but SEVERAL tracks off one album,
interviewing another band (Furniture, a LOCAL band) in depth - not
asking stupid questions like what's your favourite Malaysian food, or
whether they like to wear cowboy boots on stage - but serious
stuff about the serious matter which is the creative music. And
the DJs - they talked in normal everyday voices like you'd speak to
your friends over dinner. They didn't sound like manic
salespeople or Donald Duck on amphetamines. They sounded like
people really interested in music and what was more - having the
knowledge to back that interest up.
Yes alright
I'll tell you what this program is called: it's called Clash.fm
and introduced by Daryl Goh and Zack Yusof and it happens from 10 until
12 every Sunday night. Usually when you have two DJs they're
cutting in on each other, having a fight as to who can get to spout the
most words in the
shortest possible time. But these two supported each other in a
very orderly yet natural and relaxed way. But most important was
the music they played. Where else on Malaysian Radio will you
hear bands like Spirokinetic Circus, The Smiths, The La's, Legendary
British punk
bands like the Jam and the Clash (naturally), the Libertines,
Babyshambles and lots of tracks by local acts like Lurks, Furniture and
Caposalaam (hope I've got all that right).
So guys,
Sunday night - that's when you sit
by
your radio set like they used to do when Radio was first invented in
the twenties of the last century.