Kubikel Blues - Toughen Up X Bitter Reality (ENG)

August 25, 2020

 
Microphone

About 20 years ago, perhaps all of us were not that aware with those who are called as “Agency Kids” (either 360, ATL, BTL, or Digital). Based on personal experience, this namesake started to sound more familiar in my ears and in daily life about 7-8 years ago. I myself started to actively work in an advertising agency since the end of 2011, and really submerged in that world from 2012 to 2017; before agreeing to a suitor and switched side to the client side until today.

So what’s the correlation between “Agency Kids” with Ciel Duke Sants? Aside from having romantic experiences with one of them, of course, most of creative projects delivered by Ciel Duke came from such agencies.

Adirindra Natasuminta a.k.a Ciel Duke Sants, a rapper from the Flower City of Bandung –as much as I have been listening to and compared with personal preferences– placed his focus on Traditional Hip Hop; as could clearly be heard in several previously released singles. The single titled "Rockstar Broklat" made its way to "Pretext For Bumrush" compilation released by Def Bloc Records; side by side with Joe Million, Don Wilco, Insthinc, and of course Rand Slam.

His plan to produce an LP –which Ciel Duke has been discussed with me in 2018– is finally completed. I could imagine how Ciel Duke tried to finish this LP amidst deadlines of creative projects, chains of incoming messages from dating apps or WhatsApp, or even booty calls which started to be too difficult to resist. Thanks to the pandemic anyone without an exclusive partner –like the both of us– started to indeed endure headaches, losing new ideas to harvest sexual releases.

Creating New Spectrum 

--DISCLAIMER--
All opinions, point of views, are based on myself as a cross-genre music listener; and has no connection whatsoever with any past relationship.

"Setiap lembur terjadi, satu anak kucing mati
Satu revisi mayor, sisanya direnovasi
Semua bisa berubah dalam hitungan pagi
Berburu sesuap nasi di hutan beton
Kurang tidur, kurang kelon, kurang cinta sami mawon
Yang turn on hanya handphone di weekend yang monoton
Ketika senin datang kembali kita menjadi bondon"

"Every time overtime took place, one kitten dies
One major revisions, the rest got renovated
All can change by the count of mornings
Hunting a scoop of rice in concrete forest
Lack of sleep, lack of snuggles, lack of love is the same old
What turned on is only a handphone in a weekend that’s monotone
When Monday arrived, we again turn into tramps."

It was like being struck and slapped with hundreds of feedback/comments in every slide in the strategy deck. That was what I felt while reading the excerpts of lyrics in "Kubikel Blues" above. My head’s contents were taken directly to parts of nights spent at the office for overtime or even in the middle of a shooting process; no less amidst bug fixing even after a deployment. 

Like I posted on my tweet, surprisingly Ciel Duke's beat can PERFECTLY MATCH with Adrian's resonator guitar. To be able to “marry” a resonator guitar’s sound is no easy feat; especially this time it’s an effort to “marry it off” with beats and sounds of Ciel Duke – who initially resided in Traditional Hip Hop. When that happened, a new collaboration spectrum of Hip Hop/Rap X Blues was invented flawlessly without impacting frowns upon us trying to digest them. Everything flow, merges into a new estuary – most probably untouched by Hip Hop/Rap musicians in my closest circles. 


Ciel Duke sees Adrian Adioetomo as a new medium to explore and succeeded to turn the public’s head. Adrian Adioetomo took this opportunity as a fortifying platform that Blues could be honestly be taken anywhere at all – crossing various genres perfectly. 


Toughen Up X Bitter Reality


Everyone who’s struggling in the music industry or even as connoisseurs and then joined the so called sect of #HidupAdalahKonser may have understood that Hip Hop/Rap is about how we could remain toughen up when things are unstable, or even in darker times. While Blues is about how we must be consistent in fighting for life while sparing dancing the one-two in every condition – enjoying the guitar strumming and the stomp box going constant in perpetuity. 


Aside from the definitions of both genres, it was the stories based on real experiences of Agency Kids that I think managed to unify Ciel Duke and Adrian Adioetomo – who then crafted "Kubikel Blues" in an effort to represent all the things felt and probably still raging up to this second within the hearts and minds of creative workers in any advertising agency.


"Berangkat Bekerja, kami orang Kota

Terperangkap dalam perputaran Roda."


"Go to work, we’re City people

Trapped in the turnings of the Wheel."


Long live to all cross-genre collaborations! New spectrums created amidst the Pandemic. Don’t at least we still have a little hope to embrace the end of year full of uncertainties like this?


South Jakarta, 21st August 2020

"Kubikel Blues" - Ciel Duke Sants feat. Adrian Adioetomo


***
You can read the original post in Bahasa Indonesia here.
Translated by @deanbenitez.

Share This Story

Tags: ,

You Might Also Like

0 comments