Eklektro Review

20/08/2024

Springtime - Gareth Liddiard, Jim White & Chris Abrahams

20/08/2024

Noise of Human Art (NOHA). Drum n Bass before there was Drum n Bass

13/07/2024

RIP, Michael Cheah. If you hadn’t started BigO magazine with Philip and Stephen Tan and put the spotlight on up-and-coming Singapore bands in the late 80s - early 90s, and helped to organise gigs for them, I wonder if we would ever have the explosion of indie bands that we had back then. I probably also would not have met and made friends with people like Patrick Chng of The Oddfellows, Joe Ng of Corporate Toil and The Padres, Kevin Mathews of The Watchmen, Ben Harrison of The Deadbeats and Electric Penguin, Yee Chang Kang of The Ordinary People, Leslie Low of Twang Bar Kings, Humpback Oak and The Observatory, and several BigO writers and photographers who I consider my friends like Nazir Husain, Gerrie Lim, Martyn See, Gary See, Ct Lim, Sudhir Menon, Cyril Ng and Alex Ortega, amongst others. BigO was a very important and big part of my formative years as a young adult and fledgling professional writer. Michael and his brother Philip impressed upon me the journalistic values of integrity and honesty in writing, and always taking every writing assignment seriously and to seize every good opportunity and to not let it pass. Values that I still carry with me and practise till today. Goodbye and thank you, Michael. May you rest in peace.

12/06/2024

Goodbye, Arthur “Gaps” Hendrickson of The Selecter! You will be sorely missed by 2-Tone fans everywhere!

Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson dies after a short illness, a spokesperson for The Selecter says.

03/06/2024

Heads up, Radiohead and Thom Yorke fans!

As part of his Everything tour, he will be playing songs from across his career.

14/05/2024

RIP, David Sanborn! His work on Springsteen’s Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out along with that of Clarence Clemons and the Brecker Bros., as well as on Bowie’s Young Americans is immortally assured.

“I’m not so interested in what is or isn't jazz,” Sanborn told Downbeat in 2017. "The guardians of the gate can be quite combative, but what are they protecting? Jazz has always absorbed and transformed what's around it. … *Real musicians don't have any time to spend thinking about limited categories."*

Read More: David Sanborn Dies at 78 After Cancer Battle |

Famed saxophonist David Sanborn died on May, 12, 2024, after a battle with cancer. He was 78.

10/05/2024

On May 2, 1980 Joy Division played its last concert. In front of about 300 fans at High Hall, a dining commons at a residence hall of Birmingham University in England, singer Ian Curtis and his band performed 11 songs.

Joy Division would perform its final show to 300 fans at a university in England and live debut a tune that New Order would play hundreds of times.

08/05/2024

Oh, man! Such sh*tty news to wake up to in the morning. RIP, Steve Albini

The musician and producer was known for his work with acts like Nirvana, The Pixies and PJ Harvey.

28/04/2024

I feel the same way about Taylor Swift. Yes, granted, she may be important to a whole lot of people now, but in the grand scheme of things, she is not.

15/04/2024

My god, other countries’ PMs or presidents may be ineffectual but at least they’re not fu***ng boring! What do we get? A PM with all the charisma of bland tofu!

12/04/2024

Echo & The Bunnymen announce their Songs to Learn & Sing 2024 Tour!

Echo & The Bunnymen announce Songs To Learn & Sing Tour 2024 Echo & The Bunnymen have today announced the dates of their Songs To Learn & Echo & The Bunnymen announce Songs To Learn & Sing Tour 2024 Trust us, this tour promises to be nothing short of pure magic.

10/04/2024

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is rather disappointing. Not as much laughs as the original two movies as well as the re-boot, Afterlife. And when the Big Baddy appears, it feels like an anti-climax. 3 Stars out of 5

17/03/2024

The Weddoes doing justice… One of the greatest covers, ever. RIP, Steve Harley

Performed on Top of the Pops 27/09/90.

17/03/2024

Sigh! I fell in love instantly with Steve Harley’s quirky vocals when I first heard “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” on the radio back in the mid-70s! This glam rock gem was nothing like I’d ever heard on radio, before! Been a huge fan, ever since! Rest in power, Steve!

The rock star, whose song Make Me Smile was a number one in 1975, was being treated for cancer.

26/02/2024

Watch VOIR. It’s a fascinating look at the art and science of cinema.

From executive producers David Fincher and David Prior, VOIR is a series of visual essays celebrating Cinema and the personal connection we each have to the ...

18/02/2024

https://www.artists4ceasefire.org

Dear President Biden,We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.We ask that, as President of the United States, you and the US Congress call for an immediate de-escalation and....

17/02/2024

I’ve always thought of the Dave Matthews Band as sh*te, but this just confirms it:

On August 8, 2004, a tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band dumped an estimated 800 pounds (360 kg) of human waste from the bus's blackwater tank through the Kinzie Street Bridge in Chicago onto an open top passenger sightseeing boat sailing in the Chicago River below.

17/02/2024

Not a fan of Paramore but Hayley Williams gets my respect for her stand.

Tennessee Republicans passed a resolution honoring Paramore while objecting to the same honor for Russell.

10/02/2024

RIP, Damo Suzuki

The Japanese musician performed and recorded with the German krautrock band for a short but important period in the early 1970s

05/02/2024

For us Gen X and older, watching this year’s Grammys was like chancing upon a transmission from another planet!

06/01/2024

Totally chuffed that Marc Riley replied to me on Twitter!

24/12/2023

If only this beautiful song was in local radio playlists at this time of year! Enjoy!

A great song that Kate released as a single in November 1980.Lyrics:December will be magic again.Take a husky to the iceWhile Bing Crosby sings White Christm...

23/12/2023

Good ole Shane!

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/shane-macgowan-wake-johnny-depp-b2462004.html.

The Pogues frontman’s final farewell was marked by a celebrity wake at a tiny pub – said to have been funded by the singer as part of his dying wish for mourners to have a drink on him

13/12/2023

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/dublin-museum-pays-tribute-to-the-pogues-and-shane-macgowans-fairytale-of-new-york-with-honorary-exhibition/a1592442608.html

A Dublin museum is paying tribute to The Pogues and the late Shane MacGowan’s Fairytale of New York with an honorary exhibition.

07/12/2023

Shane’s final gift to the world…

📸 Look at this post on Facebook https://www.nme.com/news/music/shane-macgowan-finished-final-album-before-death-collaborator-reveals-3553817?fbclid=IwAR3QHN-r1UWYI6Q1_Wx8ajzCBcuUCxHaALyIYgRZG5HE20jh7l3Hci2smFE_aem_Af5mUXq3YjeuvMjy_xmzzm8vbap5klDy998jBzFiOLRwSUaM3Ze2kXg7sV90eo5QbJE

According to a new report, former Pogues' frontman Shane MacGowan had finished his final solo album before his death.

30/08/2023

It is with great sadness that we report that Singapore blues legend and rock photographer, Jimmy Appudurai-chua, has passed away on 29 August 2023. Apparently he had been hospitalised for heart and kidney issues these past few weeks.

One of the original members of the seminal 1960s Singapore blues band, The Straydogs, Jimmy left Singapore for England in 1972. He tried to find work as a musician in the London music scene but he faced a lot of rejection and struggled to survive. To get a roof over his head and feed himself, he worked at various jobs including as a cleaner, until he was offered a dispatcher’s job in the Tudor photo-processing company in Cricklewood. He introduced the innovation of same-day processing and quickly rose up the ranks to the position of manager of their Wandsworth plant in 1976. Soon after, Jimmy was tasked with spearheading Tudor’s Far East operations.

After Tudor had been bought out in the early 80s, Jimmy and three others started their own mini photo-lab processing business in upmarket Notting Hill, where people from the entertainment industry like Annie Lennox and Michael Kamen were his regular customers. Kamen introduced Jimmy to Eric Clapton and he was offered the opportunity to take professional photographs of Clapton in concert. This opened up a lucrative sideline career for Jimmy as a rock photographer in the UK.

Eventually, poor health forced him to give up his main photo-processing business and he moved to Torpoint, Cornwall, England in the early 2,000s. He was very well-loved and respected in the Cornwall music community. By all accounts, Jimmy was a very generous musician who was known to give away his cherished guitars to musicians down on their luck.

When local singer-songwriter Kevin Mathews and Singapore indie band TypeWriter (featuring Yee Chang Kang and Patrick Chng) toured the UK in May 2013, Jimmy hosted them and arranged for them to play gigs in the pub circuit in Torpoint and neighbouring Plymouth.

Patrick Chng shared: “(I) am gutted to hear of the passing of Jimmy Appudurai-chua. He was always a joy to hang out with, a kind and gentle soul with lots of wonderful stories to share. When TypeWriter went to the UK in 2013, he was supportive of our band. Kevin Mathews and I also got the chance to visit his flat in Torpoint and I could see that he was well liked and respected by the community there.”

Jimmy Appudurai-Chua, a beloved, true pioneer of Singapore Rock, would’ve turned 76 on 31 August 2023. May Jimmy rest in peace.

27/08/2023

If you’re looking for a movie that’s absolutely faithful to the original comic book series by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you’ll be sorely disappointed. But if you’re just looking for a really fun and enjoyable summer movie that doesn’t insult your intelligence (while still taking liberties with the canon at the same time), this movie by director Jeff Rowe and a writing team including Seth Rogen, hits all the right beats. Parents be warned that there are at least a couple of death scenes in this movie even though it’s rated PG13. And speaking of beats, the musical soundtrack for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mayhem is absolutely DOPE, with incidental music by Trent Reznor and loads of classic 90’s rap tracks! Ch-ch-ch-check it out!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: The Album · Playlist · 24 songs · 58 likes

02/07/2023

Short review of Disney and Pixar’s Elemental: Animated iteration of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” with a coming-of-age element (no pun intended), great action sequences, lovely background scenery and lots of genuinely moving scenes which make for wonderful family entertainment. Very formulaic but highly recommended. 4 out of 5 stars

This Summer, meet the residents of Element CityWatch the new trailer for Disney and Pixar’s and see the movie in 3D, only in theaters June 16!Chec...

08/04/2023

Surprisingly, the new Super Mario Bros. Movie does not suck. The storytelling is commendable, and there are pretty good verbal and visual gags that even non-fans of the video game will enjoy. The voice casting is spot-on with Jack Black stealing the show as a lovelorn Bowser, the big bad villain of the game.
All around, the entire cast does a good job. At about one and half hours, the movie’s length and pacing is just about right to hold the attention of youngsters and older audience members alike. 3 out of 5 stars

15/06/2022

My review of Danny Boyle’s Pistol, now streaming on Disney+. Spoilers ahead.

It’s not as bad as John Lydon makes it out to be, but Boyle and his writers certainly take a lot of liberties with historical facts.

For instance, Boyle has Sid Vicious directly attacking BBC DJ Bob Harris with a broken bottle at the Speakeasy club. In reality, it was Harris’s colleague, George Nicholson who bore the brunt of Sid’s attack as the former tried to shield Harris from the violence. And it wasn’t even Sid who started the riot.

As for Steve Jones getting it on with Chrissie Hynde, even Jones admits his affair with Hynde was “showbizzed” up for this series.

Apart from the fictionalised and sensationalised plot points, the series is also deficient in its stark omissions of certain significant historical figures who were instrumental in the rise of the S*x Pistols and the British punk movement that revolved around them. The show makes much of out-of-touch radio jocks like Bob Harris denying the Pistols airplay on national radio, but the legendary John Peel who was the first deejay to play and champion the S*x Pistols and other punk bands on British radio, is glaringly denied even a single mention, let alone a dramatic portrayal.

All in all, this is just Boyle’s entertaining exercise in nostalgia. If you really want something that’s more historically accurate , you’re better off watching The Filth & The Fury

https://disneyplus.com/series/pistol/4FicnX2KnT0V?sharesource=iOS I thought you might like "Pistol" on Disney+.

A band of spotty, noisy, working-class kids who changed music and culture forever.