While it’s easy for older music fans (who lived through the actual nineties as teens or adults) to dismiss this trend, it should be noted that pretty much every musical decade has referenced the eras preceding it.

While a good amount of these nineties-aping bands lean too much toward the Buzz Bin sounds of the mid-late nineties MTV-rock — resulting in songs that sound more like Deep Blue Something than Dinosaur Jr., it’s better to be optimistic and appreciate the fact that even the ease of laptop home-recording processes hasn’t completely wiped out bands of actual interaction — slamming down off-key grunge in garages and dingy rehearsal spaces (not that there’s no value in solo bedroom projects).

And as such Skandal — vocalist Yogha “Sidha” Prasiddhamukti, guitar players Rheza Ibrahim and Robertus Febrian Valentino, and drummer Argha Mahendra — is a good indicant of this trend.

A band whose sound — as exemplified on its debut release, the five-track EP Sugar — conjures up all the tendencies of the ‘90s alternative-rockers in all their wool sweaterdonning glory.

Though they formed in 2011, the band has only released two quietly distributed singles since then.

“We started off as a just-for-fun project, in the sense that we approached Skandal seriously but also relaxed — but mostly the relaxed part,” said Sidha jokingly. The band formed after Sidha and Argha decided that they wanted to start a project based on their shared love for “alternative, indie rock, fuzz pop.”

The band’s sluggish momentum was also due to the fact that the members had begun working steady jobs, with Sidha moving to Jakarta to work as a reporter for a few music magazines.

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When they did find time to come together, the band would play haphazardly at indie gigs, both in Yogyakarta and Jakarta, mostly covering songs from US indie legend Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain album. Along the way, the band has suffered personnel changes, though Sidha considers the current band members the best ever. He feeds them mix-tapes of bands he thinks they should listen to, and the band also trades references with each other.

Sugar is catchy debut and a respectable first attempt that pats you on the back instead of slapping you in the face. A shallow way to describe it is as a pop-punkier version of Weezer’s grungier moments. Almost like American rock band Bowling For Soup covering Weezer’s Pinkerton. It could have used a little more dirt to really ramp up its energy, but it is a solid-enough production that straddles a good line between sounding live and studio-driven, while instantaneous refrains make it a record that is exceptionally easy to appreciate.

The bands Sidha mentioned as references, like Swervedriver, Superchunk, Sugar, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads and Indonesian acts like Pure Saturday and early Netral appear here and there.

The title track opens the record with a riff ever-so-slightly reminiscent of bro-metal band Ugly Kid Joe’s hit “Everything About You”, adding to it a jumpy beat and a poppy chorus. “Stuck & Stranded” is a jangly rocker that lurches forward with its slacker-y verse and choruses. Flourishes of power-pop acts like Better Than Ezra or Superdrag seep through, especially through the quasi-blues guitar solo.

Somewhat similarly, “Sidewalk” is another bittersweet rocker whose moodiness brings to mind acts such as Belly and Throwing Musses. Yogha Prasiddhamukti’s nasally American-teen vocal affections add an emo flavor to the whole thing (modern emo, mind you, which will divide listeners into clear lines of fans and haters).

The only Indonesian track here, “Stat Slack Slack”, shows how the band also owes a good deal to local nineties alternative poppers. Primarily written by Robert, the song, laden with Britpop guitar lines and upbeat drumming, is single material in all its light playfulness.

Read also: Album review: ‘Brønshøj’ by Senyawa

“‘Stay Slay Slack’ is based on a poem that I wrote a couple months before Skandal started to record the EP. The song is based on a true event about the first meeting between a boy and a girl in someplace around Jogjakarta through conversations and booze”, explained Robert.

The album cover pays homage to the lo-fidelity-esque scrawls of Pavement and early English rock band The Fall’s records.

“Robert did the all the artwork, hand drawn. We like his style of drawing. I think it fits the band in the sense of it being direct,” explained Sidha, adding that the band was really lucky to have such a talented guitarist and artist at the same time.

“The art is about the ‘mess’ that I ‘captured’ in the lyrics for the song ‘Sugar’. The lyrics say ‘a mess that I love most’. It’s full of ‘wonky’ drawings with a lot of figures and creatures that mostly came from my dreams and subconscious sightings,” Robert said.

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