Hark! It's that time of the week again; for Underground Hum, your weekly indie music resource focusing on scenes here in Indonesia and the ASEAN region. I am sad to inform you all that this is my last piece of UH, and with a heavy heart I wave goodbye and embrace my indie-geek fellow Paul F. Agusta, who will return next week. Thank you for being good to me, folks! Let's enjoy this one first, before we shake hands and shed our tears.

Main Stage: Contrary to mass opinion, Singapore recently offered me one of the best treats ever as far as the indie music scene goes. Amid the entire surreal techno-capitalistic abstraction, the Lion City roars once in a while to remind us that there's so much more than that tacky Merlion statue and the bling bling on Orchard Road.

And last time I was there during my all around Southeast Asia travels, I was blown away by this brand new progressive synth rock unit called The Psalms.

It must have been fate when I saw this five-piece playing together for the first time with their new singer, Eli. I hadn't seen anything like that here, the last time I experienced that sort of excitement was during a Boredoms' show in Holland. So for me, being there and witnessing The Psalms firsthand, was undeniably momentous.

The Psalms' current lineup is Isyraf (drums), Kye (guitars), Mish (bass), Wan (synth and sampler) and recently recruited Eli (vocals).

They started out as a four-piece back in mid-2006 as a continuation of Violence Caused The Silence, Isyraf's band prior to The Psalms. It then mutated into Audacious Psalms, until they decided that the name sounded funny and was too idiosyncratic for them. Finally they settled on shortening it to The Psalms, without any intention of making reference to the Old Testament.

With the initial urge to form a "modern" grindcore band, they have, since their inception, moved beyond that into a more daring side of the "core".

"We progressed, forgetting the musical direction that we initially thought of," Wan enthused. And, thanks to the addition of the new vocalist, Eli. "Our music has totally changed, with more dynamic, which gives us the chance to explore more in our music," he added.

You might find it hard to deconstruct The Psalms. Even during the gig I attended, people began making comparisons; "Singapore's Melt Banana" or "The Locust with a female singer", which I never encourage, but it's just so instinctive to want to try and stick a label on something, so it is understandable. Still I don't even know where to begin describing them.

They're just out there and enjoying every minute of it. Perhaps, if I follow my instincts, I can say that they're Sun Ra with rock riffs and a jazz improv a la Miles Davis with surprises thrown here and there, plus distorted bass lines akin to Japan's Ruins.

Even though Wan admits that each of them look up to Bjork, Rage Against the Machine, The Prodigy and Isis as influences, my ears tell me that there's so much more in their music than just abrasive texture and odd time signatures.

It's almost dancey, and you want to thrash the dance floor more and more once you see them live. All in all, experiencing The Psalms is like having yourself reminded all the time that music should be like the breaking of a wave, constantly moving forward to the front. It's just a matter of who gets there first.

They are currently in the process of recording the vocal tracks for their upcoming E.P., but due to work and personal life ordeals, no date of release is set in stone yet.

"We are Singaporeans. Working full-time takes up most of our time to make music," Wan commented. But when they do put out the E.P., make sure you are the first to get it, because I can promise you it will be gone pretty quick as people have been waiting for this for a long time.

In the meantime, you can enlighten yourself by listening to their tracks on www.myspace.com/epsalms Be sure to leave them some nice comments.

That's all for this week's Underground Hum. Do come back next week for Reverb.

If you have any questions, suggestions, rants, raves or new cool music to recommend please contact me at undergroundhum@yahoo.com

For all of you indie bands or artists out there, let us know if you have a gig coming up so we can include it in Reverb. Be sure to include the name of the event you're playing, what other acts are billed, time, place, date, and entry fee if any.

Bye for now, my friends!

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