From the gardens of Rolling Stone café, revamped punk rock act NTRL, previously hailed as Netral, launched their new album 11/12 to an audience they have been targeting for years.

'€œForever Youth'€, the slogan of Epidemic, the official sponsor and dresser of the alt-rock scene, put it nicely. Their stage was the image that interceded the young moshing bodies under NTRL'€™s blasting headline act '€” a set from 8 p.m. onward on Wednesday, including two support acts, Speak up and Rocket Rockers.

The new influx of alternative punk bands first marshaled the dizzying mantles of Indonesia'€™s progressive youth. The epidemic occurring is a newfound irascibility without music, from sound check to headphones to live sets, you see the rebel musicians, from one tattoo to the next, and their skin and sound are finding a synthesis.

NTRL '€” comprising Bagus Dhanar Dhana (vocals and bass), Christopher Bollemeyer (guitar) and Eno Gitara Ryanto (drums) '€” have been playing on the alternative punk rock scene since 1991.

The band'€™s appreciation for The Police is what all the anthems, arpeggios and unique take on alternative punk-rock have spawned from, from their early days of jamming to even now, 24 years on.

'€œOn any given day, we'€™ll jam like The Police, and I'€™ll add distortion, he'€™ll [Bagus] add some lyrics and the ideas can run from there,'€ said Christopher.

With no stalkers as yet watching each breath, the crowd, however, was linked to the outset plans of NTRL after a meek response to their previous album of three years ago, Unity, under Kancut records.

'€œThe idea we had, from this platform [ORCA music label], how it was all going to proceed from our discussions and our jams, was we wanted it to be different, though this change considers the long term, how do we maintain momentum in Indonesia,'€ said Christopher.

According to the much-praised guitarist, the market for albums is still strong in Indonesia, which he linked to the economy.

'€œWe'€™re changing as a country, the industry is changing; to change with it, we'€™re still trying to find the right format in this music industry.'€

'€œIt comes down to belief, just release it, your sound. Whether it'€™s iTunes or vinyl, release it in the formats available,'€ he said.

The band'€™s new single '€œSakit Jiwa'€ (Mental) is a point in their career where a new medley of the anthem chorus, which echoed in so many previous NTRL songs of yore, is tied in by urgency for hard, seriously heavy rock that makes something succinct but complex, in-your-face but lingering afterward.

And the message is a universal one, with Bagus describing the lyrics '€œlike a social sketch depicting the condition of most of the public to date'€.

'€œThere are so many mentally ill people '€” whether visible or not. Either as a result of economic conditions, social and personal problems,'€ he added.

The crowd, mostly males, with some fearless girls willing to be launched and thrown into the pit, was nothing other than vitality diffusing itself.

With hands held and spinning one another into a daze among such oblivion of movement and an aurora of sound, this may be a strong indicator of just what this audience is after: an escape. NTRL, in their newly inspired outlook, are the carriers of this motif.

'€œIt'€™s been three years since our last album; we received no attention from the media and the label'€™s span didn'€™t meet a wider audience,'€ Christopher said.

From this platform, with a packed crowd at the Rolling Stone café, they certainly utilized their temporary office to engage with what seemed to be an audience that will develop with the band and what ensues.
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The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post.

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