Courtesy of Meilina Anggraini

Jakarta-based band Gizpel create hazed-out jangle pop that drips with 80s influences.

In their first official release, an EP titled Short Distance, Jakarta'€™s Gizpel present five melancholy tunes that would not sound out of place as an international release.

Coming out of the same scene that has bred like-minded bands such as Bedchamber and ATSEA (in fact, sharing a few members with those bands), you can'€™t deny Gizpel'€™s hipster influences, which heavily leans toward the sounds coming out of basement parties in cool urban centers such as New York.

The gated reverb and laconic-yet-dreamy vocals are just some of the similarities here, but Gizpel does try to infuse some of their own individualism into the songs. In particular through the way they inject a spacey atmosphere onto the tracks.

The trio consist of vocalist-bassist Fadillah Ananto, guitarist Dimas A. Wibisono and Dika Raka Prayuga handling drum machine and synthesizers, are all still in their early twenties. As such, none of them actually lived through the 80s, thus their sound is more of a personal appropriation of the era'€™s post-punk tendencies than a nostalgia-driven one.

Short Distance introduces a good dose of the kind of drum machine sounds that permeate plenty of recent underground releases; the kind that used to sound intentionally-cheesy wi th their '€œtoy instrument'€ nature, but now seem to be fully embraced as having revolutionary cool.

There are also retro guitars, blanketed in chorus and shimmering out from the mix. The pseudo-goth female vocals that feature on some of these songs now seem to be par for the course.

As such, the songs and their production certainly capture a strong, particular mood that compels a couple of listens or more. However, peel away its aesthetics and the record still has an underlying basis of good melodic sensibility.

'€œWe all met in senior high school,'€ explained band member Fadillah, '€œthough we all came with different musical interests, there was a common thread there'€.

Starting off with the name Leipzig, the trio tried combining the music of Nirvana, Tenderfist and Warpaint with computer-game soundtracks. They embraced the power of the atmosphere-creating reverb effect after realizing how '€œyouthful'€ it sounded, explains Dika.

'€œThere didn'€™t seem to be a lot of bands utilizing that kind of sound in Jakarta, and we wanted to introduce new colors to the pop-rock scene here,'€ says Fadillah.

Short Distance was recorded sporadically, and took a while to finish with Fadillah having to return to his hometown of Surakarta in Central Java town for a few months.

Dika said that his absence was why the record has such a celebratory feel '€” because it was finished as they were reuniting after not meeting for a good while.

Released through rising independent label Kolibri Rekords in August, the album'€™s melancholy nature is completed with lyrics that lend to that celebratory atmosphere.

Taking their influences from local musical heroes such as Cholil Mahmud from Efek Rumah Kaca, Jimi Multhazam from The Upstairs, and political rapper Morgue Vanguard from Bandung, Gizpel lyrical approach is full of semi-poetic analogies and words that put feelings first, rather than literal meaning.

'€œThere are a lot of analogies there in which we'€™d like listeners to come up with their own perception (of what it means)'€, says Dika.

According to the band, they are hoping to tour continuously to promote the album, and that the addition of a second guitar player '€” high school friend Fetrian '€” will further enhance their live performances.

'€œHopefully we'€™ll continue to sound better, and tour around Java,'€ Fadillah said.
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Short Distance can be ordered through kolibrirekords.bandcamp.com

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