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Banal but never boring: The Jansen redefine its punk rock sound
The Jansen’s new album “Banal Semakin Binal” is an anthem-filled melodic punk album that speaks about the mundanity of everyday life but is never boring.
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New style: Arguably, the highlight of The Jansen's third album is its 100 percent Indonesian lyrics, a different approach from its first release where the trio created fully English songs. (Courtesy of The Jansen)
(The Jansen/Courtesy of The Jansen)
T
he Jansen’s Banal Semakin Binal is an anthem-filled melodic punk album that speaks about the mundanity of everyday life but is never boring.
Like most young people, Bogor trio The Jansen started playing by emulating the sonic assault of its musical heroes: mid-tempo 70’s punk rock in the vein of The Ramones, The Buzzcocks and The Undertones.
And while the band continues to rely on power chords and melodic sensibilities, its new album—the band’s third—Banal Semakin Binal (roughly translated to “banal but wilder”) sees the band unashamedly delivering more hooks and singalongable choruses that bring to mind local alternative pop legends such as Pure Saturday and Rumah Sakit. The political lyrics of its early material has also been replaced by poetic rants about mundane, everyday life.
In just a few weeks after its release, Banal Semakin Binal has gained a lot of traction, both in streaming plays and critical acclaim from various Indonesian music publications. Initially self-released by the band only on cassettes, the album was picked up by large independent record label and distributor Demajors for CD and digital release after The Jansen got selected as one of the three winners of a Jameson Connects x Demajors program.
While still unmistakably punk rock, the band has taken strides in terms of its sound and production. On the band’s new album, the guitars and vocals were doubled, resulting in a wider, more detailed sound. “It’s definitely better, and more proper than our previous outputs, which is something we wanted. And we had the budget for it, so [we thought we] might as well,” Adji says.
But the band still stuck to doing things its own way, such as recording everything live—minus the layering—to get that raw, imperfect sound.
“From our first EP to this album, we’ve never used a metronome. I don’t know why, but music that doesn’t sound perfect, with the drums being just a tiny bit off sounds better to my ears,” Tata says.
