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White Chorus backpedals to the past for new single
Bandung electropop duo White Chorus explores its dancier side in new single, “This Feeling”, to pave new EP in June.
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Egged on: Early works of 'This Feeling' had parts that Mahendra described as louder but felt forced, which was the duo's reaction to the rising hardcore scene in their hometown. (Raka Syahreza) (Archive/Courtesy of Raka Syahreza)
T
he thought of Bandung lovers-in-arms/ electropop duo White Chorus experimenting with darker overtones for their future works was somehow quite dominant if one was over-analyzing their 2021 studio album FASTFOOD.
Despite it being a rather-voguish album lined with bruised lyrics of stark vulnerability sung over twinkling notes and sample-rich grooves, a few of the tracks gave off a “tranquilized” feeling akin to those of late 1990s trip-hop outfits, which the duo often mentioned as its references in interviews.
Its latest single, “This Feeling”, however, begs to differ as it shows the duo further exploring a dancier musical spectrum instead while steadily maintaining its quintessence.
Intrusive thoughts
“Initially, we wanted ‘This Feeling’ to sound more like [the songs from] Massive Attack’s Mezzanine album,” Clara Friska Adinda, one half of the duo who fills in all the vocal tracks for the band, told The Jakarta Post on Feb. 15. “Wraaang wraang wraang wraaaang,” she tried imitating the claustrophobic rushing sounds found in the 1998 album.
The duo found the early version of the song to be “a bit too dark. Like, ‘whoa’. I mean, it was exciting but it didn’t seem like the kind of ‘colorful’ White Chorus songs”, Adinda mused. The duo looked back to the demo that was made in 2021 (and was then left untouched ever since), which Adinda described as “joyful electronic songs”.
“We wanted [‘This Feeling’] to be loud,” added Emir Agung Mahendra, White Chorus’ other, equally significant half. Adinda and Mahendra admitted that they were both goaded by the rising punk and hardcore scenes in Bandung, West Java. “Yeah I think we were egged on by the guys who played in ‘bands’ [in a more conventional sense] with guitars. Ones that played seriously,” Adinda laughed.
