Riding high with his psychedelic rock band Sigmun, vocalist-guitarist Haikal Azizi began performing in the past few years under the guise of Bin Idris, playing a gentler, moodier sort of music.

Combining elements of traditional singer-songwriter music with hints of a modern ambience and electronica flourishes, the Bandung-bred musician has released his debut album under the name.

Released under Orange Cliff Records, the same label that released Sigmun’s debut last year and which is co-run by that band’s manager Anindito Arinwandono, the self-titled debut is a record confident of its own nuance and mood.

There is a prevalent tone of introspection that drives and benefits the songs, lending an air of thematic melancholy throughout the 11-song album. As a collection of acoustic guitar and vocal driven songs, the record presents a good variety of musicality throughout, leaving the homogeneity only in its temperament instead of its arrangements.

Unlike in Sigmun, here Haikal also writes and sings in Indonesian (nine of the 11 tracks are in English). This reveals Haikal’s obvious liking of “classic” Indonesian singer-songwriters (some early Iwan Fals nuance are noticeable here and there), and at a time when the breezy traditional qualities of bands such as Payung Teduh and its ilk are on the rise, this musical element certainly gives Bin Idris a strong opportunity to command some attention from the mainstream indie crowd.

Bin Idris is less romantic in its embrace of Malay pop than those acts though — fortunately. The songs retain a sense of mysteriousness, often darkly so. The record isn’t necessarily sorrowful, but even during its most playful moments (the literal folk-ism of “Jalan Bebas Hambatan”, which translates as Freeway), there are hints of resignation and somberness.

This is clearest in the record’s Delta Blues-inspired moments — which in a live setting, provide Haikal’s most-entrancing moments — such as “Tulang dan Besi” (Bones and Iron), a cavernous evocation of mature desperation.

Haikal sings on the record about his urban existence and young-adult plight (he is in his mid-20s), and the record’s best moments are when a sense of unabashed frustration comes through, dripping with mature realizations of life’s blue moments and emotive depictions of it (“Tulang dan Besi” sees both vocals and guitars drenched in overdrive and reverb).

Best yet are the moments when Haikal manages to deliver this frustration through deceptively calm waters. “Dalam Wangi” (very-roughly “Inside a Scent”) reaches back to 1950s Indonesian pop — thick harmonies and a vivid sense of nostalgic reminiscing. It’s a track that manages to be both gorgeous and emotionally evocative, the best kind of musical therapy.

Haikal’s guitar lines are minimalist without sounding simplistic, relying on plenty of patient fingerpicking and effected processing. The musician, who mixed and recorded by himself, has a very clear understanding of table setting — presenting just the right amount of echoes and reverb to the instruments without them ever feeling like a layered mess (or like they’re trying to make up for minuses). It’s an impressive feat — each of the song are essentially the same instruments, but they all feel strongly different.

The record edges toward an increasing mood of somberness as it closes. “Calm Water” is a whispered worship, “How Naive” a quasi Nick Drake celebration of young adulthood and “Inside a Room” a whistled closer with lights of hopefulness.

Bin Idris is a welcome solo debut, evocative of a musician in command of his strengths and a fitting soundtrack to the rainy season.

Popular

On World Environment Day, you can help end plastic pollution

Bali to clamp down on illegal foreign-owned businesses

Pressure mounts on Gibran as impeachment process continues