Rasuk is debut album by three-piece band called The Trees and The Wild (TTATW). First time I heard it, I thought the singer was John Mayer. I began to think; perhaps local distributor store where I bought the CD has packed the wrong one into the packaged. But forget about John Mayer, I said so because it just my first impression. In whole track of the album, I found their vocalist has similar signature with John Mayer has. After hearing the whole track, it’s a bit difficult to classify what genre the album exactly is. And soon a general conclusion catches my ears after listening to it for second time.
We could call it indie folk. My reason is their soft and simple acoustic-pop with a disposed melodic play, despite at the same time it could be post-rock due to their qualities in musical curves and patterns. More description about them, perhaps, we can find it in Matt Pond PA, one of TTATW influential figure. It is not a coincidental the band took "The Trees and The Wild" as their band name, it was Matt Pond PA's song included in "Several Arrows Later" album (2005). With their Western musical influences and Eastern background, TTATW got their debut well done. Just try track "Our Roots", that's a sweet combination between Western and Indonesian traditional music. In world music domain that kind of domination has become something like undeniable credo. In the side of musicality, they have their own signature, but also worthy to hope that vocalist Remedy Waloni will find his own vocals characters, so the next time there will be no more first time listeners say; "this is John Mayer song, right?”
Well, this is an excellent release, a good alternative choice for you in relax-time while having cup of tea or coffee in rainy late afternoon.
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Line up;
+ Remedy Waloni : vocals, acoustic guitar
+ Andra Kurniawan : acoustic and electric guitar
+ Iga Massardi : electric guitar
