Matahara – Alas, Alas
In my not so humble opinion, Matahara has a supremely bright future ahead of her. I’ll admit that it took a few singles for me to really jump aboard the train. I thought ‘What A Waste’ was pleasant, ‘Missify’ was really lovely but this ‘Alas, Alas’, this is the one you need to hear from the Melbourne songwriter. The 21 year old Indonesian-Australian grew up in Jakarta before moving to Melbourne as a fifteen year old. You’ll hear the remnants of that dislocation filtering through the lyrics of this song, sad droplets that have evidently hung in the air for years since.
‘I want you around full time
Stepping on the same ground
Next minute, you’re flying out
Well, I never really said it
I know, I’m not quite sure you know
Just come close, closer again’
It’s a breathy, minimal song that’s light on it’s feet, faintly delivered like early Clairo or Soccer Mommy and hopefully sees her on the same elevating train tracks as those two. Something about the way the guitars drop smoothly into the chorus has such impact, I legitimately want to lie down every time I hear it. What does that even mean? We just don’t know. What I can say with certainty is that it’s a song that moves me. Let’s have a listen why don’t we.
If you’re thinking that there’s something just the faintest bit familiar about the production then perhaps you’re a Sound Doc loyalist (God bless you) and you’ve recognized the fingerprints of Michael Vince Moin, also known as Tram Cops who has graced the pages of Sound Doctrine magazine time and time again. He recorded this EP with Matahara in his bedroom and put the production touches on it. As the tendrils of vocal wrap around each other at the end of the track, you can especially here those blips and beeps we know Tram Cops loves to put in his own records filtering through. And look, we’re not here to talk about it but it’s worth making mention that mister Tram Cops has a brand new project himself, called Ctrl + Me which is worth keeping your ears around.
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[…] a year and a half back and I was on this website claiming that Matahara had “a supremely bright future ahead of her” and even though you all came at my neck over it, I’m the one who’s come out on top. Egg […]