Yamaha Asian Beat National Finals 2006 Full Report (Malaysia)

December 5th, 2006 by michael · 28 Comments

We are the Champions!

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the National Finals of Yamaha Asian Beat Malaysia 2006 at RUM JUNGLE!

Today, seven bands from all over Malaysia come together at the grand finale to cross-swords. Only one winner forÂ the big show down, and they will represent Malaysia in next year’s Asia Grand Final, which will be held in Sunway Lagoon. (P/S: host country will be represented by two bands, which means the runner-up of today’s event also get the chance to show their colour in the Asia Grand Final)

Before we get to the main show and stories of our journey, lets have a peep at all the band details in appearance order:

1) Red Series from Kedah
2) Krammat from Pahang
3) Ocean of Fire from Penang
4) Simple 7 from Johor
5) Two-Four from KL
6) Poetical Kingdom from KL
7) Settlemen from Johor

Here are some stories on our journey~
After my final music lesson at 6pm Saturday 2nd December 2006, i flew off to Penang at 6.35pm, yes, flew off at lightning speed. Unfortunately, this was the same day Queensbay (Jaya Jusco) was openning in Bayan Lepas, Penang. That darn traffic jam strecthed all the way from Bayan Lepas, accross the entire Penang Bridge, and to the place where i was stucked even before reaching the Penang Bridge toll. I thought Suan will be fuming because i promised to be at his place at 7.30pm but then was already 7.45pm.

Finally arrived at 8.30pm after the heavy jam. We left Penang at about 9.15pm. Eventually reaching KL at 1.35am. Ric the arh arh guy was waiting for us to have supper and i was anticipating the match between Midboro vs MU.

Italian food, Wan Tan Mee, Sausage, Barbecued Chiken, what else?

We ate quite a lot of food and guess what, after eating, straight go back to zzz, so healthy our life style. haha…

The next day, we woke up quite late at 10am and missed the sound check at Rum Jungle #$%^&*()#$%^&*(. On our way to the venue, we also got lost for a while by bumping into a protected residential area, where the hellÂ was that anyway?

With some luck, we managed to reach Rum Jungle by 11.25am. And with a lot of luck, we found an ideal parking place at the venue wahaha (later to find outÂ that it costs us RM20, what the ….)

So, u wonder why is it called Jungle~
Axl Rose: Welcome To The Jungle! We got fun and games~

DonkeyÂ KongÂ welcomes you~

Dining beside some bushes~

Yamaha Asian Beat, The best music in Asia starts here~

So, the first thing we didÂ is to locate our friends from Penang ~ Oceans of Fire, “Contestant Waiting Area” this way please~

There you are Oceans~

Shawn was busy orchestrating the stage coordination, while ah hooi was very idle but trying to make himself looked very busy~

Two-Four on stage sound-checking~

Asian Beat banner hanging from above~

Thirsty? Check out the Amazon Bar~

After sound check, Oceans and us went of to have lunch and relaxed for approx 45 minutes.

And here comes Uglymen’s jemming studio owner in Penang ~ Ah Yong.

Guest tags ~ Thanks to Shawn and Yamaha Music~

Yamaha new guitars and basses endorsee poster~

Note the T-shirt, blue-screen error, what to do? Control Alternate Delete la!

Caught red-handed, Ah Yong being molested by Suan~

Also met many Yamaha dealers there, Mr Thomas from Johor, Mr Lim from Penang, Mr Ng from Alor Star off course.

Tang Tang Tang, its about time.

Spotlights on please, welcome to Yamaha Asian Beat National Finals of Malaysia 2006, and Lets Get Serious!

Introducing our panel of judges today, from Left to Right~
Jennifer Thomson (General Manager ofÂ AIM, also a well-known producer), Eric Kok (graduated from ASK and also a famous musician in the music scene), Teoh Ka Joo (Senior Manager of the Education Department of Yamaha Music Malaysia),King Shah (Winner of AIM best producer award and also guitarist for local metal band Metalasia), Hillary Ang (Guitarist for famous rock outfit Search, Cromok, and also endorsee for Yamaha guitars)

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1st Band to Perform:
Red Series (FLY)

The champion from Kedah performed a powerful number, with slight improvement from just a few days back in Alor Star. It was a shame that they did not have a chance to jam because after they won in Alor Star on 28th November, one of their members had to go to Johor and they only get to meet again on competition day! To perform a metal / rap-core number, one of the most important things you have to do is to play tightly, since you would have a lot of punctuations, sudden stoppages, hit-drop attacks, you have to be VERY PRECISE, and this was what Red Series lacked of. Besides, the vocals were still not soundly delivered and they lacked the cutting edge of metal voicing. And the weakest point of the band was sound balancing, the two guitars were too powerful, you can hear clear overtones (humming) whenever they stopped for even a single beat. Drum and bass were partly covered by the guitars, and therefore the guitars also made the vocals sounded not agressive. On the bright side, Red Series had put a lot of effort into bringing the best to the National Final audience. They wore full costumes (as in Alor Star Final), and they also slightly re-designed their choreography to make a better visual effect. Considering the effort they have put in, they deserved a standing ovation. Syabas!

2nd Band to perform:
Krammat (Penjuru Kota)

AS i know, the first thing musically about the band, the drummer was really tight, even thought he did not change the beat from start to end. The band wore a uniform, which really reflected the style of music they play (Rock Metal), this is an effort which they put in (though a small one). Song wise was normal, nothing really stood out but it showed something ~ this kind of 80’s rock is an ever-present in every year’s National Finals. It means there is really limited new stuff to see at present. Since the breakout of metal in the 80s, this style is repeated every year. Oh Ya, i actually not only looked into their attire but down to their shoes, they wore all white shoes (3 adidias, and 1 nike), though it was not a big thing, but it looked well-matched nonetheless. They sounded tight , because of the drummer.

3rd Band to perform:
Ocean of Fire (CTRL-ALT-DEL)

Even without a vocal in their song (instrumental), they played something different from the other finalist. A well-arranged number which was well executed in most part of the song. This is the only band of the seven finalists which the crowd could groove with. (in case you duno about grooving, it means that you can shake or move your body parts in accordance to the music you are listening to). The song was made up of different parts (musical style) knitted together. The song shone due to its dynamic moods and funky appearace which was musically beautiful. They were the cleanest band which i could hear from the hi-hats of the drums, to the chik-ka-wik of the rhythm guitar. Areas of improvement: Lead guitar should be slightly louder. Bassist was still lack of touch and timing, Drummer should work on his strokes as some parts were quite messy especailly the hats, and the tone of the toms, besides, he also has to work on his wrist snap. The most improved of the lot was the rhythm guitarist, which i could really hear what he plays for the first time since the Penang Final, however, his time was still not perfect and if he can do it more precisely, the band will sound even tigher. Scully, your drum solo is still too long la, because the whole stretch of solo sounded flat. If too flat, it means judges will feel bored if it went on too long.

4th Band to perform:
Simple 7 (Dia, Kau, Dan Aku)

Simple 7 is the champion from Johor (C & M), they played the same song with almost no modification from the Johor finals. Their progressive number was nothing special, though they played well. They sounded like just any pub bands. I chose them to be the Johor champion earlier because of their tightness and cleanliness. But today, the judges were choosing a band to REPRESENT the country, which will high-light its unique colour in the Asia Grand Final. I was a little upset to see that they did not change anything to make the song sound nicer in terms of variations and dynamic ranges. The guitarist (blue guitar) was one of the cleanest among all guitarist today. The overall expression of the vocalist was a bit inappropriate with the song.

5th Band to perform:
Two-Four (Instinct)

The champion of KL, delieverd a fusion number with 2 guitarist, bassist, lead vocalist, drummer, and one violinist cum backing vocal. They were like Simple 7 but much tighter. Surprisingly the musicians were not giving much thoughts on their appearance. Some wore nicely and some just put on a singlet, this might be the image they opted for but it was not appropriate to the song. The song has nice arrangement, but not exciting enough for them to gain more points from the judges. They gave a little of bit of creativity sparks by blending in the violin. Though i must say that the only time i heard the violin clearly was when the song went into an intersection where other instruments toned down. The violinist backed the lead vocal nicely too. It was a top-three finishing performance from Two Four.

6th Band to perform:
Poetical Kingdom (Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup)

The runner-up (a punk-band) from KL finals was disqualified from the National Finals because they had a non-Malaysian member, which is prohibited in the rules and regulations of Yamaha Asian Beat Band Competition. 2nd Runner-Up of KL Finals ~ Poetical Kingdom then gained a free-access to the competition. They did a nice intro before entering the main theme of the song. It was a heavy metal piece. Very tight and very strong metal approach in the overall arrangement. One extra-ordinary element in their performance was positioning of their musicians, i dont know whether this was considered as showmanship. First, the vocal and guitarist came out stood down a step from the main stage, then, the guitarist went back on stage, the bassist came down, later the vocalsist went up and the guitarist came down again. I wonder if they thought of asking the drummer to come out from behind his drum and walk around the stage and go back to the drum. They were tight and precise execution of riffing. I monitored carefully both guitarist’s right hand strokes, very nice and tight.

7th Band to perform:
Settlemen (Bebaskan)

Another champion from Johor (Masai), played a funky number (nice bass lines). The songs were divided into many parts but the intersections in between parts were not really smooth. I could hear some sudden changes in mood and feel, the change of sections could be arranged more fluently. The vocalist was always smiling kekeke… The guitarist played very clean, many parts of ad-libs and a lot of funky strumming, but, the toneÂ was ear-piercing and i had to close my left ear almost the whole song through. Bassist hung his bass lowly but still played with very minor mistakes only. Drummer was ok but not impressive. Keyboardist was playing a brass section which nicely supported the rhythm section (drum and bass)
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phew! there goes all the seven finalists.

And two guest bands performed while the judges choose the best candidate to represent Malaysia in Sunway Lagoon for the Asia Grand Final next March.

Guest bands in action~

and the results for Yamaha Asian Beat National Finals 2006:
Finalist Awards in random orders~
-Red Series
-Krammat
-Simple 7
-Settlemen

3rd place goes to~
-Two-Four

2nd place goes to (representing Malaysia)~
-Poetical Kingdom

and the Champions of 2006 are (representing Malaysia)~
OCEAN OF FIRE

and Ocean of Fire forgot to take their cheque, so Uglymen will help them keep and use it

I posted the results on uglymen.netÂ via my phone once they were announced.

There were no individual musicians award given out today, but if i had to pick, these are my favourites:

Best Vocalist~ Two Four
Best Guitarist~ Kelvyn Yeang (Ocean of Fire)
Best Bassist~ Settlemen
Best Drummer~ Krammat
Best Keyboardist~ Simple 7
Best Performance~ Red Series

After the show, our studio owner Ah Yong ko spent us a wonderful meal near the venue~

We ate until about 7pm and went back to the venue to see what we could kepo about Asian Beat. We talked for about 45 minutes with Amelia and Jo, sharing opinions of Yamaha Asian Beat competition and the local music scene. We had some nice time chatting all the way to almost 8pm and bidded farewell to them.

Off we go…. back to Penang.

See you in 2007 March 10th, Sunway Lagoon, Asia Grand Finals!

misc photos:

Its all aboutÂ the music, Say No To Drugs~

Photo with JD (Pop Shuvit guitarist, producer, sound engineer)

Excuse me, can i have the un-openned food please?

Uglymen with Mr Chiam of Yamaha Music Malaysia

MC for the Big Day was Sally Goh~

Once again, Congralutations to Yamaha Music Malaysia on striving to the limit to bring the Asian Beat competition to live, and helped moving forward the local music industry by discovering new talents!

Syabas to all!

Tags: Event/Show · Guitar & Music · News

28 responses so far ↓

Rossie // Dec 5, 2006 at 6:53 am

Great read Mike!

Learned so much from your comments! My next semester in Sunway Monash starts in FEB, so I guess I’ll be catching the Finals!
I saw the Singapore band, great stuff from them, they are certainly a band to watch out during the finals.
kelvyn yeang // Dec 5, 2006 at 9:40 am

thanks to ugly men we went that far. so next week its makan time ok?? p.s. i left my trolley in teh avanza so i have to break my arm to takemy case back to my house
fleaman // Dec 5, 2006 at 10:00 am

wow… detail detail!
Hey, why is there a double standard? non-malaysian will get disqualified? tot its a band thingy? what a rule! sux!

If this apply…. in other part of the world, we will not see band like smashing pumkins – got an asian performer. Black Eye Peas (asian too….)

Darn.. sad to see!

anyway.. rules r rules! hahahahaha..!

Mikey, i want a new ovation guitar? i want to play guitar.. can teach me ah! play some chinese song…! i can “tangkap” the song myself! just need u to write lyrics for me! then we jam la…! can ah?
Silver Isle // Dec 5, 2006 at 11:48 am

What else on the table? Nokia handphone and rokok. Kekeke.
michael // Dec 5, 2006 at 12:08 pm

Kelvyn, you guys worked your asses off night and day to be at where Oceans are now. It is the perfect reward for your band.

Fleaman, actually the rules are correct, this is country vs country competition. Just like other contest or games like sports. Yamaha is not discouraging foreigners from grouping with the locals but this is strictly for same-country representatives.

there is no border for music, just look at Uglymen, two normal guys and a gay, you see, we accept anything
michael // Dec 5, 2006 at 1:09 pm

hey Jonathan, see ye in Sunway Lagoon, i am sure to be there. And after all these rounds of competition, I really anticipate to see your band next year leh…

Since you were at the Singapore finals, would you mind sharing with us a little info such as the champ’s band outlook, style, x factors they have? That will also train your sharpness of observation too kekeke…
michael // Dec 5, 2006 at 1:15 pm

silver_isle, got japanese food with “expensive” Wasabi which Ric loved so much…
gnap // Dec 5, 2006 at 1:37 pm

Great write-up and pics! Thanks Mike. Geramnya, wish u took my Vcam with you. Hai….

I’ll be in KL at the time of the Asia Grand Finals. Yay! (do we need to buy ticket to go n see wan?)
Silver Isle // Dec 5, 2006 at 1:44 pm

Yes gnap, ticket is required.
fleaman // Dec 5, 2006 at 1:57 pm

mikey,
ok.. rules are rules..!
yup.. i realise uglymen has gay ! but gay got chick tattoo! then he must be bi!
n he wants to act cool…. wth his bookie attitude – kanneh bae tahan nia!
michael // Dec 5, 2006 at 2:03 pm

Ya, it was a shame wasnt in time to get the cam from you gnap. But nevermind, because (1) Silver got to filmed a little part of the show (2) the best is yet to come from Oceans

The Asia Grand’s atmosphere alone is worth our every sen spent there not to mention the powerful bands accross the continents coming over.

I did not see the previous Asia Finals hosted by Malaysia, but from what i wacthed on VCD, Malaysia was the BEST host so far.
taisuan // Dec 5, 2006 at 6:03 pm

all 7 bands at the finals were great in certain extent. when it comes to asian level competition next year 10-march-2007, things will be extremely different. crowd will be overwhelmed by the creativity and performance from bands all over asias. every year, INDONESIA and THAILAND never fail to impress me. these people are hardcore musicians. scary!
michael // Dec 5, 2006 at 10:19 pm

ya… i remember the super-impressive lads from Indonesia performed what? Hijau or something in the Grand Final in Malaysia.. super fantastic stuff from such young musicians…
rambo // Dec 6, 2006 at 1:15 am

thanks for the detail post
keep it up !
michael // Dec 6, 2006 at 1:55 am

does any one know about other countries’ Asian Beat finals?

or any info which is accesible?

all i know is the official Asian Beat page nia…

http://asianbeat.yamaha.co.jp/index.html
Rossie // Dec 6, 2006 at 5:54 am

Singapore’s Asian Beat page haven’t update yet. Actually, I didn’t stay til the results were out, I told you before to watch out for that band in the grand finals, is actually just my opinion on which band is the champion. Ha! Sorry about that, but after watching all the 7 bands, it’s quite obvious that the band I was talking about should win the Singapore Asian Beat finals. I’m in the midst of finishing my write up, it’s kinda messy, because I didn’t take note of anything whatsoever, just write whatever I can remember. I’ll post it here asap.
taisuan // Dec 6, 2006 at 9:13 am

jonathan, thanks for the help. if you can write something to share with readers (with photos would be great), we’ll post it as headline for everyone to read. cheers man!
michael // Dec 6, 2006 at 3:02 pm

Cool Jonathan, i believe everyone here will benefit from your write up!
Rossie // Dec 7, 2006 at 6:46 am

I’ll just write what I remember.

And the ONLY photo I took was this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v381/magnificent1986/Image529.jpg

Sorry, but I can’t recall a single band name, and some of the songs also escapes me, I’ll just list down some stuff that I can remember. The major difference in rules is each band is required to perform one cover and one original number, this is to make sure the band they picked to represent Singapore is an â€œall-rounderâ€. And two of the songs should not exceed 10 mintues.

Singapore’s Asian Beat final was held on the 25th of November at Plaza Singapura’s front plaza (outside McD’s). It started 6.30 sharp with last year’s Singapore Asian Beat champion, they did some covers of Rage Against the Machine etc.

7 Bands took part in the finals. A total of 80 (!) bands took part in this yearâ€™s Singapore Asian Beat Finals.

Different paragraphs denotes different band.

The first band, if Iâ€™m not mistaken, they are called Jabbaholics (sp?). They had one guitarist, one keyboardist (sling around like a guitar one, whatâ€™s that called?), one drummer (duhâ€¦), one bassist, one vocalist, andâ€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦ one saxophonist (cool!). They all look very young (teenagers), accept for the bassist (looks 20-ish). The first song was Donna Summerâ€™s Bad Girls, after that, their own song called Angel. The vocalist said that â€œI believe that thereâ€™s an angel behind every bad girl, so we wrote this song called Angelâ€. Nice showmanship and interaction with the audience and within the band, very tight too. Thereâ€™s a part where each and every instrument had its own solo break. The sax is just so beautiful, and sits very nicely in the whole mix. Then thereâ€™s this breakdown, where the vocalist sang small verses and duets with the sax, keyboard, guitar and the bass. Very very very cool. Guitarist was ok, mostly consist of funky wah+clean rhythm strumming. One more thing, I think they played for 20 minutes! Why is this so? The rules stated only 10 minutes per band for 2 songs. Can anybody enlighten me?

Now, I absolutely forgot about the rest of the show, because most of the bands sounded the same to me. Only the first band really made an impression on me.

Thereâ€™s a band how played Jimi Hendrixâ€™s Fire, Iâ€™ve never heard this song before, but according to my drummer, they revamped it, as in simplified it a lot. The original had a lot of complicated rhythms on drums and guitar, but all this band did was chugga chugga chugga, and not in a metal-chugga manner, more reggae-ish-chugga. This band was funny as hell though, their fans down the stage were just crazy, they danced and jumped a whole lot. The MC later gave them a few freebies, courtesy of Yamaha, for being great fans. The lead singer had a big afro wig on, and later took it of for the second song, I find it sorta lebih to do that.

Thereâ€™s a band that was really really young, I think 18 or 19 only, and the only all-chinese band of the night. They played a little below average. Not tight at all, guitar not clean too, singing below par compared to other bands. And yes, we also thought why they were in the finals. Oh yaâ€¦ The singer very handsome. After some discussion with my other band members, we think that the singer is why they got into the finals

This band played and R&B song as their cover, and a similar genre as their original. Forget about how they sounded, but something is worth mentioning here. The vocalist made me think hard when I want to up my antics on stage next time. I may offend somebody with my next comment, but please donâ€™t take it too seriously, as Iâ€™m referring to some proper showmanship, read on. The male vocalist was kinda â€œchubbyâ€, and wears some quite fitting shirt that showed his â€œassetâ€. Whilst they were doing an R&B number, this genre normally is synonymous with SEXY, therefore (youâ€™ve guessed it), the singer tried to be â€œsexyâ€ on stage. Twisting and turning (think Usher), a bit overâ€¦ I was laughing my butt off. I turned around and looked at the judges, all kept a straight face (how in the world can they keep a straight face?). Anyway, very entertaining to watch.

Then thereâ€™s this band that did a Rage Against the Machine cover. When the MC introduced them, he mentioned that this band had tried 3 times before. Everything about this band was RATM, guitarist used tons and tons of effects on his guitar, even the singing pattern of the vocalist. Not hard to see why they never won AB. Itâ€™s ok for me if they played exactly like RATM when they are covering their song, but the problem is they played exactly like them on their original. Sigh. Guitar solo also take out the input jack of the guitar, and scratch it somewhere whilst using the whammy pedal. BUT, he didnâ€™t know how to jack it back into the guitar as the YAMAHA guitar provided had a more unorthodox jack position, he manage to have his guitar up and running after half a verse into the rest of the song. This is why musicians should be allowed to use their own instruments on stage, especially on a big stage like AB.

The next band is almost like a clone to the previous band. RATM all the way. Guitarist also did the Tom Morello styled solo and stuff.

All the bands are full of showmanship and interaction with audience, really nice.

After all the bands, the MC briefly told the audience there were gonna be BESTs awards. I was thinking, how are they gonna choose the best guitarist? I didnâ€™t notice any guitarist thatâ€™s consistent and clean through out the whole competition. Plus, non of them played anything technical at all, really a very very sad thing for me, as I was hoping to see some great guitar playing. Really disappointed.

I think thatâ€™s about it. Thatâ€™s all I can remember from the show.
My conclusion: Very showmanship oriented, very different from Malaysia which was very technical. Obviously Singapore is more into modern rock and stuff, less technical stuff. Nevertheless, very entertaining indeed.
fleaman // Dec 7, 2006 at 9:31 am

Hear that M’sian BAND..! kick the Kai Su band out of the planet! Show then what we’re made off! Malaysia Boleh!
Rossie // Dec 7, 2006 at 10:45 am

Our drummer (Mickey) had been anticipating that some band(s) would do a DT cover at the Singapore finals. He was a little dissapointed though.

My other friend told me that the Singapore band was boo-ed a few years ago when the ABGF was held in Malaysia (Malaysia won that year with a fusion band, see the connection with fusion and campions? Maybe we should go fusion… haha…). I heard that it’s because every single band was very technical, except Singapore. They played modern/alternative rock stuff, that’s why they got boo-ed.

Mickey told me that his professor in his music college in Singapore (La-salle) finds that “the kids here (SG) are spoiled, they are too lazy too practise…”. I guess that quite sums up everything.
gnap // Dec 7, 2006 at 11:29 am

Aiyah.. to sum it all… Malaysian got substance… SGP one more surface (artificial). These are not my words, but the words of an american friend.
Silver Isle // Dec 7, 2006 at 1:14 pm

Singaporeans are not that bad I suppose? To be frank, I really respect their attitude n lifestyle there, that’s why I’m looking forward to further my studies there.
gnap // Dec 7, 2006 at 1:30 pm

Congrats, Silver. Yeah, I like their education system. Loads better than ours.
michael // Dec 7, 2006 at 2:04 pm

I respect Singapore a lot, but i am not gonna elaborate here or else i will get into politics…
gnap // Dec 7, 2006 at 3:49 pm

you are rite. Zipped! I mean
kelvyn yeang // Dec 10, 2006 at 9:21 am

hey guys im back!
can go makan d!
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