The year 2015 is the tenth year anniversary for journey Cholil Mahmud, Adrian Yunan Faisal, and Akbar Bagus Sudibyo as a local musical unit and independent band called Efek Rumah Kaca. Many events happened during their first decade, including few hit singles that are widely known by the Indonesian listeners and two full albums that were released in two successive years such as their Self-Titled album back in 2007 and Kamar Gelap in 2008. But among all the things that occurred to them during the last ten years was the bitter story about Adrian, their bassist, who resign due to his health conditions. But one thing for sure, they have demonstrate their musical talents with an independent spirit. After having quite a long break for almost one and a half year, Cholil who study abroad decided to bring back his group, Efek Rumah Kaca, with a new single called “Biru”. And as they do, experimentation is the key word for their latest single. This time around, the music became a major focus of their experimentation. The music arrangement is richer than before with layers of guitar and structural dynamics of sound, making it a perfect song with long duration of almost ten minutes.
Indeed, the latest single “Blue” from Efek Rumah Kaca is not entirely new material. The basics of this song has been formed since their first album. The basic idea of this song is to further elaborate their previous song “Cinta Melulu”, about their anxiety of the process of creating an artwork with its position in the market or local industry. If the song “Cinta Melulu” convey its message in a cynical tone, this new song from Efek Rumah Kaca happened to be more optimistic. According to Cholil, “Over the years, we look at things differently. We become a lot mature and using different kind of words to express our feeling. Eventually, lyrics in the upcoming album will be replace with a proper word, and things that are suited with our character. But what is clear is that for the latest single, we do not produce any kind of manifesto or whatever it is.” While the song itself, “Blue” contains two fragments, such as the radio edit version of “Pasar Bisa Diciptakan” in the first half, then another melody of “Cipta Bisa Dipasarkan” on the remaining duration of the song.
Furthermore, this new single “Biru” also marks the musical direction for Efek Rumah Kaca and their third full-length album “Sinestesia” that reportedly will be released in 2016. Although is not a completely accurate picture to illustrate the concept of their upcoming album as a whole, the main elements from the song such as the long duration, the boisterous instrumentation, to the complex dynamics in their early discography can be the rough ideas of what the band would like to offer in their upcoming album. Other simple fact of this song is that”Biru” is also a perfect sign to welcome their upcoming album because in accordance with the definition of synesthesia, it is nervous system that connects two senses that do not relate to each other. Similar to the album, this song is produced by fellow musicians from their later ego unit, Pandai Besi, M. Asranur, Agustinus Mahardika, and Irma Hidayana who genuinely played the piano, few instruments, and vocals. For more information about the song “Biru” by Efek Rumah Kaca, feel free to listen the entire song below.