Malaysian Underground music

I just found out today about the events that conspired on new years. For those who don’t know, Paul's Place was raided on New Years. The posse of police who arrived about 10 pm took all the equipment away, Paul's, the show organisers - sound system, lights, amps, recorder and mixer. They even came with a TV camera crew from TV3, expecting to find Black Metal.

The state of understanding on the local underground music scene by the government is just appalling. It seems that nowadays if your not part of a major music label, a graduate of AF, or your name has “Siti” in it, your automatically characterized as a member of the “Black Metal” movement.

It’s sad to think that the authorities are reactive and not proactive, and this isn’t just related to music but a lot of things e.g.:

• The state of construction sites in this country is dreadful. Safety precautions are zero and we all know this. But it takes some rich guy with connections to get crushed by falling concrete slabs for the authorities to start making a “Whoo Haa” about it


• Snatch theft has been going on for so long, nothing was done, until a mother looses a life while being robbed. Suddenly it’s the highest priority, and a whole government campaign  is launched.

Basically “Shit has to happen” before those with influence realize that “oh!  We better fix this”. Certain local press don’t help things either by launching them self’s into a media frenzy like sharks tasting blood, going on about “social ills” putting up pictures, and pointing fingers without first investigating it, and understanding the issues at hand.

What’s also amusing is that your point about licensing issues. for live music venue you need  an alcohol license, and a shit load of money. But you cant sell alcohol at gigs in fear of being shut down, and tagged as a negative social activity.


People have to start and learn that loud, fast, aggressive music isn’t always about the devil, and orgy’s!