This is it, ladies and gentlemen. The final live showcase for Vans Musicians Wanted 2018. Faris Fuad & Konfederates, Allester Shaun and Kapow have booked their places in the grand final, and all we need is one more act. This coming weekend will see Islands, K-Clique, and Retreo take the stage and that final slot in the grand final.
Islands
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Rivaled only by KL showcase winner Allester Shaun in the “so current it hurts” stakes, Islands are a modern-day shoegaze/dream pop band with all the tropes, charm, and goodness you’d expect from such a band: instruments drowning in reverb, millenial anxiety, and a sort of sad-happy, cry-smile mood. Islands show a lot of potential (and have a great, if hard to Google, band name). Let’s see if they can pull it off on stage.
K-Clique
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Local hip hop hasn’t sounded this local in a long, time. Sure, they take trap as the basis of their music, but judging by their submitted track “Lane Lain Line,” they aren’t afraid to interpolate some real local flavours and traditional melodies, all without coming off as forced or cheesy. They’re a big group, but everybody pulls their weight and it’ll be real interesting to see them on their hometown stage.
Retreo
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Retreo combine’60s and UK fuzz-garage allusions with a hint of pop yeh yeh and indie rock, delivered with that sort of confident cool that’s almost mandatory for their brand of music. They have rough edges here and there but that just makes the whole mix all the more enjoyable. There’s always room in the scene for an old-school garage rock band, especially now that the ’60s are more than a bit cooler than they used to be, and let’s hope Retreo manage to take advantage of that.
The show starts at 2.30pm this Saturday (August 25) at Black Box Suria, Kota Kinabalu. Check out the Facebook event page and stay tuned to The Wknd’s social media channels for any and all updates.
