It is during uncertain times that creativity tends to flourish. Through the very need to innovate and survive. Out of this necessity, new ideas are forced into the light, pushing past the overwhelming need to return to something familiar and comfortable.
This can be often seen, especially in music and the arts.
Singaporean hardcore punk band, Sial’s latest 7” release “Zaman Edan”, is a result of that, as the band explains on their Bandcamp page:
“Zaman Edan was written during a period when the world was under severe anxiety and uncertainty. The 2 songs tells stories about the real meaning of life. A life running low of dopamine, setting the tone for a bleak and experimental approach whilst writing this record, built up from a very percussive foundation.
The dark synth laden ambience sucking in the empty space that surrounds the blistering guitar and bass, like a vacuum, voiding existence. Siti’s screeching vocals approaches death, not as a cry for help but as a fatalistic prose to justify means of sacrifice in the struggle against segregation and bondage.
Side A and B features one song each, which translates to “You are born to fight” and “You are born to die”. “Zaman Edan” itself means Age of Craziness or Mad Times in English. To put it simply, this record is about all the broken promises that the state made towards minority voices, and continues to make in this perpetual Zaman Edan”.
