Welcome to the world of Humania's 'adult contemporary'

Welcome to the world of Humania's 'adult contemporary'

By Chris Brummit

JAKARTA (JP): Humania reckon their sound has elements of
jungle, reggae, jazz, pop, dangdut, "retro techno" and "ambience
sound". Of late, almost as if they are running out of genres,
they've introduced their own, "adult contemporary". With this
mix, an intriguing I Like Monday night at the Hard Rock Cafe
looked on the cards.

The hour-and-a-half performance started well. Bathed in green
light, the band's mainstays, singer Eq and keyboardist Heru took
the stage to swirling percussion, rumbling bass and hints of
jazz. However, after a minute or two, the band let us in on the
secret of "adult contemporary", and it turned out to be almost
exclusively lukewarm jazz/pop and far too grown-up for its own
good.

Pretentious press releases aside, middle-of-the-road warning
signs were there to be read. Eq was wearing brown scuffed
brogues, leather trousers and a lace shirt, danced like the guy
from Jamiroquai and had bushy, curly hair tied back ala Mick
Hucknal from Simply Red.

Eq has a good voice, which strained in the right places, and
the overall sound was as polished as a gem stone. The talent
assembled for the production, Indra Lesmana on keyboard, ex-Dewa
19 drummer Wong Aksan Syuman and a scruffy jazzman on bass could
play, especially Indra, whose solos enlivened most of the tracks.
"Jakarta's finest", lauded Eq, and he may well have been right.

They were hardily ever allowed to kick back though. Just as a
solo was getting interesting it was ended and the beat returned,
hauling them back. As a trio, they could be out of this world,
but on Monday night they were well and truly swallowed-up by
Humania.

Conversely, the pop was lost in the seriousness of it all. Two
people independently judged them too "idealistic", while another
reckoned them too "egotistical" with their instruments. "Neither
here no there" was the conclusion, as if Humania had promoted a
fight between pop and jazz and fixed it so they both lost.

Six songs in and a glimpse of something new. The drummer
donned earphones; Eq flicked a switch and let a drum and bass
track in from their new album Interaksi. Thirstily, we lapped it
up. Basa-Basi from the band's second album followed it, and this
too threatened excitement, nodding ever so slightly to 70's funk
fusion.

The audience by and large remained distinctly unmoved by it
all. Friends aside, the gathering clapped sporadically,
stubbornly refusing to join in with sing alongs and began to
trickle home as the set drew to a close.

The final song, the 1994 debut hit Terserah, was far and away
the best of the night, full of reggae and couldn't-give-a-damn
lyrics, it at least sent people home with a decent chorus for
their troubles. That its reception was half-hearted was a shame,
but blame to no one but Humania.