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.