Griff says; Dive right in with Swimming Elephants

I'm amazed, and a little ashamed, to say that it has been a year (see 'here') since I've featured any of the music from the brilliant SEA Indie netlabel. SEA Indie, the brainchild of founder Isarapan Boonyaso, has been bringing the best of South East Asian indie-pop to the rest of the world since 2008, and all for free too.
SEA Indie focuses on the twee and cutesy end of the indie-pop market and has a refreshingly simple mission statement;
"To unite and promote the great indie scenes in the Southeast Asian Region; Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand."


Their latest release is a two-song net-single from Swimming Elephants (pictured) who hail from Jakarta, Indonesia. Swimming Elephants originally started as a weekend musical workshop where a group of old friends, all non-musicians with no musical background at all, got together to play-around with music and unfamiliar instruments in a fun and experimental way. The outcome was pop songs with simple and beautiful arrangements, naively composed and arranged without falling back on pop/rock cliches. The band/collective hope that;
"Their songs might evoke some fond memories and repaint a long-forgotten picture in your mind."
Sounds good to us, Proustian even (as Gordon might say)!

The full line up for the session was:

Rizki Yogaswara (vocals, guitars, keyboards)
Gilar Di Aria (keyboards, guitars, percussions)
Wisnu Anditta (drums, percussions, vocals)
Saras Juwono (vocals, keyboard, recorder)
Aprilia DH (keyboards,glockenspiels, percussions)
Ranggi Mukti (Bass)

The songs on this release are 'At The Zoo' and 'Sarah' and I'm embedding the former below. However, I do stress that you go on to download the release, which you can do 'here', as 'Sarah' is just as lovely, plus, as always with SEA Indie, the download comes with a beautifully prepared accompanying booklet containing art, photos and information.

SEA 008 : Swimming Elephants - At The Zoo by SEA INDIE | The Singles



The wonderful cover art (below)for this release, another essential and distinctive SEA Indie element, is by Sudarat Chuphuakphong.



If you want to hear more, then check out the other songs on the band's Facebook page.

Enjoy!

Griff
xx