Mixtape: Aliff Awan Shares His 7 Favourite Albums

Mixtape is a segment where music fans share their 7 favourite albums with us. This mixtape is curated by Aliff Awan, a poet based in Kuala Kubu Bharu.

Aliff Awan prepares for his spoken poetry performances as meticulously as if he were Beyoncé, ready to perform at Beychella. This includes intensive practice sessions, a 30-minute jog and memorizing eight to nine poems daily.

Awan also choreographs his dances carefully, always arriving early at the venue to practice his movements. “I cuba nak jadi macam Beyonce,” he said. “I kena practice banyak so that I could visualize my performances better.”

It was almost natural to select Awan to officiate this new section of our magazine — he discusses pop queens and princesses on his Twitter as if he runs Pop Crave, but doesn’t limit himself to one genre. His music taste varies from stan Twitter ‘favs’ Melanie Martinez and Lorde to Korean rappers like Jazzyfact and local indies such as Mohd Jayzuan and No Good.

He also runs an Instagram account called gridmeja, where he shares his CD collections. He lays each disc bare on a green cutting mat, with succinct yet in-depth reviews in the captions. Plus, he also spends his free time managing maingayong, a website that runs pieces about music, movies and pretty much anything happening within the culture scene.

Awan has an extensive CD collection, owning over 300 CDs and several LPs — it’s important to note that he doesn’t own a record player, somewhat a phenomenon among younger generations to collect LPs without owning a machine to play them — which, frankly, puts my collection to shame.

At times, his dedication unveils an addiction that is both impressive and jaw-dropping. “Sebelum I mati, I will make sure I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet and list down all of the CDs I have in my collection.”

“And if anyone ever tried to sell them at unreasonable prices, I would wake up from the dead,” he joked.

Don’t judge a book by its cover, they said. But for Awan, it’s an important factor he’d consider before purchasing an album. Here, Aliff Awan shares seven albums with the most unique or beautiful packaging, ranging from Dayang Nurfaizah to Pangrok Sulap.

Belagu – Dayang Nurfaizah

Aliff Awan: I knew I had to choose at least one album from a mainstream artist. So with this album, I appreciate what Dayang tries to do, by honouring traditional Malay songs with her covers. I lahir tahun 2000, so I didn’t get the chance to properly live through the golden age of traditional Malay music. So when she released her cover of P. Ramlee and Saloma’s “Tudung Periuk”, I fell in love with it immediately. I rasa macam, “Eh, Dayang. Sedapnya awak nyanyi.”

Farhira Farudin: What do you like about the cover art?

AA: The cover art defines the concept that Dayang Nurfaizah is trying to bring up in this album. Rambut dia yang panjang sampai ke lantai seakan-akan bagi vibes yang album ni lemah lembut. And bila you beli album ni, you akan dapat photo cards from the album photoshoot. So kalau you stream album ni kat Apple Music or Spotify je, you wouldn’t be getting a similar experience.

FF: This album seems like an obvious effort to revive Nusantara music, whatever it means actually. I felt a similar way to Sang Rawi, that was clearly their mission before they disbanded. What do you think about these attempts?

AA: Saya enjoy, lagi-lagi kalau bukan covers. But I still think it’s a great effort from Dayang. It’s not a fusion as attempted by Wany Hasrita and Jamal Abdillah, where they seemed desperate to replicate the Nusantara sound. Tapi dengan Sang Rawi dan Dayang Nurfaizah, muzik dorang meriah. Have you seen them perform live?

FF: No! I became a fan after they disbanded.

AA: Okay, bagi I brag kejap. The first time I discovered Sang Rawi was at Urbanscapes. I remember I was walking nearby Jalan Panggung, and they were performing. I stopped to watch them and thought, “Eh, asal sedap sangat lagu dorang ni?” So time tu jugak, I went to their merch booth and bought their Rawi CD and a shirt.

FF: So your first introduction to Sang Rawi was at their live show?

AA: Yes!

جنگ – Dewataraya

AA: I was surprised to find out that this album costs RM30 only. Like, come on bro. With this effort, kau tak patut jual RM30. The thing that I love about this album is the art production. The illustrator for this album is amiruloq. Everything from their cover art to lyric books illustrates the world they’re trying to portray.

Bukan itu je, they also have these character cards. With this much effort, can you believe it only costs RM30? When people ask me to suggest a band, I’d tell them to go for Dewataraya specifically because of the experience people will get when they open this CD.

FF: Do you consider yourself a Dewataraya fan?

AA: Well, I seronok discover their music. It’s not the kind of album I would listen to often but I’m impressed with their track listing, which I think builds the exact world and stories they crafted in the album.

FF: Why do you think tracklist arrangement is an important aspect of an album?

AA: The only reason perlu elok disusun sebab kita boleh nampak artist tu betul-betul fikir dia nak buat apa. Kalau dia tak susun elok, album tu hanya sekadar koleksi lagu. There’s no dynamic. You need to think about how to start and end an album. Kita bagi contoh Yonnyboii. His debut album felt more like a collection of songs rather than an actual album to me.

FF: Like a greatest hits album?

AA: Betul. Musicians need to learn how to arrange their tracks properly because that 30 minutes is the time your listener focuses on your work. Kalau salah susun, then might as well release singles separately.

FF: As a music reviewer yourself, what do you usually focus on? Personally, I’m not well equipped in the technical aspects of music, so I’d focus on songwriting instead. How about you?

AA: It depends. For example, motherwit’s anteseden EP is one of the many examples of a band that knows how to arrange its tracks. When I wrote the review, I called it “5 Babak Anteseden” because their tracklist arrangement seems like five acts in a story.

But as a music reviewer, my main focus is the songwriting. I’d name Imran Ajmain and Johny Comes Lately as great songwriters. You don’t have to be on Sudirman level to write good songs. Your music just needs to speak to the audience.

Syukur – Shh… Diam!

AA: Shh… Diam! is one of my local favourite bands. We share the same principle, especially considering they are a queer band. Their second album Eat Your Local Fruits is my favourite work of theirs, and it was the one that turned me into a fan.

I bought Syukur because not only their sound is more experimental than previous albums but also their unique approach to physical releases. They released the album in the form of an MP3 player, where the songs are all downloaded inside it. They called it a PodPlayer. I got some posters too.

FF: But what about the sound quality?

AA: It’s normal MP3 quality je lah. Which is fine, cause I bought it for the experience of collecting physical releases.

Pop Bilik Tidur – Pastel Lite

AA: When Pop Bilik Tidur came out, I immediately bought the CD. I had been following their career for quite some time and considered myself a huge fan. I’ve been to their launch parties and every other gig and I memang suka borak dengan Eff Hakim. So when they broke up, I was devastated. I was in a bad mood for the whole day. Like why? Kenapa benda ni kena jadi when I’m a massive fan of them?

Anyway, I chose this album because of the cover art. It captures how fun and alive the album is. As you can see here, I didn’t even remove the plastic wrap. That’s how much I love it.

FF: What’s your favourite song from the album?

AA: I suka “Matahari” It has the semangat bedroom pop that Pastel Lite is trying to deliver. I could almost imagine them dancing in bedrooms and having fun with it.

FF: I think our scene is still looking for the next Pastel Lite. Do you think they were ahead of their time?

AA: I think they were formed at the perfect time. Their music came to me when I was growing up, so they mean a lot to me. But if they had debuted now, because of my personal life, I don’t think I’d enjoy the album as much.

Heart Break to Heal – Zamaera

AA: Before I tell you why I chose this album, I just wanna say that even my mom loves it that she has one of the songs as her ringtone.

Anyway, this album portrays Zamaera as a strong woman who empowers herself after a bad breakup. She doesn’t villainise her former partner or his new girlfriend but instead wishes them the best. I chose this album because its physical release was released in a cassette format. But it’s not a cassette pun. It’s actually a USB. So you could plug into your laptop and listen to it.

FF: Zamaera once said she had reached the ceiling in Malaysia as a female hip-hop artist. What do you think of it?

AA: I’m not sure if I’d say she has reached the peak. If we measure her success on the mainstream level, she hasn’t reached there yet. But I do understand her as a fellow artist and a performer myself. I set goals for myself and when I’ve reached those goals, of course, I wanna go for more. So maybe she has reached her goals. It’s time for her to fly somewhere else.

Orang Kampung – Pangrok Sulap

In the e-mail, Awan initially chose No Good’s Punk Gong as his sixth album. He later changed his mind during the interview.

AA: Do you mind if I changed to another one?

FF: Boleh!

AA: So I tengah cari album Zamaera in my collection, then I found this one. I sangat appreciate album ni sebab Pangrok Sulap is a collective work from Sabah. Jadi setiap benda dalam album ni, dorang buat sama-sama. Mereka ni sangat kuat dengan semangat Do-It-Yourself. You can see sticker pun dorang potong sendiri.

And the album itself has a rare theme. Tema tentang rakyat, yang memujuk satu sisi yang bersifat berjiwa bangsa. Dan dalam hati I sendiri boleh rasa terpujuk dengan mesej tu. Album ni tak ada kat streaming platform, so memang kena beli CD. Waktu I nak tulis review untuk main gayong, I minta izin Pangrok Sulap untuk record 30-second snippets of each song. I memang nak orang beli album ni.

FF: Speaking of cover art, I’ve seen their artwork at Balai Seni Visual Negara. It was massive!

AA: Really? When I was in MRSM, I had to do woodcut art for my Pendidikan Seni Visual class. And I remember my fingers were bleeding because I didn’t know how to do it! Pangrok Sulap ni memang talented lah.

Boy. – offonoff

AA: I paid RM800 for this CD.

FF: Including shipping?

AA: Nope. This is the most expensive CD I’ve bought because it’s from Korea and it’s a limited edition. It’s a signed one too. So this was a duo before they broke up. I discovered offonoff bila I tengah seronok discover duo. Macam Oh Wonder dan Pastel Lite. Immediately after this album was released, they separated into different record labels.

FF: If you were to sell this do you think it’d still cost the same?

AA: I takkan jual dalam Malaysia. I’d sell it in Korea or Indonesia maybe, cause they would buy it at the original price.

FF: It’s pretty obvious that you love your CD collections A LOT. So what does it take for you to sell them?

AA: There’s nothing you can do to make me sell them. Unless the artists turned out to be against my principles.

FF: Can you separate art from the artist?

AA: No. I jarang ambil tahu personal life musicians. Sebab I cuba avoid anything about them that could be against my principles. If they have any, it’s very easy for me to cut them off. Just stop supporting them. I believe that our art is a reflection of ourselves. So whatever we do, it’ll show in our work.

Listen to Aliff Awan’s Mixtape here: