Friday, February 2, 2007

Reshmonu's Laundry

My second night back in KL was a little overwhelming. The jetlag is still kicking my ass, I try to expect more of myself but time to adjust is important if I don’t want to wear myself out. Taking the afternoon off to snooze and watch a movie at Yi Kin’s place I thought it would help me re-energize for the night ahead. I made a move to the bus stop and wondered exactly how I would get to The Curve. KL isn’t the easiest city to get around, but over the years I’ve learned how to navigate it quite well. I know the city better than some of my friends here even, which surprises me sometimes. USJ is a suburb of KL, it sits off the highway that leads to airport, KLIA. I would say it’s about 30KM from the city centre and not very much goes on out there. The T63 Rapid KL is a new bus and I was happy it finally started running since the last time I was here. I had planned to go all the way to KL Sentral to see if I could meet with Yaniz and get a ride up to Damansara Perdana where The Curve is. While I was on the bus I had to make a quick decision and bounced out at a stop where I could hop on the LRT at Asia Jaya station and move three stops over to Kelana Jaya. From that point Yi Kin had told me there was a shuttle bus direct to One Utama mall from where I could easily get to The Curve. Taking public transit in this city is a job for the patient. Waiting for buses, dealing with crowds and of course the evening traffic. From where the bus dropped me off at One Utama I could see The Curve and it was definitely within walking distance. I’d finally made it, one and a half hours after I’d left Yi Kin’s in USJ.

It was Reshmonu’s CD release party and the atmosphere was growing as the sun left my sight. The stage was immaculate, Hitz.tv was there and had cameras set up all around along with a crane for those swooping pan shots. The stage was set up for a 12piece band, full horn section and the works. I was excited to see the outcome of all the hard work Resh and Rodney had put in. This is Resh’s 2nd album and doing a free launch along with a delayed broadcast on Hitv was a big move for the local R&B singer. I came just as he was giving his press release inside Laundry Bar. Decked out in costume that reminded me of something outta Star Trek Resh’s hair was even further out of this world. His colourful extensions were wired and sticking up in all direction, I was worried if he had to walk through a doorway.

I’ve been coming to Malaysia now for over 8 years, mainly for doing music related projects and visiting the good friends I’ve made here. So whenever I come back there’s always a lot of catching up to do and most often it occurs the way it did last night, at an event. I had a meeting lined up with the boys from the drum and bass crew Transient Vortex, we had talked online about doing something together and they invited me to perform with them on the 8th of February. We flushed out some details, they passed me a CD and locked down a rehearsal for next Saturday. A lot of ideas have been flowing recently, as I sat with Murat and the boys from IGC I thought it would be great to have a backing band for the album launch in May, partly inspired by the set up Resh had that evening I guess. Yi Kin didn’t want to come, but said he would roll through to pick me up. Just as the night started getting live I get the call from him that he was almost at The Curve. I’d been chilling with Pop Shuvit talking about ideas for collaborating, spoke to Mizz Nina and Jeevan as well as Ashwin about the same thing and I also ran into MC Size, Balan and Nav. I was hoping to see Joe to talk about album related things, I still haven’t heard back from him yet. Bex, Shannan and Joanne surprised me and it was also great to see Nesh, who pulled me up on the mic to drop a little rhyme for the people. Just after I was done the freestyle Yi Kin arrived so I had to bounce out even though I wanted to stick around for a while longer. Ah, there will be other times I’m sure, and although it was overwhelming, it’s those situations on which I thrive. We headed back up to USJ with a pitstop at the internet cafĂ©, lots of online work has been put off since I’ve got no steady internet access. Still more to do!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hey J,
I just wanted to let you know that I am reading. All your words make me miss that place so much! hmmm, teh tarik, roti canai. Hmmmm... the smells of KL. the towers, bangsar, GG's. Sungai, Wan. Its always good to have a person like you to be in a huge city with. You get to know your place fast, and I was lucky to get experience journeying around that city with you> That, and other cities such as- penang, seoul, jakarta, calgary, the island of tioman... oh, and can't forget toronto. I guess you can hear that I am in a place of reminiscing. Its healthy to do. For REAL.
Walk Safe.
Spread Love.

Sairupa
p.s Peace to Nazri, and Hugs for Yikin!!! :) SMS me your number so I can drop you a text once in a while. i tried to text you, but guess your number has been cancelled. XO.