Music Wednesday: Sungai Reveal New Single “Pohon”

Sungai Fuse Ethnic Folk Tunes with Rock on Their Newest Single, “Pohon”

It’s that time of the week to give our review for our single’s choice and this time it comes from a folk unit from Yogykarta, Sungai. Within a year or so, the band has been productive enough to come up with their debut album “Arus” released back in November 2015 and now they’re preparing their sophomore album. Beforehand, a single titled “Pohon” has been launched to the public. With the very first listen, you can feel the strong presence of the percussion and strings element that simultaneously played from the beginning of the song. The guitars provide twinkling sounds in combination with bold percussion. Right then, the vocal combination between Sungai’s two female vocalists come right in time to sing the hook of the song in a repetitive manner. It also includes adlibs from them which mimic ethnic vocal styling. While one of the vocalist sings the first verse of the song, the other one sings the adlibs in harmony. Afterwards, a strong rock element presents with the hit of the drums and electric guitar.

In a sense they want to combine ethnic folk element with indie rock sound and for us there is too much space for the instrumental rock sound in the middle. If only they balance it out with more folk instrumental there, the single would show Sungai’s capability in combining two different genres. The band which is comprised of Mawar Rengga (vocal), Anggito Rahman (vocal, guitar), Irine Winta (vocal), Stefan Toghas (guitar), Amy Yunto Adi Putra (bass) and Dimas Budi Satya (percussion) will reveal their upcoming second album titled “Siklus”. It is said that their forthcoming album will still infuse pop elements but it will be different than their debut one. “Pohon” which was written by Mawar and Anggito will be included in this album as well. The song tells about a tree’s feeling after if was diminished and destructed. The single is available digitally through several streaming services like iTunes, Spotify, and Deezer via Euforia Records. Listen to “Pohon” below.