RCGNTN: make local your focal

Many more have joined in the fight for better music in clubs, to prevent the minds of many from being polluted with the crap that we are jammed with in this accelerated country that we live in.

Enter Syndicate; who got together with a couple of beers and came upon this very conclusion, which later transformed into a serious idea to create a space for sonic expression and visual experience in post-efficient Singapore. Comprising of names who are no strangers to the scene (such as Max Lane, check out our review of his EP here), Syndicate nights (held monthly) have been well received by the public ever since their launch with their Electronica sounds, which is complemented with visual installations the collective puts up. You won’t want to miss this.

Tony Tay comes across as a friendly, unpretentious guy who just so happens to be the founder of one of Singapore’s most prominent labels around, Geseho. But with further investigation, what comes through most strongly about the man is his passion for building up a street culture that we can truly call our own and bringing about a positive change to the mindsets of many. A man of many talents and one who has possibly dabbled in a variety of areas, he shows me that there is no stop to learning and sticking up for your own priniciples, and most importantly, knowing where you came from and representing it with pride. It is no wonder that he commands a lot of respect with regard to his beliefs as well as his label, which he has brought up from humble beginnings at the guerilla garage store.

What is the concept behind Geseho?
It came from our garage, Geseho Motor Works. From there, we took our daily repair work as a metaphor for our clothing to craft and shape our local street culture.

Garage wear is closely associated to America. So local garage is like…
Local garage is like ‘anything goes’. (laughs) Basically for us, we have got a garage and we do our repair work there, but we don’t have a uniform so everyone wears anything they are comfortable in unlike the US where they have specific garage uniforms. So for Geseho apparel, we are not bounded by that which means we can produce all kinds of clothing.

Do you only stick to staples like black, white and grey?
It’s not really our staple colour. I guess maybe it has something to do with our age; old people find it hard to wear red and green. (laughs)

Do you find yourself following the trend sometimes?
I would be lying if I said no but I will always put out what I feel like wearing first before thinking of what the customer would want. If I’m starting the brand, I need to lead instead of following the trend. We are creating a brand here, we’re giving it character. It has to be in a way whereby people start feeling for the brand, and not the other way round where you feed people what they what. We need to have our own identity. If customers like it, they buy it. We’re here to put out our own style. You don’t see me wearing cropped pants right?

How about the recent popularity of Cut and Sew?
Cut and sew is nothing new to Asia. The reason why it’s so popular in US is because street wear brands there use existing, readymade shirts and all they have to do is to add their designs and tags. When it comes to customizing the cutting of your shirt, it’s new to them. Asia, on the other hand, has got no readymade shirts to use hence we’ve got to start from scratch; it’s our culture.

Tell us about Awaken, your most recent collection.
Awaken is very personal to me. I’ve been into street wear and hunting limited stuff for so long and I’ve finally come to a point where I feel that I don’t really need all these stuff even if they look cool. I have moved on.

How about your next collection, Gorgeous Mannequin? It’s a pretty intriguing title for a collection.
The idea came to me when we organized the last event and brought in Darbotz from overseas, a well known artist from Indonesia. However, the turnout was not as good as expected and we came to the conclusion that many people are just into this for the fashion; to look good but no desire to find out more about the culture.

What inspired you to start Geseho?
The street, because I find that there’s something lacking here, a street wear brand that is purely inspired by our street. There are a lot of street wear brands out there but I find that they are not talking about our street culture; instead they’re just another casual wear brand.

Then what is our local street culture?
It depends on how you see it. To me, because it’s a ‘rojak’ (mix) of everything, that’s our unique point. For example in Japan or Korea, they have only one culture but Singapore is unique in a way that there are so many different races and cultures. It’s something that we should embrace and sell to the world.

Why is it that people are not so supportive of local brands and would rather wear foreign brands?
I feel that there are several reasons from both the brands and the consumers ends that led to this. Local brands may have failed to put out nice products or build up a cool brand image that the people can be proud of representing. Consumers may lack of brands and cultural knowledge or they are just too narrow minded to accept and explore local brands and street culture. Other reasons could be peer pressure, lack of personality, etc.

How do you intend to push our local street culture with your clothing?
I don’t intend to push our culture; I just do what I believe in. When I was younger, people told me Singapore wasn’t ready but it’s been more than 15 years and we’re still at the same place. Perhaps it’s because we don’t have someone ‘up there’ who we can follow; we don’t have a pioneer in street wear unlike in the US where they have had Stussy around for many years. It’s not that we’re not ready; it’s just that nobody dares to do it. So, like I said, I’m just here to do what I do and hopefully it sets a good example.

What more can be done to change the scene?
It takes more than the clothing brand to change the scene, it takes many people to change it; artists, musicians, Bboys, clothing brands as well as the sneaker scene have to come together and embrace our own artists and culture. Only then will people outside of Singapore notice us. 

One of the most powerful channels is the hype. Do you think hype is a good way to bring street culture to the masses?
I think hype has become part of street wear culture but whatever people try to hype up, it might not work. It depends on how you see it. There might be some stuff that is hyped up to some people but to others, it doesn’t mean a thing; it depends on the individual. If kids were to buy something because everyone is talking about it, then he is lacking in personality. It also depends on your definition of hype. The other hype is that this shit is in demand and has got value. If a piece is well made, naturally a lot of people will like it but then that wouldn’t necessarily mean it’s hyped.

We can try to hype up anything but if the product is not good, people can tell. If I’m going to hype up something that is similar to another famous brand, people are not blind and will think that you stole the idea. The product also needs to have substance to stand on its own.

Does anything in the local scene disappoint you?
What is a disappointment has already gotten people disappointed. (laughs) I mean before we started the brand, we came to a conclusion on what we felt about the scene so we’ve already passed the stage of disappointment. Now, we’re looking forward which is why we started the brand. If you stay disappointed, the whole scene will never change

Any future plans?
Hopefully we can work with more people, create more noise and quality work. And get people talking about Singapore’s culture and our local artists and musicians.

Last words?
Support your local brand! (laughs)

The Geseho Flagship Store is located at 390 Victoria Street, 01-22 Golden Landmark.

Geseho’s latest drop titled Gorgeous Mannequin may look or sound quirky or disturbing, but rather, the concept behind the collection has a heavy message behind it.

With Geseho’s mission to “craft and shape our local street culture”, designer and founder of Geseho Tony takes inspiration from the state of our local street culture of today. Passion burns through his words as he relays to us that “we came to the conclusion that many people are just into this for the fashion; to look good but no desire to find out more about the culture“, hence falling into the category of ‘gorgeous mannequins’.

The collection sees a softer blend of cotton tees as compared to past collections in two colourways (black and white), with “As gorgeous as a mannequin” emblazoned on the back and the title of the collection on the front, as well as imagery depicting a torn mannequin.

The first part of the new season’s drops which are set for release Saturday 30th Jan ‘10, stay tuned to more that Geseho has to offer ever since their move from the garage, as well as a feature interview with the founder himself. You don’t want to miss this.

The Geseho Flagship Store is located at 390 Victoria Street, 01-22 Golden Landmark.

The Streets is a special segment created by the RCGNTN and LolSGlol team to re-introduce the people back to local music. The episode sees us scouring the streets for the people’s opinion on local music, and this week we feature the music of the Crazy88. Initially called Oren Ishii, the hiphop duo have at least 18 years of collective experience in the Hip-Hop circuit and have received glowing feedback for their hit single ‘Whutchu’ Want’. Renowned producer Rauzan Rahman came onboard in 2009 and that heralded a fresh change and Oren Ishii evolved into theCrazy88.

The Crazy88 are heavily inspired by electronica, Drum&Bass and the vibe of old school Hip-Hop, the duo lists The Cool Kids as their biggest influence. Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/thecrazy88movement.

Following the success from Singapore Tattoo Show 2009, the show was organized once again in 2010 this year. As they did last year, foreign tattoo artists (such as Kim Saigh, Chris Garver and Bob Tyrell) were brought in to showcase their work. However, I felt that the Tattoo Show for 2010 lacked publicity compared to its 2009 success. This was also our first time to a Tattoo Show, and it was definitely not what I had expected.

I guess just like the general public, I had this preconceived notion that the tattoo show was going to be power-packed and exciting given that I associate tattoos with free-spirited and passionate people (e.g. Harley Davidson bikers). To add on to my excitement, as we were walking towards the the Expo hall, we saw many (I call them) ‘free-spirited’ people so I was really looking forward to getting into the hall.

Expo was a little crowded that day as there was also a sale and the Bodyworks exhibition.

We were finally let in and I was met with rows and rows of booths with the continuous sound of the motor of the tattooing machine. I didn’t know where to start, honestly. We had to make a conscious effort to slower our pace just to absorb everything around us. Some booths were empty while some had a crowd gathered around them. The more popular booths were those with the celebrity tattoo artists (i.e. Kim Saigh and Chris Garver) and Jeremy Lo who is a master at the traditional way of tattooing, from Borneo.

Now that tattoos are getting more popular with the general public, it isn’t such a big deal to see so many tattooed people in the same place and I even might have spotted a child walking around and admiring the work. Perhaps I don’t fully appreciate tattooing because, as they say, you have to try it to know how hard it is. I have always felt that coming up with designs by hand is more of talent while tattooing is a skill that can be perfected.

At the tattoo show, tattooing was stripped of it’s glamour and mysteriousness, and laid bare with bright fluorescent light for people to fully appreciate the hard work that goes into it. Inside the hall, tattoos were to be admired and treated as an art form which I feel most people tend to overlook when they think about tattoos.

All tattooists were put in booths, which seemed a little too organized, but that somehow ‘legalised’ tattooing as if it was just like any booth during, say, the food expo. You could say everything was a little bare, although the simplicity of how everything was set up definitely would aid the public in learning to see tattooing in a different light.

With the evolution of Thomas Edison’s humble light bulb to a whole array of lighting, it is unavoidable that someone, somewhere, will have a different take on the classic lamp; and a very provocative one at that.

Local industrial designer Daniel Loves Objects’ mannequin lamps ingeniously titled “At Your Command” sees the classic mannequin with articulate joints taking on a whole new form and style. Taking its moniker literally, the lamp not only provides light whenever you need it, but also allows your imagination to run wild with every movement of joint at your control. The results may be controversial, provoking or elegant, but the idea is pure genius.

In commemoration of the year of the metal element Tiger, one of the most aggressive, attractive and powerful in the Chinese zodiac, SBTG releases three new customs in both their SBTG Basics range as well as SBTG Premium range, with the former catering to all you Dunk Hi and Air Force 1 lovers.

The SBTG Basics special edition “Feline Fury” AF1 and Dunk Hi feature animal camo on the swoosh, metal vent monogram on side wall, and the Chinese “Tiger” character inscribed on the heel in metallic gold. The sneakers retail at $369 for the Dunk Hi and $339 for the Af1.

“The Flying Tiger”, SBTG’s offering to the Premium line salutes the fighter plane art used by the notoriously successful “Flying Tigers” of 1941: the first American volunteer group in the Chinese Air Force. The Flying Tiger features a freehand-replicated illustration of the namesake 1941 icon, toebox sawtooth nose art, bullet hole print and metal vent monogram on the side wall. This custom spells out SBTG’s signature style, and personally I’d go for these tigers. The Flying Tiger retails at $500 and are available at the Royalefam online store along with “Feline Fury”.

“The eye takes a person into the world, the ear brings the world to a human being.” -Lorenz Oken

Taking the initiative to bridge the relationship between sound and design, Perspektif otherwise known as Rizal Yatim launched the Cityscapes Audio Journals at the recent Singapore Design Festival 2009.

Taking a new twist into the untapped areas of design and sound, Cityscapes is a synergism of two seemingly different, but not entirely seperate cosmos, transpiring into a subtle recreation of the journeys undertaken by the visually impaired in Singapore through sound. As  such, Cityscapes provides a fresh insight into the place-making projects of the visually impaired, opening up numerous possibilities for redefining the relationship between sound and design.

The book is a collaboration between the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) and various homegrown electronic sound artists such as sonicbrat, Randolf Arriola, Eswandy Sarip, Johnson Zhang, Mark Wong, mux, Kamal Lufti.

Kudos to the guys especially Rizal Yatim for the initiative, and ultimately contributing to the society with fresh perspectives. If you’re looking for something different and ultimately enriching, grab your copy of Cityscapes/Design by Sound, available at perspektif.sg and Asylum for SGD$110 a pop. The books come with an audio CD and are limited to 100 copies with 80% of the profits going to the SAVH, so you know you’re in for a good cause.

Produced by Rizal Yatim
Co Produced & Text by Eugene Tan
Photographt by Randolf Arriola & Kafeine
Art Direction by Tom Merckx
Mastered by Darren Ng
Featuring – Michael Fakesch, sonicbrat, Randolf Arriola, Eswandy Sarip, Johnson Zhang, Mark Wong, mux, Kamal Lufti.

NO.1 48pages NO.2 46pages, 216mm x 276mm NO.3 audioCD [50:04]. Free delivery within Singapore.

Think old school hip hop and most of us would immediately think of groups like NWA, Run DMC and Digital Underground (wait, most people won’t think of Digital Underground!). The unmistakable sound of hip hop of old with its heavy dose of scratching, mad bass lines and almost zero usage of this particular software called the auto-tune – or better known today as the “magic ingredient” in making an awesome track – sets it apart from how hip hop sounds like from any other era.

Step forth local boys Head Turnerz. They decided to pay homage to the old school and came up with a track called (wait for it, you’d never guess the title of the track) The Old Skool Style.

Anyways, the beginning of the track was pretty decent. It reminded me of The Beastie Boys and I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised. Then the boys started dropping verses and the beats became a tad monotonous and too electronic-ish.

Mad props to the boys for doing this but somehow I felt it was poorly executed and they did not really explore the sounds that defined the old school. The only prominent thing was their line: “we bring the old skool style”. I do see some potential here though.

Overall, I’d say it was not a very good track and if I was mashing on the streets while listening to some music and this track came on, I’d totally stop, take out my iPhone and listen to Exists instead.

Oh, please get back to the studio and record some dope stuff and make me listen to you guys instead of Exists!

Rating: 3.5 / 10

Click here to download the track.

One.

If you want to experience some of the best graffiti Singapore has to offer, you should make Fortune Cookie Projects’ “Is This Home, Truly” your first stop. Curated by Zaki Razak and co-curated by Zul ‘ZERO’ Othman, the exhibition will house the works of well-known and award-winning artists and veterans such as:

Scope (above)

The Killer Gerbil (above)

Slacsatu (above)

ZERO (above)

TraseOne (above)

as well as our January 2010 masthead artist, Antz (above).

Starting from March 5th, 2010 at 8pm till March 22nd, 2010 at 6pm, be sure to head down to Fortune Cookie Projects at 39 Keppel Road, #02-04 Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Admission is free.