Blast Off Season 3

I’ve always been a supporter of the local underground acts since back in the day when Positive Tone Records released their 1st album, which consist of all the English acts like OAG and Poetic Ammo. The English acts in Malaysia were like an endangered species. In a small group with not much room to grow. Comparing that back in 96 to 2007 the numbers of English acts has come and gone but the number is still diminutive.

Although I don’t like Too Phat, I must give them pros for bringing English music to the mainstream. Groups like OAG, Poetic Ammo, Reeffa have been laying the groundwork for others to make the name in the industry. There were much guidance given to encourage English acts in our Malaysian market only recently with Malaysian Idol and Blast Off. For those who have no idea what Blast off is, it’s a competition where rock bands and vocal groups compete for a record deal. And each year these acts get better and better.

This year the competition was extremely tight, I never liked sms competition but this time I was reeled in, I was voting for some of the bands. There were a couple bands and a vocal group that I was cheering for which I did hope to see them reach the finals or at least win the competition.

One of the rock bands I was voting for was Aunty Mabel’s from Klang, which had the 70’s rock, feel to their presentation. The other band that was cheering for was CODA, a mix group who had a high-octane level of performance that could carry Muse songs well and also other rock genre. As for the vocal group I was cheering for Ghetto Republic. I was just being racist on this one, they were an Indian group and obviously brown people don’t get much support. On the fair side they were quite good group from Kajang who I believe under proper guidance could go far.

Hitz.Tv has done a good job organizing the competition yearly. This competition has been the launch platform for some certain local artist, for example Syko G. He is now one of the best turntablists of the country and now making his name in the Techno arena. I really do hope we are able to cultivate more English acts in the country and make Malaysia more famous. The Chinese speaking community has already done that, few acts like Michael & Victor has done us proud by making their name and subtly caring Malaysia on its back.

This seasons the winners for Blast Off 3 rock group was Aunty Mabels and the Vocal group was Tricky Tongue. Both this bands get RM20, 000 each along with an all-expensive music video of their own single. I do wish we have more English acts in the future. Malaysia Boleh! ! !