Coming from the Indonesian Hujan Records netlabel The Safari offer up an eclectic mix of Punk, Garage (and Surf) Rock, Pop and general toe-tapping goodness on their short album ‘By Existence’ (or ‘Demi Eksistensi’, to give it it’s proper name), all with an easy sense of coolness which makes for an immediately enjoyable all-round effort.
For obvious comparisons you’d be best off looking back to the New Rock Revolution as rampantly touted by the music media some years back with folks like The Hives offering up the easiest association. Although there’s more than enough of a mix here to make such connections limited at best with every recognisable thread on the album drawing in enough subtle influences from elsewhere to keep you guessing throughout as heavier riffs, Funkish flair and Electronic flourishes move By Existence away from the formulaic patterns of your average Garage Rockery.
Despite the album mostly being in Indonesian The Safari still manage to offer up their fair share of anthemic tracks for any listener, laying out lines in just the right way as to allow them to be badly sung along to by even the most talentless of listeners, which always helps when you’re firing out a high energy, drag-your-listener-along sort of album like this one. Plus, when I could actually understand what was being said on the English language tracks, there seemed to be a solid sense of quick hit lyricism of the sort which can easily be picked up for purposes of random enjoyment as well as offering at least some cause for further, closer listening.
All in all, well worth hearing and bearing in mind that this is apparently a cobbled together pack of old and neglected tracks it’s also worth keeping an eye out for more complete, full length releases (By Existence only containing 7 tracks).