The Super Insurgent Group of Intemperance Talent-Detourn

“Like his sometime heroes Led Zeppelin, Jack White builds monuments. They're suitable for awestruck visits. But they're no place to settle down” - Robert Christgau on The White Stripes’ Icky Thump.

Like we all know, The Super Insurgent Group of Intemperance Talent (The S.I.G.I.T) had just released their second full studio album entitled “Detourn” circa March 2013 which information could be seen everywhere on the web. Old fans, new fans, rock critics & journos greet the release with rousing reaction while as of this writing, the deluxe version of the album is already sold out.

The release was also marked with a live show in Rolling Stone Café on March which, according to the magazine website, received more than warm reaction that (most songs in) Detourn got the potential to be live favorite like its predecessors.

The S.I.G.I.T bumped on me in 2005, right after I picked and read MTV Trax December 2004 (CMIIW), where its self-titled E.P was abundantly praised and touted as one of the best releases in 2004. Got the E.P on cassette from Disc Tarra (!), I, whose musical knowledge is lower than average, could only enjoy The Datsuns-esque “Clove Doper” while drinking alone. Along with my musical journey, I also picked up their debut full album “Visible Idea of Perfection” and “Hertz Dyslexia”, tried to listen to those releases in a more appropriate manner. The overall quality of the releases stapled The S.I.G.I.T as one of local critics’ darling and (probably) deemed as the best rock and roll band in our country.

The Period.

The most befuddling thing of the second album hoopla is the period. The predecessors were released when Indonesian independent music scene was amiable to, pardon me, rock and roll music thus the genre and the listeners (or fans) were still deemed honorable by national music elitists (you & I probably knew who they are).

But as I observed, the year 2011 until now is tough period for rock and roll. Currently, rock and roll loses its fair share of segment due to the emergence (or the heating up) of indie music/alternative subculture that some pretentious music fans are probably afraid of being considered uncool for listening to rock and roll. The condition is deteriorated by the fact that The White Stripes were dissolved. The Strokes & The Brandals shifted their musical direction (The Strokes incorporated adequate amount of blip blip tunes on their last 2 records while The Brandals embraced alternative rock influences on their DGNR8) to shake off artistic boredom and keep their relevance. The Flowers-Still Alive & Well was apparently not too well and/or probably didn’t sell well either since it was just a mere decent effort but still couldn’t bring back the hysteria. Even a little help of our local magazine, couldn’t keep it clamorous for more than six or seven months. Arctic Monkeys maintained their sound from Humbug era while pulled out some sophisticated pop-rock balladry and heavy rock to keep them worth further listen. Gugun Blues Shelter had to rely on a recusant-wannabe bassist and our national flag to gain fair amount of both national and international attention. This is the period where we can incessantly see Unknown Pleasures t-shirt clad youngsters in the interweb and real life.

Which make me think: Can Detourn attract those fake post rock folk whatever freak punk masses?

The answer is probably: They don’t care.

Unlike The White Stripes, The S.I.G.I.T built their monuments but they choose to settle down and renew the monuments in their own style. For those who listened to Hertz Dyslexia, they could find flute in “Bhang”, a cover of Neil Young's “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and the time-stopping “All The Time” excellent spin-off, “Midnight Mosque Song” apart from aggressive yet standardized tunes so that they….wait…and I should not be worried. 

Because The S.I.G.I.T, in fact, don''t want the word "tedious" in their forehead.

Along Came Detourn

The S.I.G.I.T knew the score: Survival of the fittest. Realizing the chance of selling out their regular records (cd & vinyl) is quite uncertain, they issued deluxe edition to counterbalance the odd, which edition, is currently sold out. Another brilliant move is the record’s Arik Roper-esque artwork which generated adequate enigmatic imagination around the record that the image tried (and succeeded) to convince: Detourn is something else.

Also realizing the need to score killer concerts, thanks to old school trickery, They wrote two “non-standard” but “standard” tunes to be stapled as new live favorite: “Detourne” and “Let The Right One In” (to replace the obsolete “Clove Doper"),  hooky tunes yet full of “in your face” attitude riffs, chugs and guitar solos. The saxophone on “Detourne” also re-affirmed their exploratory nature where Rekti deplored lost friends who currently “Living a life of getting wide not wiser, chasing some dimes, saving it for then waster (waste it?)”, whose blind faith make them do “Praying inside, Shouting in the name of feces” then he complained those who “taken away by streams away from (their) our dreams”. Those statements are actually basic but au contraire, the naughty jesus-feces rhyme would make GG Allin smile in pride.

The S.I.G.I.T is no Ty Segall. They had done what Ty did almost a decade ago so they built the rest of the album as polished and luxurious as possible. The music wrapped elegant anger and desperation, was built in more complex, braver song structure and arrangement and splashed with adequate sound effects (including the communal intro on “Red Summer” and “Cognition”) but still they maintained sensibility and sincerity.

Lyrically speaking, some lyrics are relatable cum personal like “Took so long to be my true self, Then I blew it all on the whiskey coke, spent to create till I go broke” which probably explains their true sidestream identity, the apocalyptic musing: “Feel like we’re fixing to die, only loneliness keeps us alive, no shoulder left to cry, There’s a moment we can’t survive” and Stud-smeared-heart talk “Been out collecting sins, down on broken sins, I taste it bitterness and I want it more, I’ve got the burdens of my own, leave it be mine”.

But their snide statements to the sheep are even better. Apart from “Detourne” and “Let The Right One In”, The S.I.G.I.T sabotaged the beautiful socio-political poem on “Cognition” by exchanging the first and second stanza where Rekti mocked the people before the teachers then in the end, he wanted The Major to be hanged because: “HUNGER MAKES AN EAGLE!” then the band concluded the song in The Mars Volta-esque stylistic song structure. Greed-themed yet rhymed mockery “Define human needs to make one feel alive, the list will go too far, define human greed and their way to achieve, the list won’t make an art” that truly will unsettle those infamous shit-headed motiwasters.

Musically speaking, in my personal opinion, the contender of the album is “Tired Eyes”, opened with angry-demented outcry wrapped in Log Zhelebour scene met dangdut frenzy that transformed into a more sophisticated rock song stuffed with breaks, smooth shifts and wah wah. While the champion of the record is prog-smeared-psychedelic bonanza turns heavy metal: the grandiose “Conundrum” which makes quite an achievement, thank fuck they put it in the end.

Otis Rush (and Willie Dixon) to Led Zep is Neil Young to The S.I.G.I.T. Led Zeppelin wrote “Since I’ve Been Loving You” to substitute "I Can't Quit You Baby" from the first album as the band's slow blues showcase. Same case here where The S.I.G.I.T wrote the personal, dreamy yet contemplating “Owl and Wolf” and “Ring of Fire” balladry to replace Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and the stale “Live In N.Y”. A remarkable effort and God bless them.

All in all, why do I care about Detourn that much? Probably because they don’t care that the constant usage of flute on some songs,was considered unsexy (remember “Bhang” on Hertz Dyslexia review) thus it has given a clear yet delicate “Fuck You” to that writer.

And that kind of Fuck You is all I need.