Andresa One Man Band Nothing But R’N’R cassette
Solo budget rock out of Bandung, Indonesia, ANDRESA ONE MAN BAND pretty much says it all in its name. This is the side project of Andresa Nugraha, who you may know from the Indonesian garage punk band the BATTLEBEATS. Wait a minute, I had thought that the BATTLEBEATS was also a solo recording project, one that played live with a full backing band. Surely this can’t be the same guy doing another solo project in a similar style, can it? Well, as it turns out…the differentiation between these two projects is admittedly pretty minimal and difficult to distinguish based solely on their recorded output. The BATTLEBEATS have been cranking out nasty, driving garage punk for the better part of a decade now, and ANDRESA ONE MAN BAND does not stray too far from that formula. If I had to speculate, I assume the main difference is that while the BATTLEBEATS play shows as a full band, ANDRESA seems to do gigs similar to the way Mark Sultan does, sitting in front of a kick drum and using different foot pedals to trigger various drums while accompanying himself on guitar and vocals. If nasty, riff-heavy garage punk is your thing, there is plenty to like here. It may sound cheesy, but in my opinion, there are not enough rock’n’roll songs that are simply about loving rock’n’roll. It’s a proven formula that never gets old, and ANDRESA has a few more of those for you on the five-song debut of this project. And if you somehow haven’t already come across the BATTLEBEATS, you now have two projects of this ilk to dive into.