ARTIS: Imran Ajmain
JUDUL: Dengan Secara Kebetulan
GENRE: Pop R & B

ADA hikmahnya juga tinggal jauh dari tempat kerja. Dalam perjalanan jauh memandu, ia memberi peluang kepada saya melayan CD baru yang semakin banyak diterima.

Soalan pertama, siapa Imran Ajmain hinggakan saya yang nyaris terlelap boleh memandu dengan segar walaupun jarum jam menunjukkan angka 2 pagi?

Untuk pengetahuan pembaca, album artis baru dari Singapura ini belum lagi diedarkan di sini. Seorang rakan meminta saya mendengarnya kerana dia mengakui lagu Imran hebat-hebat.

Selepas mendengar, saya tidak nafikan memang benar album ini menarik. Walaupun mungkin ramai yang akan mengatakan Imran tergolong di kalangan artis jenis `wannabe’, namun saya tetap puji jati diri Melayunya.

Ia disebabkan album berkonsep pop R&B ini datang lengkap dengan pakej pantun, puisi dan peribahasa Melayu. Memang menarik apabila sebelum trekber mula, pendengar disapa bunga bahasa yang santun dan molek. Terutama Apakah Salah Beta lagu nyanyian asal Othman Hamzah yang diberikan nafas baru.

Apa yang saya maksudkan dengan `wannabe’ tadi, lenggok lontaran vokal Imran kedengaran seperti artis R & B tertentu yang pernah kita dengar sebelum ini. Condongnya kuat mengarah ke artis R & B popular Indonesia.Jadi dari segi keaslian (originality), ia memang kurang.

Kalaupun tujuan lagu Taurus (Penawar Rindu) menampilkan Dayang Nurfaizah untuk melengkapi syarat pasaran di Malaysia, bagi saya usaha Imran membuat improvisasi terhadap lagu ini menonjolkan impak.

Bukan saja lagu ini kedengaran lebih sedap malah tetap mengekalkan melodiasal.

Saya seronok mendengar Malu yang disusun baik melodinya ditambah rentaknya easy going menjadikan lagu ini begitu tersendiri. Begitu juga Sudah TuSudah yang cukup sesuai dijadikan single pertama. Apapun Tidak Seindah Bahasa adalah lagu yang paling menusuk dan menyentuh hati dalam album ini.

Sumber dari ©The New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad

Tired of playing second fiddle to Taufik and Hady, Imran decides there will be…

No more waiting in the wings

If anybody is looking for a brand ambassador, Imran Ajmain (above) will take your phone calls. “It would be nice to be asked,” he said with a grin. It may sound shameless, but the 25-year-old singer-songwriter makes no bones about the fact that he is ready to step from behind the shadows of his friends, Taufik Batisah and Hady Mirza, for his share of the limelight.

He is starting to tire of the comparisons the local Malay industry makes between him and the other two. Said Imran: “I hate being compared to Taufik. He has his own sound and I have mine.

“Somebody once asked me if I was riding on Taufik’s and Hady’s fame. That gets irritating.”

It is not surprising that these comparisons surfaced. After all, he contributed to several tracks on their new albums. Imran believes, however, that musically, his path is different.

“It will be my Malay musical sensibilities mixed with the hip-hop, pop, and R&B music I grew up listening to,” said the singer who is of Malay and Dutch-Indonesian parentage. Hence his debut album, Dengan Secara Kebetulan (By Pure Coincidence), which was launched last month.

The album was meant for release last September under Jems Promotions which was managing Imran, but the release was put on hold. When Imran’s contract with the company ended, he decided to produce the album himself. He hastened to add his relationship with Jems did not end in acrimony.

Imran is popular in the local hip-hop community as the director of Beats Society, an organisation that promotes awareness of hip-hop music here. He said he “wiped out his bank account” to produce, write
and record the album, and estimated it cost him almost $10,000 to create the 12-track album. So serious was his commitment towards his album that he even built a small recording studio in his Beats Society office at Race Course Lane.

His first single, Sudah Tu Sudah (Enough), which is one of five tracks he co-wrote wit Taufik, received heavy airplay on local Malay radio, reaching No 8
on the Ria charts and is also getting attention across the Causeway. After all the effort, he is certainly proud of his album.

“Sometimes singers and musicians will talk about how their first album does not reflect them. It is not the case for me.

“Every song here is mine, and it’s original,” he said.

Dengan Secara Kebetulan is available at HMV Singapore, Earshot cafe and Muzika Records.

The New Paper,

Wednesday, 17 Jan 2007, Page 23