Dirty Edge The Jakarta City Hardcore

Formed in the 1990s, Dirty Edge is a hardcore band from Jakarta, Indonesia. Dirty Edge was a metamorphosis of another band called Kardus TV (late 1994), which used to sing songs of old punk bands including Rancid, Social Distortion and Bad Religion. Kardus TV consisted of four members: Coki ‘holiday’ Manurung (vocal), Fucky (Guitar), Rodrigo Pasaribu (Bass) and Jamaludin Malik (Drum). According to Coki, there was a disagreement over the band’s name but then he unintentionally mentioned the term ‘Kardus TV’. To everyone’s surprise, all team members agreed to make Kardus TV as their band’s name.

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While Kardus TV slowly built their reputation as punk band in domestic musical events, the bassist player, Rodrigo has told the current lead vocal, Coki to break up Kardus TV and form a new one. Rodrigo hoped that this new band, which played much faster style of music, would be a more serious project than Kardus TV. Rodrigo proposed Dirty Edge as the name of their prospective band. The name ‘Dirty Edge’ was a reflection of political situation in the late 1990s in which most politicians who claimed to be clean and honest in fact were hypocrites, turning a blind eye to pervasive corruption and gross violation of human rights in Indonesia. Dirty Edge is then considered to be a number of young people who choose to be on the dirty side of life, sharing similar perspective with those who are aware of all the problems around us. Through music, Dirty Edge aims to strenghten their sense of humanity and enrich their understanding of life.

Although Coki initially disagreed with Rodrigo to form a new band, he soon became enthutiastic once he understood the bigger picture of the philosophy and musical concept offered by Rodrigo. Furthermore, in this new band, Rodrigo expected that they would write their own songs as well as performed songs from other famous bands. With a new concept in their head, they began to find musicians who were aptly equipped for their new concept of music. Rodrigo later introduced, a massive fan of Jimi Hendrix, Hermes Gurning to Coki. Hermes guitar skill, sound knowledge and a breadth knowledge of music impressed Coki. Prior to this, Hermes was involved in several bands and played a huge range of music, from Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Megadeth, NOFX and U2. While Hermes took position as a guitarist, Jamaludin Malik (1995-97) featured as a drummer.

Once the band was formed, it did not take a long time for Dirty Edge to perform. An underground music festival Hullaballoo III which took place in Bandung, 1996, provided a glorious opportunity for the newly born Dirty Edge to play their music. From that moment, nearly every week Dirty Edge was playing in various musical events. In most event, Dirty Edge was always playing songs from a hardcore German band, Ryker. This soon made people tag Dirty Edge as Indonesian version of Ryker. However, occasionally Dirty Edge played some softer songs such as those of Social Distortion. This once bewildered comittee members of a musical event in Jakarta when they sang Making Believe from Social Distortion. One of the band’s member Rodrigo actually protested against the idea of playing a rather soft songs but since he was outnumbered during the discussion, he followed the majority.

Like stories of many bands that changed their members, Dirty Edge was no exception. Jamaludin Malik, the drummer decided to leave Dirty Edge. Soon the band found Malik replacement through Rodrigo’s brother reference. In 1997, Ovie Alaydrus joined the band. For Dirty Edge, the arrival of Ovie was warmly welcomed due to his fantastic drumming skill. Alaydrus’ technic succeeded to impress Hermes.

In 1998, Dirty Edge resumed their work on recording an album. However, during its process, Hermes died of drug-related cause. Hermes dead was a major blow for Dirty Edge and resulted in disorientation amongst its member. Despite constant reminder from his friends about the harmful effect of drugs, Hermes’ habit of consuming drugs went on unfettered. Following the death of Hermes, Dirty Edge was no longer active as a band. However, the remaining members of the band managed to keep in contact.

With moral boost from Rigo and other fellow musicians, the other members recovered from their grief and loss and agreed to work on the band. They recruited Fucky (1997-98) to fill the position as guitarist. For a while, this formation worked well until a fundamental difference in music between Fucky and other members became a hurdle.

Fucky left the band and another guitarist Al Syawal filled the guitarist position for a short period of time. Before too long, Rigo’s brother Rowland (1998-2000) was recruited as guitarist for Dirty Edge. Initially Rigo disagreed with the idea of having Rowland in the band. But Coki convinced him that Rowland could fit in the band. While the arrival of Rowland partly solved the band’s crisis, the departure of a long member of the band and talented drummer, Ovie, added another layer to the problem.

Through their social network, they found Ovie’s replacement, Feisal Al Izlami (1998-2010). With this new formation, Coki (lead vocal), Rigo (bass), Rowland (guitar) and Feisal Al Izlami (drum), Dirty Edge succeeded in recording their first album called Enter The Zone.
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