I have been pretty ignorant about the Singapore rock music scene until about the end of October – which is such a shame. Over the last twenty years the country produced some extraordinary projects: from cold wave Zircon Lounge, to punkish Ronin to post hardcore A Vacant Affair (how come those guys didn’t end up being massive in the US is beyond me!). There seems to be a well established grind core underground scene (a great article about it here). If you prefer something less gory but still guitar orientated, a good soul out there created quite a playlist on Spotify showcasing independent artists from Singapore.
Basilisk single cover
I would probably still be unaware of the riches of the Singapore music scene if it wasn`t for a strange incident. Maybe it`s all in my head, maybe I was meant to find it, maybe it was a parting gift from somebody I never met but who was dear to me.
On October 29th I found myself in London for my 44th birthday. I attended a karate workshop which was very formal – all the bows and salutations were in place as should be expected if you are truly committed to the practice of budō. In the evening I ended up at a traditional izakaya (Japanese tavern) for a meal. It should have been magnificent and it was, but as soon as I returned to the hotel a feeling of overwhelming despair descended. I slept three hours in total. I`ve spent the night looking at the panorama of London in the pouring rain listening to X Japan.”Kurenai” and “Endless Rain” on repeat. It was my birthday and as the classic tune says I could cry if I wanted to – so I bawled my eyes out.
I have a very peculiar, deeply personal attachment to X – a Japanese visual kei rock band, kind of a mix of glam and pudel metal with incredibly colorful and flamboyant stage costumes. It`s probably not a time or place to tell their history but the band`s cursed. They`ve lost two members and the rest went through all possible trials. X is also one of those bands that save lives. Just ask any of their fans.
Chaidura in his Basilisk persona
What I didn’t know on that night in London was that X was losing another comrade. Their bassist HEATH passed away due to cancer. I don’t particularly want to get all spooky and tell you I somehow felt the loss from across the globe but I admit it was all a bit too paranormal for my liking.
If there is one thing you need to know about X is that despite all the tragedies they suffered, each member put their utmost efforts into promoting and supporting new talent. HEATH was particularly fond of giving starting musicians a helping hand, often anonymously and using his connections in the industry secretly. As if to show that life and art should continue no matter the loss. Defiance in a form of beauty.
When I woke up in the morning, my phone was almost out of power. Well, the battery should have been flat after a whole night of use, yet it was stuck at 3%. The screen was flickering and showing me an artist I had never seen before. I made a mental note to check them out later – a habit of every A&R that ever woke up in a shitty hotel room – and dragged myself to the bathroom.
Long story short, this is how I discovered Singapore singer and songwriter – Chaidura and the subject of this review. And if you think the unusual coincidences end here, you are highly mistaken!
For starters, Chaidura moved from his home country and currently resides in London. One of the first songs he ever learned to play was X`s anthemic track “Week End”. He somehow materialized in my life on the eve of Halloween…
Putting the creepy factors aside (don’t worry we will return to it a bit later) Chaidura is totally unique for both Singapore and UK markets. I`ve tried to find similar artists and failed. And the reason for it is because this artist takes elements from Japanese early visual kei style and turns it inside out to make something new. Hardly any musician in the west looks up to Asian cultural trends, most are happy to appeal to local public – hence the persistence of lads bands wearing anoraks and sounding like Oasis over here. Chaidura reverses this process with satisfaction. He adopted visual kei in its classic form with gender-defying clothing and make-up and brought it to the UK. He also learned a few things from K Pop idols – mostly how to engage with fans through sincere posts and dark themes in music and lyrics.
In the 80s and through to the noughties, visual kei was the biggest, most popular genre of rock in the world. Not just in Japan but in Asia, US and mainland Europe. It paved the way for Korean singers and bands. The issue was all those idols, no matter how adored by their fanbase, were all far away. Many of the bands, especially in later days, were put together by large labels and entertainment corporations, which alienated the public.
Chaidura as Basilisk
Now imagine you have a locally based visual kei performer that you can meet in the street and he is also fully independent and approachable. You can actually attend his gigs and witness his rise. It may not feel this way but it is revolutionary in itself. Chaidura could simply move to Japan and kick start his career there, pretty much effortlessly. But where`s fun in that, right? Being the one and only is actually quite a tactical move and you have to have respect for those who push boundaries and go against the stream.
Like many artists in the visual kei movement Chaidura is a stage persona. Chai is part of the artist`s given name but it also means “living” or “the life itself” in Hebrew. Dura is part of the membrane that protects the brain. It stands for “strong” or “solid” in Latin. Life despite the odds could be a translation. X Japan would wholeheartedly agree.
Chaidura debuted with “Ante Metus” (“Before Fear”) in 2020. Since then he released ten singles including “Menace”, “With You” and “Night Forever”.
There is something in Chaidura that has to remind you of the late Chris Ho of Zircon Lounge – mostly this strange tranquility in their persona and the timbre of the voice: reassuring and soothing and yet dark and brooding. His vocal range is incredibly broad: from falsetto to guttural, almost inhuman noises. He easily combines growls and clean vocals which puts him closer to Kyo of Dir en Gray. In other moments he sounds like Falco (Johann Hölzel) or Takarai Hideto (HYDE) of Laruku. But Chaidura cities The Gazette – an alternative rock giants from Japan and Bring Me The Horizon as equal influences. So emo, screamo, pop, J-rock, visual kei, post hardcore and even nu metal can apply.
Basilisk set photo by Lee (Four Walls and a Door)
If you haven`t got a vertigo yet – here`s another dimension to Chaidura I came to love straight away. Every video he makes is different – but all have morbid denominators – some dark or disturbing imagery, often referring to death, murder or madness. In “Heart of Fire” he wears what looks like black hakama paired with a funeral veil, “Brave” shows him stepping dangerously close to the edge of a train platform while “With You” plays on a theme of a girl stuck in a video. I hope you are all familiar with Yamamura Sadako, if not you will be in seven days…
Macabre and horror brings us to the most recent single released by Chaidura on October 25th – “Basilisk”. The inspiration for it comes from watching Harry Potter fight with the mythical beast, according to the artist himself. He wanted to create his own soundtrack to the film. But if you are not told, you are forgiven to think the song is a homage to Malice Mizer. Driven by a distorted keyboard theme with most of the vocals either spat out or growling in a low, incredibly angry manner, “Basilisk” feels like a score for a horror movie. Most likely from the Ju-On series. The song is accompanied by a video representing a domestic dispute between a strict father and his teenage daughter. A small quarrel over a meal turns deadly. The couple may not see it but their house is haunted by a presence in the form of a young male dressed in white (never a good sign as white is traditional colour of death or mourning in most Asian countries). He is slowly whispering his poisonous words into the ears of the house occupants until it is too late to save them. Be it a ghost or a yokai in human form, Chaidura looks very convincing as the basilisk. On the other hand, the whole idea of a malevolent yokai haunting Victorian houses in England is a great idea for a manga. Anyone have any contacts for CLAMP?
I tried to keep this review in a slightly upbeat tone but like Chaidura`s music, there is a dark and serious side of what I want to say.
Chaidura on the set of Basilisk – photo by Lee (Four Walls and a Door)
I already mentioned that Chaidura is unique on the UK scene. He joins BEX, Tash, Kuro, Tom Saint, Mango in Euphoria, Izzy T, Alt Blk Era, Delilah Bon or Glytsh – a tidal wave of young, incredibly talented musicians that break the mold and mix genres to create new quality. Wave powerful to build decades-long careers world wide. And they are doing quite a good job for themselves – just see Esprit D`Air – probably the most successful example of the lot. Those young people are also completely ignored and forsaken by the wider music industry. I have been on/off in music for thirty years. For nearly the same amount of time I have been following pop cultural trends in Asia, not just Japan. And I see that investing in versatile independent artists is more profitable and better for the business than manufacturing artists. Yet the British music industry is going in the same direction as Korea and Japan and bound to repeat the same mistakes. Just recently over 120 000 participants applied for a casting to a new pop group organized by HYBE and Geffen. How quickly manufacturing artists will turn into another Johnny Kitagawa incident? Sometimes I feel like talking sense into the music business executives is like debating the benefits of Meiji Restoration with the Shinsengumi.
All the artists that truly revolutionized music history were authentic, organic, often of working class backgrounds and started out as independents. You would not have visual kei if X Japan were put together. You won’t have a new era in music if you don’t support the likes of Chaidura now.
In the past few weeks I was mourning. Not only the loss of HEATH of X but also of Atsushi Sakurai of Buck-Tick who passed unexpectedly on October 19th. I may be a music professional but I am also a fan. Maybe, I am first and foremost a music fan. And nothing shows you the fragility of life as death of those you grew up listening to. It`s mortality of art itself.
There is a line in the X song “Art of Life” that goes: “You never wanna breathe your last”. Art and creativity should be passed to the new generations, there needs to be continuity, change and reinvention. Otherwise we will see the end of culture and all creative forms of expressions.
I am thankful that I could discover Chaidura on a particularly bleak night last month. It gives me a sense of stability, of continuity, of hope.
And I`d like to think that somewhere up there HEATH, HIDE and Taiji nod their heads and say: go on kid. The visual kei is yours. Run rampage. Shock, inspire, sell out Budokan. You are the future.
Long live visual kei. Long live Chaidura!
Follow the artist on socials:
https://www.facebook.com/chaiduraofficial
https://www.instagram.com/chaidura_
https://www.tiktok.com/@chaidura
https://www.youtube.com/@chaidura
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5G44MxEPEbE3JMDz1azv9N
Additional reading:
https://jovenatheart.com/2020/07/09/introducing-chaidura/
Malicia Dabrowicz
Indieterria 
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