RIO FEBRIAN'S NEW ALBUM AKU BERTAHAN

Rio Febrian is the winner of Grand Champion Asia Bagus 1999. He has established his post as one of the best singers that Indonesia has ever "produced". He is well-known for his excellent vocal techniques and has his own strong fan base. His album never made it platinum, but his singles weere pretty massive in those days, namely "BUKAN UNTUKKU" and "MAAFKAN".

This year he issued his 4th album titled "AKU BERTAHAN" with a first hit with the same name as the album. Aku Bertahan is written by NUMATA and featuring the touch of guitar by Tohpati, the same well-know guitarist/composer/arranger who wrote one of Rio's biggest hits "Maafkan".

"Aku Bertahan" is a mellow ballad much similar to "Maafkan" but with simpler music arrangement in order to respond to current Indonesian music market who is used to "unorchestratic" band sounds..Nice and sentimental like his previous hits.

The next interesting single of this album is a song he co-writes with Irwan Simanjuntak titled "CINTA MATI". In this album, a touch of ROCK is introduced to the whole atmosphere..He obviously tries to appeal to the younger, mass market in order to boost his album sales..Not a bad effort, though.

"CUKUP LAMA", written by Andre Dimuth is also nice and easy-listening..another pop ballad with a touch of guitar distortion.

There are some upbeat songs here.. In "DAN KUTEMUKAN" he even introduced some fierce drums and electric rock guitar!!The intro to this single is similar to one of foreign rock songs, but I can't quite recall the title..Rio is trying VERY HARD to prove his vocal skills in singing upbeat songs in order to counter his image as a "ballad specialist".

If you chose to buy the cassete version of the album I suggest you listen more to side B since the better songs are available there, notably "DAN KUTEMUKAN, "CINTA MATI", "CUKUP LAMA', "CANDU HATIKU" and "JANJI SETIA".

The video clip for "AKU BERTAHAN" was shot in Harajuku (Takeshita street, harajuku station, kuil Meiji), Shibuya dan Shinjuku)..Nice shots and beautiful music, let's watch it, then!!