Macha - Forget Tomorrow

When Macha first hit the music scene back in 1998 with their self-titled debut album, they sounded completely fresh. Armed with a healthy sense of indie rock music and a slathering of otherworldly (Indonesian, actually) instrumentation, they came across as worldly and grounded at the same time. Their follow-up release of See It Another Way still finds rotation in my stereo often, as the group seemed to hone their skills and sounds into a near-astounding little album. Since that time, the group collaborated with Bedhead (RIP) on the decent Bedhead Loved Macha release, and that's about it.

4 years may seem like a long time, but the group still managed to squeeze in shows here and there and while much of the music world may have caught up with them (and even passed them in some cases), Forget Tomorrow still proves that the group isn't about to go quietly into the night. The most noticeable thing about the release is that the group seems more pop oriented than ever in certain places. The album-titled opener of "Forget Tomorrow" takes their former sound and mixes in a bit of dancepunk for a hand-clapping singalong number that kicks things off on the right foot. "(Do The) Inevitable" keeps the beat pumping 4/4 while still incorporating their ethnic instrumentation and a healthy dose of guitar squeals.

After a couple shorter tracks that are a little less-successful (acting more as vignettes than anything else), the group falls into a rut of predictable chords on "It's Okay Paper Tiger" before dropping two-part "Cmon Cmon Oblivion," which mixes a spooky opening with a burst of lovely noise. In other places, the group drops back to more cinematic soundscapes, as on the ethno-electronic ambience of "Calming Passengers" and the swirling glitch-hop of "From The Merak Lounge." In all, the 13 tracks on Forget Tomorrow offer a somewhat mixed-bag of a group that feels like they're in a bit of transition on this release. While they have incorporated new sounds into their palette, the sonic experiments don't quite work all the time and the album suffers a bit in places because of that. If you're a fan of the groups previous work, this one will take a little time to grow on you (and you better be ready to get your dancing shoes on in places). If anything, it's great to see the group is still adventurous after so many years away and I only hope they don't leave for as long this time.

Rating: 6.5

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