JONI MUSTAF: LANGLANG VINYL SHOWCASE 2026

LIVEFACT, 21 AUGUST 2026– This was not Joni Mustaf’s first time performing in Klang Valley. Just a few months prior the band was here as the supporting act for the band Deerhoof which marks this as their second show here, with everyone’s current favourite local band Fictions as a lovely opener.

LiveFact, unlike most gig venues isn’t exactly as stuffy or humid as you may think and is in fact rather well air conditioned. The doors were already open by 8pm and familiar faces slowly started filling the room as time went on. Conversations between people sparked about while waiting for things to start and at around 8:40PM or so, Fictions finally kicked off the night with a loud chaotic ensemble as an intro to THE SUN IN YOUR MOUTH, one of their most popular songs up to date. Though I’ve only seen recordings of their shows prior to this, I think I can confidently say that Fictions is a band that seems to consistently deliver a captivating performance each time. Having released their debut album It Goes In Circles just a week before, they also played a favourite track of mine from the album, Di Antara Celah-Celah so I was rather pleasantly surprised by that. I’ve briefly stated this online before so I’ll say it again here but more Fictions songs with Malay lyrics is greatly needed, even if the demand for it from fans might not be that high. Based on the supposedly unreleased songs performed on that night though, I’d like to hope that my wishes will be met quite soon. Fictions ended their short set with another classic as the song In Darkest Times is announced and played as their final song for the night.

Quite a bit of people immediately left after the set for Fictions finally ended but the room was still filled with energy and crowded with all sorts of prominent people from the local independent music scene. Joe Kidd, Aidil Couple, Emmet Butterfingers and Adly Syairy Ramly were only few out of the many names that showed up to this small intimate venue that night. To some extent, it partially felt like intruding a giant reunion between old friends who were trying to catch up with each other on a decade’s worth of stories.

After a while, the stage was finally being prepared and set up for the main performance of the night. A recorded voice of Jayzuan reciting the Quranic verses “Rabbi inni lima anzalta ilayya min khairin faqir” taken from the song lingsir echoes throughout the room for a solid few minutes before Mohd Jayzuan himself finally emerges from the dark of the crowd. He appears on stage, seemingly sporting a Daniel Johnston t-shirt that almost serves as a reference to more youthful times but tonight he is not the frontman of indie rock band Free Love or the singer-songwriter singing Gadis Elektrik, tonight Jayzuan is Joni Mustaf, ready to cause an absolute ruckus for the next hour or so with music that almost feels extraterrestrial. A continuous sound of cymbals follow as Joni turns his back to the crowd with both hands raising slowly to the air, the noise volume going back and forth between slowly getting louder and retreating back again to something more sensible. Joni then finally turns to face the audience, commanding them to shout along with him as if he was some sort of conductor. It dawned on me as I was writing about this part of the show that this is almost parallel to recordings I’ve seen of two past Joni Mustaf performances that took place in Ipoh a couple years back. The first one being Drumz Aktion  during Sama-Sama R!uh and the other being Orkestra Lorong in Market Lane, Oldtown Ipoh. What intrigued me even more is the fact that both of these performances happened in 2019, a time long before langlang’s official release and a period in which Joni Mustaf was still a lot more experimental, though this isn’t to say Joni Mustaf’s sound will remain static and in fact I’d like to firmly believe that Joni’s sound will only evolve so as long as the band/project is still around for years to come.

As the sound of cymbals slowly die out, a strange playful chant is heard before the band jumps into a live rendition of nyelap sador. Further chaos ensues as Lisa Fuad of FUAD suddenly joins the stage, screaming into a microphone as if channeling some sort of inner Yoko Ono. Screaming histerically alongside her was Akmal Uzair, a figure notable for Projek Rabak London. If you are familiar at all with him then you might recognise him as the guy who was constantly passing around CD copies of langlang to certain music icons that were peforming around the UK. Although he too has endevoured in his own solo music projects, nothing even comes close to the absolute madness he showcased that night. The flashing lights displayed on the stage became synonymous with the beat and a few moments later, the music abruptly comes to a stop before continuing on with sondak, electrifying everything once more. We then hear ilam-ilam as the track of choice afterwards. There was a point during the show where the drumming seems to go on for quite an extended period of time, turning the stage into a temporary dancefloor for the performers as well as some of the audience who were willing to participate as well.

Just like the other songs, lingsir certainly became no exception to any weird on-stage antics despite being the one song off of langlang that is even the slightest bit more calming than the rest. A random screech and a loud cough into the mic however certainly did not bring about much of a reaction from the crowd to my surprise (perhaps because it was now hard to differentiate between what was on purpose and what was not), though I’m sure that they were at the very least left in confusion trying to decipher the next move.

Pukah shocks the room back to life after a temporary silence and what happens afterwards is what I can only describe as the peak of the overall performance for the night. Perhaps it only makes sense to save the longest song from langlang as the last for this showcase. Uzair and Lisa chant the lyrics after Joni, though the room doesn’t seem to be as enthusiastic to follow along. Deliberating screams from this unlikely duo filled in whatever little bit of silence there was left before the front crowd suddenly turns into an absolute frenzy as a pit starts and people start to push each other around, losing themselves to the loud music.

Akmal Uzair and Lisa Fuad pass out on the carpeted floor of the stage (perhaps on purpose), fatigued by both physical and mental exhaustion, all the while the show is still going on. Uzair then graciously rolls off the stage before crawling on the floor and all the way back of this cramped gig space. Whether this bit was on purpose and had been planned beforehand or was improvised on the spot is something I still could not figure out but I think I’d like to keep it that way. What became comedic later on though is when a random audience member spontaneously decided to join in and crawl along the floor as well, following Uzair from behind. Lisa Fuad soon disappears from the stage as well and only the rest of the band is now left parading away with their instruments for the rest of the performance.

Slight tangent but early on in the year I briefly wrote a blog post once reviewing langlang and had described pukah in particular to have a similar essence to Neutral Milk Hotel’s 13 minute long track titled Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey’s Eye from their album On Avery Island. At the time I had only thought that this made sense considering Jeff Mangum had occasionally been mentioned as one of Jayzuan’s influences during his youth though I found out later on from the man himself that this Elephant 6 Collective band had not crossed his mind at all during the creation of langlang. Like the ghost of Anne Frank in In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, perhaps it can be said that Jeff Mangun’s ghostly musical spirit had slipped in unknowingly into langlang and even more so during this live showcase.

Later on, an audience member is lifted up by a few people as a poor attempt at crowd surfing but the strobing lights illuminating the scene followed by the aggravating sounds in the background made it seem more like Frankenstein’s monster being resurrected in the room. This of course did not last long but I will say that the rest of the performance plays out like a dream sequence that is just as surreal. Joni handles his guitar in unconventional ways and the same Quranic verse recordings from the start of the show play again momentarily, acting like some sort of grounding technique. Eventually, the rest of the band members leave and only Joni is left on stage, cradling his guitar while this otherworldy sharp buzzing acts as his only company left. The show ends with that same prolonged buzzing haunting the now empty stage and applause is heard from the audience right afterwards. Though this certainly won’t be the last we’ll see of Joni Mustaf perform live, fans can only hope to be graced once more by the defeaning sounds displayed that night sometime in the near future.