Bubblebeam Magazine

It's amazing that Lorde won two Grammys for her debut album, and I know that loads of youngsters have won Grammys as well and she isn't the first teenager to win such prestigious awards. She does deserve them and all but I still feel anxious for her future.

It's not that I feel like she's going to flop in her next album, or that she's going to have an awful breakdown.

I just know that she's going to be this force that will change the face of music forever. She's a prodigy who will take the world on by storm and she might even rule the entire world. She has that much potential. Which is why I feel super anxious. She's going to do great from here on out.

I'm probably not anxious for her. I'm just probably anxious for myself.

It makes me wonder, what have I done in my life?

Named after their beloved postcode in Kuala Lumpur, 50490 are a motley crew of three electronic-music-creating buddies who had dropped their first collaborative EP online called "50490 Vol. 1" through Gumball Magazine.

Their stuff is not only addictive and futuristic, mixing Moslem Priest's smooth grit, Strawberry Cough Drop's spacey vibe and Mysteriz's whimsical pulp together makes 50490 a group of guys to look out for in 2014.

And you know what's also pretty neat?

Their EP is free to download. CLICK HERE.


The boys gave Bubblebeam Magazine an exclusive photo session and a quick chat to discuss music and their opinions on cannibalism.

Let's meet 50490.

MOSLEM PRIEST Learn more about this dude here.

S|Co/STRAWBERRY COUGH DROP Listen to this dude's sounds here.

MYSTERIZ Listen to his tunes here.

How did you guys first start to collaborate? Who came up with the idea first?

S|CO: It started as a joke that went too far. But now, here we are, with an EP and answering questions.

MOSLEM PRIEST: We live in the same area so that's how the idea came about. Nazmi (S| Co. /Strawberry Cough Drop) is my cousin and has been producing for about a decade now. We're like "ah we have a couple'a tunes so why don't we release an EP?" So we did 'Vol. 1', but now we're focusing on each of our own stuff.

MYSTERIZ: It actually started when Moslem Priest and I listened to tunes which were considered niche. We were really into it and he introduced me to a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and then we started making songs and sending it to each other for fun. When S|Co heard about it, he called us both and introduced the idea of a split EP, which we have already released on December 9th through Gumball.

What does 50490 mean? 

MP: More than just a postcode, yeh.

M: It’s a lifestyle.

SC: It’s a lifestyle, but it just so happens to be our postcode.

What makes you different from the other two, and what makes you the same? 

MP: We're constantly helping each other out - playing around with different sounds and sharing some knowledge. I listen to a lot of grime (music) with Iz (Mysteriz) so a lot of our tunes sound pretty much alike. Naz (S|Co.) has a "spacier" soundscape but, we try to keep things coherent.

M: The atmosphere from each song we make individually is totally different from one another. For example, S|Co. makes his songs more towards home listening, Moslem Priest makes them more hard bass, and I do pretty much a mix of both.

SC: The type of music that we make differ from one another. But, we strive for the same goal; to introduce a new palette of colors to the Malaysian music scene. Variety is key.

It's the beginning 2014, so what are your new year resolutions? 

MP: I'm doing a few collaborations with some fashion designers alongside setting up a cafe. I guess my resolutions are to make more tracks, get the collaborations on point, and to get that cafe done.

M: Since our last release, we're really pushing our limits for 2014. Individual EPs are coming out, playing for private and public parties, and much more.

SC: Make more music, make more music and release some merchandise.

Let's play desert island. Bring three things with you. 

MP: Maggi noodles, a portable cook and water.

M: I don't really like this game.

SC: Cigarettes, my iPod and pure heroin.

If the three of you were stuck on the island together, which one would get eaten first? 

MP: Naz.

SC: I.

M: I don't encourage cannibalism.



But even after releasing a collaborative EP, Moslem Priest has risen again on 20 January and released yet ANOTHER EP entitled "Da Werks", also featuring remixes from Mysteriz and Strawberry Cough Drop.

HAVE A LISTEN

FOLLOW THEIR TWITTER

LIKE THEM ON FACEBOOK


Special thanks to 50490 and photographer Jonathan Lee for these amazing photos.

Check out his FLICKR, and email him for any queries or business.

Brimming with anticipation, we at Bubblebeam Magazine 'fangirl' hard for our most anticipated upcoming movies. We're also ridiculously jealous that the people at Sundance gets to see it first. However, a brand new theatrical trailer for "The Raid 2: Berandal" has just surfaced on the internet.


Empire Online mentioned something about the trailer giving a little too much away but director Gareth Evans has assured everyone that "we’re really just scratching the surface".

We've watched it and though it contains a lot more footage of the action, we still have goosebumps from it and we don't feel like it gave a lot away.

We really can't wait for it the film to be available for viewing.


          

Only a few magical moments until we get to experience the Oscars at their glory, with their red carpet looks and the winners, who will no doubt have their lives changed! But for now, we want to countdown 5 of our favourite looks and dresses at the recent 20th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

5. Natalie Dormer

This entire look is magical. The dress is simple and the punky looking cover make it look a lot more interesting, but the entire look wouldn't have been complete if it wasn't for Dormer's newly shaved head for her role in the new "Hunger Games" film!

4. Claire Danes

Claire Danes is one of the celebrities during award season that I look forward to seeing, and sometimes I wished she had done good films as well so that she could be invited to the Oscars or anything else. Besides having the perfect man candy husband, Hugh Dancy, she usually carries a simple but good looking dress. This particular dress is one of my favourites that she has ever worn.

3. Lupita Nyong' o

Lupita is one of the new red carpet queens who can pull of anything and look like a goddess. This dress is beautiful but only she can pull this off. Very few can. She had worked so many beautiful outfits and this is no different. I can't wait to see what she will wear for the Oscars.

2. Amy Adams

The cut on this dress is amazing. And Amy gracefully carries this style for the red carpet so well, and it does top what she wore at the Golden Globes by a mile. The colour of it, along with the retro hairstyle and peep toe shoes made her whole look feel iconic.

1. Dame Helen Mirren

Almost bummed out that a 68 year old woman looks 100 times better than all of the other actresses at the red carpet that night, and with the best dress, but there you go.

The nominees for the 2014 Academy Awards have been announced fresh and live, and already there were some expected films that should have at least received nominations but did not even get a nod.

But there were some nominations that we were pretty stoked about.

Let's talk about the snubs first.

The robbed.

Now that we've covered our favourites that didn't make the cut, we'll feature some who did get a nomination and who we want to get the statue.

The ones to root for.

Melanie Martinez played her version of Britney Spears' Toxic during her Audition in The Voice Season 3, but you wouldn't get to hear this particular version's full glory until you've heard the studio version.

Toxic is already a modern classic, but the 18 year old alternative singer songwriter's unique voice and 'witchcrafy' feel to the cover gave the song another life.

She's also super kawaii.


Anyway enough chit chat, everyone needs to hear it.

I had just recently watched this film and I just had to write about it. I never really hide my love for things, but I do have to admit that action films are considered to be one of my guiltiest pleasures.

Action films tend to have a rather bad rep amongst snooty film enthusiasts, mostly because of the immense lack of plot, scenes with absolute no use or story except to show intricate fight sequences, and actors chosen only for their martial arts skills rather than their acting experience.

With that description, Indonesian's own crown jewel "The Raid: Redemption" is exactly that, but I'm here to tell you why it is a good thing and why you have to watch it anyway.


Who made this? Gareth Evans, a Welsh director who was so fascinated with Indonesian martial arts he is now based in the country and has created this golden masterpiece with his muse, Iko Uwais.

Who's in it? Iko Uwais, who is more like the Christoph Waltz to Evan's Quentin Tarantino. Yayan Ruhian, who played Mad Dog in the film is also a star player.


What is it about? Okay so the beauty of a perfect action film is that it doesn't have much of a twisting plotline. The plot if simple, a large group of cops try to catch the big chief of all bad guys who stays on the top of that building, and they have to go through all of the floors to reach him.

Kind of like a great video game.


Why should we watch it? The plotline alone had already made me feel intrigued, but if you can appreciate cinema in all forms "The Raid: Redemption" captures so many different brutal ways to die or kill that it is absolutely fantastic. It is also beautifully done in terms of cinematography and choreography, and you can bask in the vision that Evan's has created along with the bloody violent beautiful mess.



This is an absolute perfect film if you're a great fan of a great action film with a simple plot and massive minutes of just fighting and blood and weapons and combat, however, I personally also preferred more of the story and the dialogue and they didn't have enough of it. But that's the only thing I can say that was a slight downside to it.

You know what I also loved about it? It was Indonesian, with Indonesian dialogue and actors, and yet it still translated well to audiences who were reading the subtitles. It also gained a lot of attention and appeal from the U.S. and the U.K., I mean, that's huge. South East Asians getting the spotlight and winning awards from International Film Festivals make me so proud.

I'm excited for the sequel. The plot of "The Raid 2: Berandal" is unknown, according to IMDB, however it takes place 2 hours after the first film.

The trailer, which also gained a wide amount of attention online, was good enough to get me so intrigued I had to watch the first film in the first place.

I've been trying to avoid writing about this show. Mostly because it means a lot to me and because it is definitely one of the best shows I have seen with my itty bitty eyes. So writing about it and trying to do it justice to how I feel about it would be a bit difficult.

For this week's Pick of the Week, I've chosen to write about BBC's Sherlock two episodes in during their looooong awaited third season. And boy, does this series blow any expectations you have ever had while you had waited two whole years.

Two whole years.

In great anticipation for the third and last Sherlock episode for this season, and the last episode we will get to see in a probable 72 years, Bubblebeam Magazine proudly presents reasons to why BBC's Sherlock Season 3 will be the death of us. (POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT DOWN BELOW)

THE HOLMES/WATSON DYNAMIC

Gifs taken from doctorwhs.tumblr.com

I have always loved the friendship dynamics between Sherlock and John. Even in alternate universes I have always loved the relationship between any of them, like Gregory House and James Wilson in House M.D., which is the medical answer for an Arthur Conan Doyle tribute.

The "Holmes" will be the star of the show, but it is the "Watson"who will actually ground him and be the rock and his foundation, the reason to why "Holmes" is the star in everyone's eyes in the first place. With the "Watson", he is just this unlikable and cold smart-ass everyone will eventually hate. The "Watson" will teach the "Sherlock" how to be a little bit more human.

The result of it was is essentially what Season 3 of BBC's Sherlock gave us. Sherlock Holmes is seen to be a lot more human than he was, and it is thanks to John Watson who took two years to tone him down. This season not only shows us the duo solving crime and murder again, it also shows us how Sherlock has changed for the better, though struggling here and there. He's trying to be a more compassionate person, and it's all thanks to Watson.

Through Sherlock, Watson also changed for the better. He's found passion in solving crime with his friend and though he can do pretty well with being a regular doctor, it showed in the first episode this season that the thought of Sherlock being alive again made him miss the old days of when they were solving mysteries. Sherlock showed him to go for what you love and are passionate about, and thus he landed Mary Morstan.

THE MARY MORSTAN EFFECT 

Mary appeared in John Watson's life during the time Sherlock disappeared, and to quote John she was "the best thing to happen in his life". Sherlock was also a good thing to happen but come on, he was a dick.

Mary's portrayal (played by Freeman's actual life partner Amanda Abbington) is outstanding and she can keep up with the two nerds easily well. She also supports getting these two 'back together again' and being the glue that kept them together.

Sherlock didn't seem at all threatened by Mary, he liked her. He deduced her personality by a glance like a grocery store cashier scanner and made a decision to trust her on the first day he ever met her. The only thing that made him feel a bit uneasy was the fact that Mary and John might spend more and more time with each other, and they have no time for him anymore.

But Mary encouraged their friendship, and it did make their friendship a lot stronger. WIthout Mary, they might have not gotten their friendship together after Sherlock surprised him at the restaurant with a drawn on mustache. "Surprise John I'm not dead after all," Jesus Christ, Sherlock.

MOLLY AND GREG?

Admit it, there's a certain tension between these two. Molly admitted to getting over Sherlock, even though her current boyfriend is a Sherlock lookalike, but why was Lestrade extra pissy in the start of the second episode?

Sure he was pissed because of that one case, but remember the end of the first episode when Molly showed off her new boyfriend and Greg Lestrade was like, "So, is this going to be a long term thing?" or something like that? He might have been upset over that. BIG OTP ALERT, THEY NEED TO HAPPEN.

And please tell me Greg sat next to Molly at the wedding for a reason.

I would also not like to forget how he looked when Molly took off her coat in the Christmas episode in that past season.

Bless his face.

THE DREADED EPISODE 3

Based on the reputations of both creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, we're going to be greeted with a terrifying and traumatizing ending for season 3.
It will probably traumatize us for weeks, leaving us with a cliffhanger and having our heads wrapped around what will happen next season, which we will probably have to wait another 2 years for.

Plus the new supervillain looks like Hannibal Lecter's brother.
Edit: Okay, so Lars Mikkelsen is actually Mads' brother.
Despite the will to spare ourselves from this mess and just watch these two happier episodes over and over again, we're masochists.

We really are.

We've all had a fascination with the World Wrestling Entertainment at some point in our lives. Well, maybe not most of us. It was probably even just a very small handful of teenagers, but when I was one, there was definitely a weird few of us in our group of friends who had to have our dose of WWE.

So naturally, we've all had our favourite wrestlers.

Bautista and Rey Mysterio.

There was only a few of them that sprung into my mind when I want to remember my favourite ones. Rey Mysterio was my favourite tiny (compared to the other wrestlers) masked flying squirrel, John Cena was the guy with the chains and the white boy hip hop persona with a good heart and The Undertaker was a legend.

But what stole most of our attention and our little hearts was the buff beefcake with a kind face, Bastista, or what he's now known now, Dave Bautista.

His reign in WWE.

But what now excites my beating heart is the fact that he's in more and more must-see films. Later this year, he'll be gracing our big screens in Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" as Drax the Destroyer. And with the films being one of the most highly anticipated films of 2014, it will be exciting to see where else he would be headed in the film industry.

The first ever look at "Guardians of the Galaxy" with Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Bautista and Vin Diesel.

What Bautista will be playing in the film.

Previously, he's appeared in RZA and Eli Roth's "The Man with the Iron Fists". The film as also presented by Quentin Tarantino, one of my favourite directors and even though the film hadn't received that big of a welcome last year it still had certainly received cult favourite status.

The guy in "The Man with the Iron Fists".

Bautista also appeared in 2013's "Riddick" with Vin Diesel. The film franchise has been a great favourite by many and last years offering was fairly received.

In "Riddick".

With both of these films in 2013, 2014 will only mean bigger and better things for the wrestler-turned-actor. His roles in "The Man with the Iron Fists" and "Riddick" proved that he deserves to be in great entertaining films, and with his upcoming role in "Guardians" it will only be a matter of time until he does get to be more known in films and we can't wait!

If you're still unfamiliar with Bautista (for shame though), here are a few fun facts about the most promising action star.

5 fun facts about Dave Bautista.

1. His dad is Filipino and his mom is Greek, which explains his very good face.

2. He was a lifeguard before he pursued body-building.

3. He also worked as a bouncer for clubs until he was arrested for fighting two patrons, and left one of them unconscious.

4. He has a wide range of tattoos, including a large Chinese dragon on his back.

5. He's a 44 year old grandfather.

We can't wait for "Guardians", especially with this beefy granddad starring alongside Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana. We hope the big budget comic book film will win the hearts of the audiences so that he could star in more cool films. Maybe he'll follow the stepf of his buddy Vin Diesel, as long as he doesn't do another "Pacifier", he'll be fine.