Malaysia’s Sound Flowers festival returns with lineup featuring Lab The Rat, Rina-Hime and more

Malaysia’s Sound Flowers festival has returned with a lineup featuring female-fronted acts taking centre stage.

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The festival, which is set to take place this March 11 at the Panggung Asia in Gombak, Kuala Lumpur, will showcase the talents of Malaysia’s female-fronted acts, with alt-pop band Lab The Rat, J-pop singer Rina-Hime, singer-songwriter Hawa, Johor-based post-hardcore band Judos and more set to take the stage in the first wave of acts announced.

Early bird tickets are now available at Ticket2U at MYR49, with the price set to increase once the next wave of acts is announced. Organisers Kelipan Store have not indicated when the second wave will be announced.

@labtherat is back! If you know item..

Fyi, lab the rat adalah band yang dianggotai oleh syarul @lovemebutch & juga wifey bersama-sama adik bradik yang lain. Now, Vokalis baru is up!https://t.co/oxDPNL457b@RinaaHime @EJsafari @NismApin @ElevenTonightMY @judosmy pic.twitter.com/Sh5HHBKZva

— SOUNDFLOWERS 11March23 (@kelipanstore) January 16, 2023

The inaugural edition of Sound Flowers festival was held in 2019 and featured the likes of singer-songwriter Wani Ardy, alt-pop group Margosa, pop-punk band Night Skies & Visions and indie group Time Machine taking the stage at the now-defunct Intunnation venue in the Taman Tun Dr Ismail suburb of Kuala Lumpur.

Lab The Rat first formed in 2004 by Love Me Butch vocalist Syarul Reza and then-fiance Raja Shahirah alongside Syarul’s brothers Syaril Zizi and Syaiful Nazri, with Azwan Hadi and Nik Azwaa completing the group. The band released their only album to date, ‘Love The Mission’, in 2013 following the release of the singles ‘I Know’ and ‘Unstoppable’ in 2011 and ‘City’ in 2012.

The group went on hiatus in 2014.

J-pop singer Rina-Hime was one of the finalists at the 2021 Anugerah Lagu Indie awards, where she was nominated alongside Bihzu, Ruang Hati featuring Heidi Moru, Late Night Frequency, Kapow, Runs, Dididanoto, Ber_ featuring Leaism, and Magasatwa from a pool of over 700 submitted tracks from Malaysian and Malaysia-based artists. Rapper Arunboii was was eventually crowned the winner for his debut single ‘Enge Port’.

She most recently released her second single ‘Sanctuary’ in November last year, nearly a year after releasing her debut single ‘All Over Again’. Both singles were produced by Raja Nazmin Shah of Sekumpulan Orang Gila, her husband.

The lineup for Sound Flowers 2023 so far is:

Lab The Rat
Rina-Hime
Judos
AVA
HAwa

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