Navicula is a four piece band, consisting of Robi on guitar and vocals, Dankie on guitar, Made on bass and Gembull on drums. Formed in the capital of this island, Denpasar, back in 1996, this band has lived quite a journey by now.

With their grunge rock undertone combined with ethnic, psychedelic, alternative, progressive and straightforward rock sound, these four have managed to embrace various great opportunities along the way, keeping up a pretty damn awesome reputation and national profile, despite their choice of being independent and based on this island instead of the megapolitan of Jakarta. No wonder they have made it to their 7^th album, including Alkemis, their 4^th album released with Sony-BMG in 2004 before they decided to return to their indie label. And they definitely haven't stopped there. 

Since the very beginning, Navicula has always been very active in bringing up environmental and social issues through their grunge tunes, which is indeed the reason why they earned the title "Green Grunge Gentlemen". Understandably, that has put them on the map even more, not only for being the well-respected rock stars, but also for their idealism and activism as well as consistency in voicing such issues for what they truly are. Their name has been associated with NGOs and movements that fight for environmental and social issues, not only in Bali, but nationwide. As they rocked on, they have done a great job gaining awareness in the younger generation as well, as undoubtedly there is this certain chemistry between youths and the wisdom spread by their favorite kind of role model, the guys rocking the stage.

This is most definitely not the first time for us to have Navicula as Artist of the Week. To be honest, every few months there is actually always a good reason to invite them again and have them share their story, as let’s just face it, these dudes are always up to something, performing on interesting TV shows, island hopping from gig to gig, or like last year when they went for a recording session and gigs in the United States. Well, this time it is mostly about their double-album launching of Love Bomb!

Love Bomb is a special one; repackaged double album, 16 songs of which 5 were recorded in Bali and 11 were recorded in Hollywood, all about love, the understanding of love, the universal kind of love. Plus there are countless background stories and other interesting characters involved in all this!

Curious yet? If you’re on the island this weekend, you definitely should not miss the launching of the album, in the very same city the whole journey started; Denpasar! There’s no doubt that Taman Baca in Kesiman, East Denpasar is going to be completely packed this Saturday night, with all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds! It’s going to be epic! We know that we can’t wait to be there and rock the evening with the band, and of course friends!

As a warm up to this happening, you can start already by tuning into www.baliradio.net, daily at  7 am, 12 am, 7 pm and midnight for the tracks fresh from their new album! We will have interviews and video footage from the launching party too, and we’ll keep you posted!

For more details about the album launching and to get your tickets, please check out:

http://www.naviculamusic.com

https://www.facebook.com/navicula

https://twitter.com/naviculamusic