Street Music of Java

While this stellar compilation kind of falls outside of my usual mandate of attempting to post albums and songs that are not available from the North American/ European markets (to my knowledge, that is!) I feel as if this album warrants me breaking (or rather, only half breaking--it's quite out of print!) my own rules.

Released in 1990 by the label Original Music, Street Music of Java is an joyous romp through various infectious forms of music played by small street ensembles in Java. Not all the styles are strictly Javanese but the music consistently fun and beautifully performed, full of hoarse female voices, scratchy violin, buoyant drumming. There's also plenty of that very Indonesian-sounding guitar playing. Those of you who have listened to any of the super asli keroncong or the Smithsonian Indonesian Guitars compilation can attest that there's a very uniquely Indonesian style of guitar playing (often sort of a blend of old Portuguese colonial influences with kacapi playing).

Featuring various ramshackle forms of familiar Indonesian popular and folk styles, each song on this compilation feels like a hit single albeit minus any studio frills. You'll hear the Bollywood-informed dance music known as dangdut whittled down to an acoustic ensemble with near-shouted vocals, replete with gleeful outburst of laughter. There's also some languid kerocong (very Portuguese-sounding) numbers with enough of grit to them to differentiate them from the myriad adult-contemporary recordings of keroncong out there. Dry throated crooning voices sing sweetly weaving themselves "pitchy" yet quite ornate violin lines, atop the trademark interlock plucked parts.

The vocals in the Melayu guitar-tunggal ("solo guitar") style track "Hinam Himam" displays a Islamic influence you frequently hear in Indonesian and Malaysian musics. While the vocals have an Arabic music flavour, the strummed guitar almost evokes South American folk styles.

The highlight for me is the folksy dangdut track "Kuda Lumping". With a lilting bounce in the drums, the loosely-strung twang of a cheap guitar and tambourines offer some rapid rhythmic propulsion. Meanwhile the shrill squawking vocals dance along the line of the songs ridiculously catchy and playful melody. Strangely I'm left with the thought that you could almost hear an Indonesian version of the Slits covering this song plugged-in!

Later you get some coarse examples of langgam jawa, both in a more authentic and a kerocongified format before some particularly spare vocal & drum treatments of the dangdut rhythm.

Near the close of the album you get a taste of some ronggeng-based music, which feature some of the familiar gamelan instruments which accompany some yearning male-female vocal exchanges. There's also a short processional recording (also labelled "Kuda Lumping") before a lengthy final cut which features the siter (a zither), percussion, clapping and woozily soulful singing.

It's a damn shame that this album is out of print and, like a number of excellent rare early 90's releases fetches a king's ransom on Amazon marketplace!

Here's the link!

Wannabe Indian Music from South East Asia.

I can definitely see why one might want to be Indian. Indian culture is rich, diverse and multifaceted and its roots run deep.

Another thing is it's one of the best countries, musically in the world, so it's no wonder musicians feel compelled to imitate their styles! And it's not just goras like George Harrison who were inclined that way. In South East Asia, there's been a longstanding obsession with Bollywood in particular. Two fellow bloggers have been kind enough to provide us with interesting examples of such musics.

Over at monrakplengthai we have a great record by Chatri Sichon which demonstrates a nice fusion of Thai sensibilities to 1950's-70's Bollywood-style arrangements.

Meanwhile, at Madrotter we hear a peculiar fusion of Jaipongan, Dangdut and old-fashioned Bollywood which even includes a cover of Lata Mangeshkar's early hit "Aayega Aanewale" from the 1949 spookfest Mahal (check track 4!).

Madrotter also features this strange soundtrack(?) which contains songs in what sounds like Hindi and in bahasa Indonesia. The arrangements and vocals are largely derivative of Bollywood while, still maintaining a certain detectable Indonesian-ness.

Anyway... Enjoy!

GREAT LINK ALERT: MADROTTER

Being a huge fan of Indonesian music I went nuts when I found this MP3 blog, Madrotter.

This is a lovely site as it gives a small peep into the insanely diverse musical world of Indonesia without cutting too many corners. Poking through the blog archive, you can see that near its inception, it's weighted far more toward the underground hip hop scene in Indonesia. This makes sense too as he is Rotterdam ex-pat Hip hop producer who's been living Indonesia (currently in Bandung, West Java) since 1996.

More recently, Madrotter's been digging up all sorts of treasures, from hip hop to Jaipong, schmaltzy Waldjinah records, traditional Sundanese stuff, hardcore ... even Indonesian bollywood!??!?!

Exciting, to say the least. Pay Madrotter a visit or one every few days. He lives in Indonesia, so surely has access to a lot of awesome things quite readily. The Mp3s are only 128kbps, but the Internet ain't the same over there, I've been told so cut the dude some slack!

Suarasama - Fajar Di Atas Awan - be excited!

Just for your info. Northern Sumateran band (led by a couple of ethnomusicologists) Suarasama have had their sublime first album Fajar Di Atas Awan picked up for reissue by Drag City for release August 19, 2008.

To refresh your memories, these are the people who were featured on the final track of Smithsonian's Indonesian Guitars. While there is a slight, slight new-agey/ world musicy vibe that they have, the biggest strengths which set them apart is that A) they opt for mainly acoustic instruments; B) they have great taste; C) they draw on classical musics from around the world in the sense that there's a lot of space in the music which allows the intense gestural detail to be highlighted.

Another great thing is that they manage to sound inspired by Indian music and, to an extent Arab music as well (but how much is that just the Northern Sumateran thing?) but they are by no means dabblers making shallow music. This stuff is a mix of folksy rawness with understated classical virtuosity and a sprinkle of pop-sugar to sweeten things ever so slightly.

Here's a link to their website.

and here's their Drag City page: