V/A Wayang Golek: The Sound & Celebration of Sundanese Puppet Theater (Music of the Earth) 6cd 37.00
Let's see if I can do this set the justice it deserves and be as brief as possible. Wayang, or puppet theater, is the premier form of dramatic expression in much of Indonesia and exists in a myriad of forms, often unique to particular regions. It is performed for weddings, graduations, circumcisions and numerous other auspicious occasions and social events. Combining music, song, and story telling it can relate moral, historical, political, and puerile functions using stories taken from familiar classic tales (most often used are the Indian epics Mahabarata and Ramayana.) What's more, puppet theater is an event that combines high and low culture that could, in western terms, only be expressed analogously as a melange (which it is not) say, of Shakespeare meets Bach's "Matthew's Passion" meets Star Wars meets Wagner's "Ring Cycle" meets Bevis & Butthead and then some. As such, it is a dramatic form that can truly be grasped and appreciated by all members of society regardless of age or education.
Though puppet theater, like much performance in Java and Bali, is a synergetic event, it is the dalang, or puppeteer, that is the real star of the show. He must not only have an excellent story telling, comedic and musical ability (with loads of great improvisational skills), but must be able to bring the puppets to life as well -- often manipulating several at once -- and be able to do all this for very long stretches without a single break. A truly great dalang is also an excellent builder of puppets, the more ornate the better. The enclosed booklet details some of the recent developments in puppet technology, including puppets that actually squirt blood, puke noodles and that can be decapitated. The dalang is not only charged with controlling the puppets and the unfurling of the story, but by extension the gamelan and singers as well by giving them cues (often quite brief) to begin and end the musical pieces which frame events in the story or to accompany battle scenes and the like. Though the general framework of a story is fixed, the dalang's art is in his ability to embellish his narration of the tale, contextualizing it to the event at hand, often delivering witty barbs at the wayang's sponsors or members of the gamelan. The political possibilities of such an event are pretty much limitless and dalang often use the performance as a means of criticizing government corruption and oppression, which has even resulted in the persecution and imprisonment of dalang.
What makes this recording uniquely special is that it is the first time an entire live performance of wayang golek has been recorded and released. There have been plenty of cassette and cd issues of abbreviated wayang performances, many being done in a recording studio. But, clocking in at just under 7 hours (squeezed onto 6 cds), it's no wonder performances of wayang golek are not released in their entirety. This recording was made in 1994 and was sponsored by the national telecommunications company PTT Telkom. The dalang for the performance, Asep Sunandar Sunarya Giri Harja III, is considered one of the best living dalang in West Java and is heavily sought after for performances. Born into a family of dalang (not only was his father a famous dalang, but three brothers are also professional dalang) he received first prize in the annual wayang golek competition in 1985.
The performance begins with a 41 minute instrumental suite that serves to both warm up the musicians and draw guests to the performance area and is ended with a brief introductory speech over the P.A. system by the event's sponsors. Once the performance gets under way, the shrewd and minimal recording method reveals itself: with one microphone over the dalang and another 12 feet away, over the singers and musicians, the super-wide spaced stereo pair is able to pick up as much of the performance as directly as possible. This was important because apparently, just beyond the group was an archaic P.A. system through which the dalang (as well as the female singers) was being reinforced to the crowd of several thousand that were seated beyond the invited guests of a hundred or so. The resulting recording has a bizarre quality; combining the acoustic and unamplified instruments of the gamelan with voice of the dalang picked up by the microphone above him along with the delayed echo of the dalang's voice as it bounces back from distant walls like a bullhorn. The performance moves dreamlike between songs, dialog (with the dalang taking on various voices of the characters in the story), and combinations of both where the dalang will interrupt the singers in the middle of a song with humorous quips, generating mirth from the audience. Although a significant portion of the performance is merely dialog (in fact, during the requisite midnight "clown scene" the dalang sounds almost like a stand up comedian doing a routine at a West Java night club) it is in this writer's opinion that the recording still holds a certain fascination in texture alone. But you needn't worry about missing out on the fun here because the producer has painstakingly gone through the trouble of translating the *entire* performance into English and including it as a .pdf document on the sixth disc (it is also available in Sundanese and bahasa Indonesia if those suit better) which you can print out so you can follow along while listening. Along with the 7 hours of the wayang golek performance and the complete text translation, this set also comes with a detailed 44 page booklet. The very detailed and superbly researched notes cover the history of wayang golek, the puppets, music, plus information specific to this performance such as a story synopsis as well as its origin, and information on the performers involved. Andrew Weintraub, a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh who specializes in the performing arts of West Java, put together the set (recording the performance, translating the dialog and writing the liner notes) and has done a remarkable job. Though some may find this a bit steep of an investment for an introduction to wayang or Sundanese music in general, it is a remarkable and unique production and one that's worth the bite into the old leather bi-fold. And given how cheap this set is, you're hardly paying much per disc. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Tatalu (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Tatalu (excerpt 2)"
RealAudio clip: "Kawitan"
RealAudio clip: "Murwa Pondok"
RealAudio clip: "Karatagan"
RealAudio clip: "Asa Tos Tepang"
RealAudio clip: "(Cepot Tells Jokes)"

V/A West Java: Sundanese Jaipong and Other Popular Music (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
We just got the first batch of the Indonesia / South Pacific installment of Nonesuch's Explorer reissues, which total 12 in number. Ten of the discs are from either Java or Bali and just about each one features an entirely different form of gamelan. A Gamelan, as a cursory way of introduction, is an orchestra of primarily bronze (though bamboo gamelan are also common) percussion instruments -- metallophones, gongs, gong-chimes -- and drums. Quite often a gamelan will have a specific repertoire that it is exclusively built for the performance of, and certain ceremonial gamelan are limited to the performance of a single piece. On top of this, throughout Java and Bali there is an ever changing world of both village and court traditions which continue to defy definitions. These discs just in from Bali and Central & Western Java just scratch the surface of gamelan throughout Indonesia, but they're a fine introduction anyway.
Jaipongan and the other styles included on this disc are quite possibly some of the most interesting forms of popular music to develop in Indonesia or the world in recent times. Sunda (not to be confused by the geographically dyslexic with the Sudan) lies in Western Java and, as it seems holds true throughout Indonesia, has its own unique music, dance and dramatic arts exclusive to the relatively small geographic region in which it's contained. The story of Jaipongan's creation is almost as interesting as the music itself. And while it is thoroughly written about in the accompanying liner notes by none other than Philip Yampolsky (the man what brought us the 20 volume "Music of Indonesia" series on Smithsonian Folkways), I'll try to paraphrase as briefly as possible to pique your interest here.
As a catalyst for the creation of Jaipongan, a great deal is owed to Indonesian President Sukarno who, in the early 1960's, impressed upon Indonesians to cherish their traditional arts. In 1974, an inspired rennaissance man of an artist/entrepreneur by the name of Gugum Gumbira Tirasondajaja took Sukarno up on his challenge and put together a new genre of popular music that drew from traditional Sundanese music for its ingredients. What Sukarno probably wasn't looking for was a new popular genre built out of a dance genre in which a professional dancer -- often a prostitute -- invites men to dance with her. Gugum replaced the dance's accompaniment (limited to 3 small gongs) with a stripped down Degung gamelan common to Sunda. But most impressive was his addition to all this an impressive battery of drums played in a suitably flamboyant fashion -- much of the patterns taken from Wayang Golek (shadowless puppet theater which uses 3 dimensional puppets.) When you consider that the drummer in this ensemble, despite the expanded drums at his disposal, is still limited to a handful of two-headed barrel drums, it's enough to make Neil Peart blush at the way he plays them. Using pressure applied by the heel of the foot, or the forearm, the drummer can eke out glissandi or melodic fragments -- and they do so constantly. The ensemble wouldn't be complete, of course, without a singer. And the singer for this ensemble -- Gugum's Jugala Group -- is Idjah Hadidjah, probably the most famous in Sunda. Married to a famous dalang (puppeteer), she became somewhat famous herself singing during his Wayang Golek performances. Her silky and sensuous singing makes the perfect counterpoint to the frenetic drumming and is probably the single biggest reason why this album sold so well. Which reminds me... A lot of you have already probably noticed the nice new cover art these Explorer reissues are getting. As nice as the cover art is, it has already caused a little confusion here at Aquarius with customers who already own the previous CD issues of the discs in the Indonesian part of the series. This album, originally released under Idjah Hadidjah's name as "Tonggeret", was only just fairly recently released for the first time in the west in 1987. So just a warning to check your collections and make sure you don't have "Tonggeret" in there already. Unless, of course, you want this nicely remastered version with the cool Magnum cover photo.
RealAudio clip: HADIDJAH, IDJAH "Bayu-Bayu"
RealAudio clip: HADIDJAH, IDJAH "Daun Pulus Keser Bojong"

V/A (FM3) HeXieFu (FM3) cd 25.00
Attention Buddha Machine obsessives, here's another sonic artifact / fetishistic release from Buddha Machine masterminds FM3 to collect and obsess over, and yeah, it is still Buddha Machine related. In fact it's another collection of Buddha Machine derived soundscapes, with FM3 removing the loops from the machine, and passing them around to various contemporary Chinese musicians to remix, rework, reinterpret and re-envision, there are a few names we recognize, like Li Jianhong, but so many that we don't, all offering their own interpretations, and the sonic breadth is fairly stunning.
From haunting folky drifts, to groovy Chinese pop, to gorgeous rhythmic percussive workouts, to crackly Philip Jeck like dronescapes, from haunting field recording flecked, reinterpreted traditional Chinese music, to hushed swirling ambience, from actual recordings of a Buddha Machine being played in a remote village, replete with the sounds of insects and wildlife, to minimal abstract dronemusic, from electronic flecked folk pop, to looped rhythmic post industrial electronic skitter, from mysterious spoken word to strange soundtracky sci-fi ambience, and from traditional sounding fluttery flute to super commercial electro pop, and that's just a sampling. It's a pretty amazing listen, varied to be sure, but it all works pretty well together as a whole, and in many cases, especially for the Buddha Machine obsessed, it becomes a game of spot the Buddha Machine loop, not always an easy feat in many cases.
And then there's the packaging. Totally over the top, and in many ways, subtly beholden to the machine that inspired it. First, everything is houses in a printed metallic oversized gold bag, normally used to hold oolong tea, sealed of course, it has to be torn to get inside, but fear not, there's another bag inside, however, that one is sealed too, so to reuse it, you'll have to tear open that one too. Along with the spare bag, there's the disc itself, which is mounted to a heavy textured board, printed front and back with Chinese characters, with a hole punched out of one corner, in which is mounted a metal coin, bearing an imprint of the Buddha Machine, and the coins were apparently cast in metal from the same factory that makes designer buckles, rings and necklaces, the label pointing out that "Your coin could have been a Gucci!", there's a little sticker, featuring more Chinese characters, and then there are a handful of members only "VIP" cards, which look like blank credit cards, and which are apparently ubiquitous in status-conscious modern China, each on a different color, the colors of the original Buddha Machines of course.
LIMITED TO 2000 COPIES.
MPEG Stream: HUANG JIN "Tong Nian Ju Gu"
MPEG Stream: B6 "Yu Qiu Yu"
MPEG Stream: LI JIANHONG "Buddha Machine In Li Village"

V/A (ROBERT MILLIS) My Friend Rain (Sublime Frequencies) cd + dvd 21.00
Yet another fantastic collection of fascinating sights and sounds from Sublime Frequencies, this time from Southeast Asia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, etc... filmed by Robert Millis, he of Climax Golden Twins, as well as a frequent Sublime Frequencies contributor / collaborator / curator and an avid collector of world music and lost 78s. And like past SF dvds, My Friend Rain is another fantastical journey through the streets of Southeast Asia, a travelogue of street musicians, town squares, temples, forests, people's homes, markets, food stalls, performances are interspersed with more seemingly mundane occurrences, which somehow still seem magical, a priest sweeping out a rainswept temple floor, food being assembled while a band plays wildly in the background, a glorious vocal and drum cacophony, crashing cymbals, and there's also some serious weirdness, a strange selection of statues, some all bloody with their guts pulled out, meat being chopped on a cart, boats being driven through barely enough water to keep them afloat... Like a series of abstract short films woven together into a fantastically impressionistic musical portrait of places and people. One of the coolest moments a guy who plays this incredible circular drum set, all these tiny drums hanging in a row, totally encircling the performer, and he plays them super fast, with his hands, and the sounds are so divine, somewhere between gamelan and steel drums. Would love to get a whole record of just that.
There's so much to see, definitely worth rewatching.
The dvd is also accompanied by a cd, a soundtrack, featuring all the music featured in the film, popular, traditional, culled from live performances, lp archives and old cassettes, including that amazing circular drum piece (the instrument is called a Hsiang Waing), as well as the blind musician who opens and closes the film, playing a strange guitar with a metal bowl affixed to the neck for percussion, there's also a gorgeous song performed with a small leaf held between the musicians fingers and played like a reed, and of course some Asian pop songs, fuzzy, poppy, funky, groovy, such good stuff. Like all Sublime Frequencies release, so very recommended.
MPEG Stream: ZAW WIN SHEIN (MYANMAR) "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?"
MPEG Stream: UNKNOWN BLIND STREET MUSICIAN (THAILAND) "Unknown"
MPEG Stream: LASHIO THEIN AUNG (MYANMAR) "Ugly Face With A Kind Heart"
MPEG Stream: MEAS HOKSENG (CAMBODIA) "Jomnes Jis Kor Aung (Khmer Remix Version)"
MPEG Stream: UNKNOWN ELEPHANT MAHOOT (CAMBODIA) "Improvisation With A Small Leaf"

VIETNAMESE WATER PUPPETS (Custodian, Color Zoo Containers) cassette 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A bit of an odd release from oddly named local cassette label Custodian, Color Zoo Containers, not that all their releases aren't a bit odd, having brought us the corrosive dronemaking of Core Of The Coalman, the buzzy soundscaping of the Moppers, and of course, the textural / industrial lo-fi noismaking of Take Up Serpents. The title sounds like this could be some sort of Caroliner Rainbow side project weirdness, but in fact, this is indeed an actual recording, made in Vietnam in 2004, of traditional Vietnamese music from a Water Puppet Show performed by the Thang Long Water Puppet Troupe, and is fantastic, folky and epic, sounding almost Morricone-esque at times, majestic and so melodic, wild percussion, playful melodies, soaring dramatic vocals, even sans the visuals, the music here is so evocative, almost operatic at times, totally mesmerizing and so incredible. Fans of all things Sublime Frequencies, Mississippi Records, and other purveyors of weird and wonderful world music will be in heaven!
LIMITED TO 53 COPIES!! Hand numbered. Super elaborate hand cut and collaged covers. Spray painted gold cassettes.

WALLACH, JEREMY Modern Noise, Fluid Genres: Popular Music In Indonesia, 1997-2001 (The University Of Wisconsin Press) book 24.95
Man, we have the best customers, they play in kick ass bands, they put out killer zines, they run clubs, and cool bars, and are awesome writers, we're constantly impressed and amazed. One such customer is Jeremy Wallach, who (as it says on the back of his book) is a musician, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and an assistant professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and who has just published a book on popular music in Indonesia, which seemed like a total aQ appropriate book if there ever was one.
We only just started it, but figured we oughta get it reviewed and listed so some of you folks could get your hands on it sooner rather than later (we're also reading the Anarcho-crust book reviewed elsewhere on this list!). Modern Noise Fluid Genres is a study, as mentioned above, of Indonesian popular music from the years 1997-2001, viewed through the exploration of recording studios, record stores, neighborhoods, universities, clubs and venues, with a focus on how access to global music has been a boon to creative music making, rather than a hindrance. It's definitely academic, plenty of cultural theory, but also plenty of anecdotes and interviews, visits to video shoots and classrooms, malls and campuses, and discussions with students and musicians, all with an eye on the globalization of music, and how specifically Indonesia fits into that trend.
Includes tons of photos, drawings, lyrics, appendices, a glossary, and also a cd, which includes a handful of tracks demonstrating the various types and styles of modern Indonesian music.
We're definitely digging it so far, and it seems like essential reading for folks who have been digging the Sublime Frequencies series, which is likely MOST of you!

WORMROT Dirge (Earache) cd 15.98
Record number two from these Singaporean grinders, and it's just as fierce and furious as their first. In fact, in some ways it might be even MORE so. Twenty five songs crammed into eighteen minutes, most of the songs between 30 and 45 seconds (a couple 5 seconds or less!), which is plenty of time for these guys to blast out some tangled super frenzied riffing, and some INSANE lightning fast drumming, the vocals a maniacal shriek, and unlike lots of grind, much of the riffing here sounds VERY metal, not so much punk, but actual metal riffery, just sped WAY up, these micro metal epics that SLAY. No wacky covers like the on their first record where they did a Yeah Yeah Yeahs tune, instead, just a relentless blast of grinding metallic fury, with many of the tracks slowing down for some serious chuggery, before exploding in another head shearing blast of blurred brutality. AND unlike a lot of grind, these songs are surprisingly catchy, with some seriously killer riffs, which makes this way more listenable than lots of similar stuff, but somehow, no less heavy and brutal and badass.
MPEG Stream: "No One Gives A Shit"
MPEG Stream: "Compulsive Disposition"
MPEG Stream: "All Go No Emo"
MPEG Stream: "Public Display Of Infection"
MPEG Stream: "Overpowered Violence"

XTATIKA Tongue Bath (Tzadik) cd 16.98
From the obi strip: "New Tzadik Oracles series is proud to begin with the unique visions of singer/songwriter Haena Kim. Featuring hypnotic, trippy vocals, nasty electric bass and two driving Korean percussionists, this is a band that opens up an exciting new world of sound. You've never heard anything like XtatikaÑa magical blend of alternative rock with Korean traditional music. Pansori via Nine Inch Nails."

YAT-KHA Aldyn Dashka (Yat-Kha) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The press release for this described Yat-Kha as "Tuvan music -- with a punk rock twist", which doesn't quite get it right so, in an effort to clarify this remark they say elsewhere: "OK it's not the Sex Pistols kind of punk -- think Joy Division", which is even further from the mark. Why they felt the need to compare Yat-Kha with punk rock or Joy Division we're not certain, but it piqued our interest enough to order a few -- and even more copies once we'd heard it. To be sure, though their distributor Harmonia Mundi isn't the most accurate in describing them, the throat singing of Yat-Kha surely is a looong way from that Smithsonian-Folkways' 1987 release "Tuva: Voices from the Center of Asia", the one that got the whole world hot for Tuvan throat singing. The music of Yat-Kha is much more akin to blues based rock than either the Pistols or Joy Division, but that doesn't really cover it enough! Singer and band leader Albert Kuvezin has a deep, growling bass voice that would make the most accomplished death metal cookie monster vocalist blush. His voice is so impressive that Brian Eno, when judging at the Alma-Aty "Voices of Asia" festival in 1990, made up a prize on the spot for Kuvezin! (Eno would probably also be impressed by the positively Frippertronic sounding guitar solo that surfaces on this disc's "Khary Kyigy"!) Combining both traditional Tuvan instruments (fiddles, drums, banjo-like lute) and the Western flavor of electric guitar and bass, plus fancy recording studios and creative engineers, Yat-Kha produce some damn pretty songs that rock a fair amount as well... And they're on a US tour right now (no SF show, unfortunately), creating an improvised live soundtrack to a 1928 Soviet silent movie classic called "Storm Over Asia", filmed in their Tuvan homeland. Wish we could see/hear that! But, at least we've got this disc to enjoy, an instant and unusual throat-singing favorite.
RealAudio clip: "Oy Adym"
RealAudio clip: "Chorumal Bodum"
RealAudio clip: "Khary Kyigy"

YAT-KHA Tuva.rock (Yat-Kha) cd 28.00

YAT-KHA Yenisei-Punk (Global Music Centre) cd 15.98

ZAHIR, AHMAD Hip 70's Afghan Beats! (Guerssen) cd 17.98
If you've been diggin' the vintage Turkish psych/pop of the Erkin Koray and Cem Karaca discs we've highlighted recently, here's something else for you, quite similar though it's from a bit further to the East... The title they've chosen for this collection would do as a review of it, in a nutshell: "Hip '70s Afghan Beats!" Indeed. Amhad Zahir was a popular Afghan singer, and these tracks, culled from his prodigious discography, are rife with emotive deep voiced crooning, exotic folk flourishes, and East-meets-West stylings (electric wah wah guitar, and tabla too!).
The liner notes (which could have done with an extra round of copy-editing, we're afraid) provide a brief biography of Zahir, who tragically was assassinated in 1979, at the age of 33, by Afghanistan's communist regime, on account of his political beliefs. Before his death, though, he had become hugely popular, and nowadays is apparently still considered a legend, one of Afghanistan's biggest recording stars. Of course, to us ignorant Westerners, he's quite obscure. We can only trust that the unnamed compiler has indeed chosen the "best of" Zahir's output; these tracks sound good to us, anyway! Infectious, hypnotic, moody, with groovy horns, traditional melodies, and reverb-heavy rhythms, it's all quite enjoyable.
MPEG Stream: "Instrumental"
MPEG Stream: "Laily Laily"
MPEG Stream: "Che Kelaf Sar Lad Az Mah"

ZAHIR, AHMAD Hip 70's Afghan Beats! (Guerssen) lp 28.00
If you've been diggin' the vintage Turkish psych/pop of the Erkin Koray and Cem Karaca discs we've highlighted recently, here's something else for you, quite similar though it's from a bit further to the East... The title they've chosen for this collection would do as a review of it, in a nutshell: "Hip '70s Afghan Beats!" Indeed. Amhad Zahir was a popular Afghan singer, and these tracks, culled from his prodigious discography, are rife with emotive deep voiced crooning, exotic folk flourishes, and East-meets-West stylings (electric wah wah guitar, and tabla too!).
The liner notes (which could have done with an extra round of copy-editing, we're afraid) provide a brief biography of Zahir, who tragically was assassinated in 1979, at the age of 33, by Afghanistan's communist regime, on account of his political beliefs. Before his death, though, he had become hugely popular, and nowadays is apparently still considered a legend, one of Afghanistan's biggest recording stars. Of course, to us ignorant Westerners, he's quite obscure. We can only trust that the unnamed compiler has indeed chosen the "best of" Zahir's output; these tracks sound good to us, anyway! Infectious, hypnotic, moody, with groovy horns, traditional melodies, and reverb-heavy rhythms, it's all quite enjoyable.
MPEG Stream: "Instrumental"
MPEG Stream: "Laily Laily"
MPEG Stream: "Che Kelaf Sar Lad Az Mah"