Those Shocking, Shaking Days

Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk: 1970-1978

I picked up this compilation of 70s Indonesian music under the belief that no album that comes out of Egon's Now-Again record label, an off-shot of Stones Throw, could ever be bad.  I knew nothing of the Indonesian music scene of any decade, and have never been much of a rock fan, but I thought this would be worth checking out.

What you get with this album is twenty tracks of incredible music.  Egon and his team have curated a stunning portrait of a post-colonial, predominately Muslim country that was stifling under the control to two successive dictators.  When Sukarno was in power, any attempt to emulate the music of the West was actively discouraged.  When Suharto took over, dissidence became ever more difficult, yet many of the tracks collected here take on the governments, something that was easier to do by singing in English.

There are a number of big Indonesian names here (or so we are told by the liner notes) - Panbers, Rollies, Golden Wing, Shark Move, AKA, Koes Plus, Black Brothers, and Freedom of Rhapsodia are all giants of the scene.  There is a lot of creative, funky music on this disc from a lot of bands you'll likely never come across again.