Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

Saw

Last night, Our Kid and I went to the Jakarta Arts House (Gedung Kesenian) for a concert by simakDialog. Having seen them at their launch of Demi Masa, we were keen to hear them again.

Riza Arshad had emailed me to say that they were "going to play a selection of [their] music from various albums. [Their] next will expectedly be released in the end of this year or early next year."

So the music was familiar, not least because I did have the last two albums and played them before setting out for the evening.

The group was minus Dave Lumenta whose contributions at the Goethe Haus gig had "offered 'soundscapes' which I often found intrusive." But soundscapes there but whether they came from the wizardry of ace guitarist Tohpati or Riza's array of electronic keyboards, or both, I'm not sure. It matters not as the intros to familiar tracks were sublimely atmospheric leading into updated Indonesian traditional music, with its fiendishly intricate stop/start rhythms.

What I love about simakDialog's music is the groove generated by the percussionists, who I presume were Endang Ramdan, Erlan Swardana and Emy Tata  – we didn't catch their names – on their array of traditional Indonesian instruments. Emy Tata's set of gamelan gongs hit with a muffled hammer (ceng ceng) was described by Riza as "metal toys".

Their synchronicity, although sometimes subtle, also enabled a powerful groove which got me imagining a ride on an express train. At times I rollicked along and then found myself gazing out of the window as either Riza riffed and soloed or Tohpati reached for sounds unlike any other guitarist I've heard live or on record.

And here I digress, because MoonJune Records, who release simakDialog's album internationally have just released Tohpati's first album with his group Ethnomission, Planet Earth.

Leonardo, proprietor of MoonJune, has this to say about Tohpati.

Ethnomission serves up an exhilarating and wholly original program of instrumental compositions that sets a new high-water mark for Indonesian fusion.

Make no mistake – this isn’t your ibu’s (mother’s) Indonesian music. As a guitarist, Tohpati references such impeccable influences as Terje Rypdal, John McLaughlin (the Mahavishnu-inflected arpeggios and ripping Lifetime-esque single-note bursts), and Robert Fripp. Yet Tohpati is every bit his own axeman, equally at ease unspooling fleet-fingered chromatic runs, pointillist intervallic leaps, pastoral melodies suggestive of Irish traditional music, buoyant fusion, sinister metal crunch, country twang, and enigmatic, and freely improvised soundscapes.

Possessed of a soulful, meaty tone suggestive of John Scofield, Tohpati spices up the proceedings through sparing and tasteful use of pitch shifter, ring modulator, delay, and MIDI guitar synthesizer, all the while retaining an emotive, organic quality.

That is the definition of Tohpati I wish I'd written, although I'd have added Tohpati's occasional, yet thankfully fading, use of Pat Metheny's pastoral tones.

My overall impression of the music was that the group has enhanced their telepathic intimacy and as part of what Riza described to me afterwards as their ongoing creative process, continue to push the boundaries of Indonesian music. They are truly a world-class group.

At two hours, this gig was half an hour shorter than the previous one, and no bad thing for that.

However, and for the sake of balance there should always be a 'however', I do have some caveats.

I would have liked to have heard some acoustic piano added to the mix, whether electronically generated or not. As I type this, I'm listening to Trance Mission, their third album from 2002. By then, they had moved way beyond their initial Pat Metheny Group influence and had a recognisable direction, albeit with a pared down sound, including acoustic piano, compared to what was to come.

I bought Trance Mission pre-gig from the stall in the lobby. Unfortunately Tohpati's Ethnomission wasn't available. (Afterwards, Riza suggested to me that I should ask Leonardo for a copy. Hint, hint, L.)

The audience was sparse, especially for a gig which was part of a festival to commemorate Jakarta's 483rd 'birthday'. A couple of weeks ago I went to an evening of Balinese gamelan which was much better attended, perhaps because it was organised by Jakarta's Balinese community under the patronage of former President Megawati's younger brother Guruh.

Following the final pre-performance gong last night we heard the instructions to not eat or drink, to take photos and to switch off electronic devices. And then there was an absolute silence in the auditorium for five minutes. No-one even dared cough. It was almost eerie.

Sore

Then, as soon as the curtains parted and the auditorium lights dimmed, on went the lights of handheld phones. Focussing on the group was difficult as our eyes were inevitably drown to the panels of white light in front of us. I was so distracted that I mentally rehearsed such lines as "If you don't switch off your effing phone I'm going to shove it down your expletive-deleted throat."

What I did say, in surprisingly fluent Indonesian to the lass immediately in front was that I'd paid good money to see the group and I didn't want to see her. She cringed and cowered down in her seat, as did her similarly distracted boyfriend, and their phones stayed switched off.

I hope they enjoyed the show as much as we did.