It was back in high school and I made some new friends that had just moved to the states after growing up in Indonesia. They shared some Gamelan cassettes with me, which blew my mind. I loved the percussion, chants, flutes, and wild rhythm shifts. Of course the liner notes were not in English so I had no idea what I was actually listening to, but it stuck with me. I sought out many additional recordings and eventually settled on Balinese Gamelan as the style I liked the most. Javanese was my next favorite style, and frequently more mellow. The Sudanese style was the most wild and chaotic, which surprisingly I didn't like as much given that i was into industrial and punk heavily at the time.
Ever since then, I've always had a few Gamelan CDs or mp3s near at hand and take every opportunity to introduce friends to the style. I turned one member of my Sangha on to it, and he in turn is trying to learn and audition for the local Colorado chapter of a Gamelan orchestra. Then came some wonderful surprises with other styles of music I was listening to. Like the Residents pairing up with Sekar Jaya on a "Santa Dog" installment. Or Kim Hiorthoy's "Det Blev Fel" which adeptly uses the Gamelan sounds for an electronic dance track. I was thrilled that one of my favorite bands, His Name Is Alive, included the USA vs Gamelan Cd in the limited Cloud Box set with some amusing liner notes about almost a guerilla style takeover of the Michigan college Gamelan instrument collection.
That leads us to this three part mix of unexpected Gamelan. My premise was to collect several examples where Gamelan instruments or styles were incorporated by non-Gamelan oriented musicians. The more I researched, the more tracks I found that fit this description. Sure, the presence is stronger in some tracks than others.
00:00 His Name Is Alive - USA vs Gamelan track 5
06:42 This Heat with Mario Boyer Diekuuroh - various cassette recording 1977-78 track 1
08:36 The Residents & Sekar Jaya - Santa Dog for Gamelan Orchestra
13:38 Thomas Bartlett & Nico Muhly - Gambangan
15:30 Cybe - Elektro Gamelan
17:52 Squarepusher - Gong Acid
22:33 Eberhard Schoener - Gong Gede
27:56 Gregory Taylor - Historian (Sejarawan)
40:20 Mike Oldfield - Blood Sucking
41:37 University of Illinois Ensemble, Freda Pierce - The Bewitched
51:08 Sun City Girls - Roulette Peace Pipes
54:49 Aphex Twin - Jynweythek Ylow
56:58 Steve Reich and Musicians - Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ
75:23 Pantayo - Bakal Bote
77:33 Monica Pearce - Denim - Jamie Drake, Joseph Ferretti, Daniel Morphy & Wesley Shen
photo credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamelan
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