Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Topeng Tugek: Babad Mengwi (Aneka 179)


This is a raw, lo-fi cassette recording documenting a Balinese performance of the venerable Indonesian topeng mask dance. The propulsive gamelan overture that opens side A sounds really great through the murky tape fuzz, periodic mic feedback, and raucous crowd noise. For more info on Balinese topeng here's a good Jakarta Post article from 2001, specifically talking about the humor that's often a feature of performances in Bali these days, and also mentioning I Gusti Ngurah Windia who performs on this very tape.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a wonderful blog!!

there are not many out there in blogland who post indonesian or thai music. i see you just have begun, and are already quite active... all the best for you and the fried brains of your visitors! ;)

lucky

p.s.: i put a link to your blog.

matt said...

hi lucky,
thanks for the kind words and checking things out!
cheers,
matt