9 on Bali - Sanur CDEP
SKU
CCCC9
This is a pretty cool album, as it actually does what it say it is trying to do, which is to combine Balinese /Indonesian gamelon music with a oddball and pretty darn entrancing form of oddball/experimental/progressive rock.
"9 on Bali was formed in 2003 by a trio of Dans; Dan Sweigert and Dan VanSchindel (both from Star Period Star), and veteran home-taper Dan Susnara. They released their debut CD "Kite Hawker on the Beach" in 2005, an album that mixed indie rock, Brazilian pop, and psychedelic music. Ryan Humm from Splendid Magazine said that "9 on Bali transcends countries & genres with relative ease."
Drawing from the chordal & melodic beauty of Brazilian jazz & pop, and the textural & rhythmic complexity of Indonesian gamelan music, 9 on Bali has forged a new kind of progressive rock. "Sanur" is one 26-minute piece. Here 9 on Bali explores these exotic landscapes with touches of hand made percussive instruments, gongs, rindik, and kalimba along with the standard "rock gear" of guitars, keyboards, and drums. The music is at times intricate & layered, heavy, ambient, experimental, and poppy. Walking along the beach in "Sanur" you can hear the lingering phrases of various schools of gamelan music intermingling in the air from the speedy agressiveness of the gamelan kebyar to the slow heaviness of the jegog. 9 on Bali attempts to capture that same feeling in "Sanur.'"