Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 130

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Asked to rank the world's four most populous nations, you'd surely come up with China, India, and the U.S. as the obvious #1, 2 and 3. But how about #4? Try Indonesia on for size. That's right, Indonesia.

Almost as eye-popping a statistic is the number of recordings—more than 1,500 since the beginning of 2010—posted at Madrotter, the Indonesian music blog hosted by the dizzyingly prolific, Bandung-based, Dutchman Henk Madrotter. He's a fellow who clearly prioritizes sharing prized records and cassettes ahead of eating and sleeping.

We're all about celebrating music blogs here at the Motherlode, but the volume of amazing digital treasures Henk has amassed in less than three years online is a trove of entirely different magnitude. It's nothing less than one of the world's great libraries of Indonesian folk and pop!

Earlier this year, Madrotter put up a number of cassettes by percussionist/pop star Darso (a.k.a. Hendarso) that really blew me away. Eager to know more I began Googling, but virtually all the links I came up with led back to more postings at Madrotter! (The blog has nearly 20 recordings in all.) Last night on my radio show Give the Drummer Some, I featured an hour of Darso's music (listen to the archive). Below are five of my favorites shared at the magnificent Madrotter.

 

 Thanks Henk!

 

Hendarso & Neneng Yeti Syarifah  ~  "Beurit"
"Very nice cassette by SUNDANESE pop-legend HENDARSO, all the music is percussion, bambu xylophones, gongs, kendang and beautiful singing by HENDARSO and NENENG YETI SYARIFAH."  (Henk Madrotter)

 

 

 

 

Darso  ~  "Badag Kandel"
"Amazing cassette from DARSO a.k.a HENDARSO singing with DEDEH ROSITA... This is a style called CALUNG and If you like percussion you're going to love this one, very tight, very fast, bambu-xylophone, angklung, kendang and a gong.... AMAZING.... I'll be hunting for more of DARSO'S music."  (Henk Madrotter)

 

 

 

Darso & Detty Kurnia  ~  "Jawaban Mana Tahan" 
"Beautiful and very trippy cassette from the great Calung master DARSO with singer Detty Kurnia ripped at a hallucinogenic 320 kbps."  (Henk Madrotter)

 

 

 

 

Darso  ~  "Bakekok"
"Another nice CALUNG percussion cassette from Bandung's DARSO!"  (Henk Madrotter)

 

 

 

 

Hendarso  ~  "Layung Sari, Vol. 8"
"Diving deep into SUNDANESE culture again with this fantastic cassette from the great HENDARSO, 100% percussion!"  (Henk Madrotter)

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Comments

[Henk Madrotter]

You are welcome brother Doug:) definitely on the hunt for more Darso:) And thanks for this!!!!

[Freeedom]

Thanks! The bar where I work has been enriched greatly by the music you have shared.

[Jack]

As always, Doug, thanks! What the hell would we do without you?