“Telah Dicoba” Ken Dedes group
Dangdut is Indonesia’s most popular type of music, blending western rock instrumentation with traditional Indonesian instruments gendang, a two-headed drum, and suling, a bamboo flute. It has evolved over the last few decades, adopting sleeker production aesthetics, and, in my estimation, losing some of the bite of the performances of the 1980s, one of the reasons I’m highlighting this gem by Ken Dedes group.
Scholar of Indonesian music Jeremy Wallach explains that, “the key performers are a master of ceremonies, several singers of both genders, and an instrumental ensemble consisting of gendang, suling, two electric guitars, electric bass guitar, two electronic keyboards, tambourine, trap drum set (often played by the same musician who played the gendang), and, in some cases, electrified mandolin and/or a brass section. Singers generally operated independently of instrumental groups and sang with several different local ensembles.”
While dangdut singers are often female, the instrumentalists are overwhelmingly male, which makes Ken Dedes group notable. Wallach writes, “Kendedes Group, named for Ken Dhedhes, the legendary queen of the thirteenth-century Javanese kingdom of Singasari, was formed in 1976 by singer/gendang player Titiek Nur. They were the only was the only all-female dangdut ensemble active in Jakarta in 1999–2000. Although I have witnessed Titiek sing and play gendang at the same time, this mode of performance was highly un- usual. In every other dangdut performance I attended, male and female dangdut performers sang and danced but did not play instruments on- stage, and their backing bands were composed entirely of men.”
I find this video captivating not only for the incredible 80s Indonesian-futurist vibe that is going on (also, those disinterested choreographed dance moves are so killer), but the song has a truly lovely and sad melody, which juxtaposed against its upbeat rhythm is really effective. Dramatic flourishes of synth strings and suling passages, descending piano glissandos, and electric guitar riffs come in and out of the arrangement to offer exciting textural variety. The steady electric bass and gendang backbone of the song interlocks with the electric piano/electric guitar upstroke rhythm so that the song never feels overly sweet and saccharin like some of the other dangdut videos I was browsing through. A lot of times, maybe because of my western ear and my allergy to racist uses of wood flutes in cinema portraying Asians, fusions of “eastern” instruments feel tacked on and insincere when played in a western arrangement. With that said, “Telah Dicoba” really works well. It’s a nice blend.
After consulting a dictionary, I think the title of the song means something along the lines of “It’s All Been Done,” which would fit the music well.
(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvmYU1OPodY)
