Harry Roesli - 1976 - Titik Api
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One of the most brilliant and original characters on the Indonesian scene, Djauhar Zaharsjah Fachruddin Roesli, better known as Harry Roesli, will make an infinite number of albums in the second half of the seventies that earn him the deserved epithet of Frank Zappa of Indonesia. More than in the music itself, the similarities between these two great artists can be found in the overwhelming creativity and originality and in the sarcastic approach in the lyrics and music. Among indonesian artists Harry is one of the most authentically Indonesian and his music is the one that pays less debt with the West. This is why he could also be the most difficult artist to assimilate.
Roesli debut in 1973 with the release of the first and only Philosophy Gang record, a seminal record for the development of Indonesian prog but quite immature and which still paid debt to Western music. After the Philosophy Gang chapter, Harry begins a very long solo career, a bit discontinuous, but in which he will reach peaks of absolute excellence.
First, in 1973 he founded the Ken Arok theater company, carrying the musical work of the same name around until 1975, when he disbanded the company to go to Holland to study composition at the Rotterdam Conservatory. In 1976 the album "Ken Arok" was released, testimony of the homonymous musical work and manifesto of the poetics that will characterize his subsequent production. "Ken Arok" definitely breaks with the previous album, it is a real rock opera in Indonesian sauce. Elements of the Indonesian tradition begin to make their way into Roesli's music. Although still a little bit unripe, the result is surprising!
With the subsequent "Titik Api", in 1976, the definitive turning point takes place, Harry almost completely abandons Western stylistic features and begins an experiment in an attempt to blend traditional Indonesian pentatonic music with Western diatonic music (an approach that will be taken in ways other than Gurh Gipsy). Roesli and his band wonderfully combine Indonesian traditional music and their instruments with classic rock instruments: bass, guitars, drums and keyboards. In particular, the latter and how they naturally blend with the dynamics of gamelan, are the hallmark of the Indonesian artist's music. Older brother of "Ken Arok", the album "Titik Api" sublimates Roesli's poetics and becomes the absolute pinnacle of his discography and Indonesian prog in general. In “Titik Api”, unlike almost all the Indonesian prog albums of the period, there is no trace of bands like Genesis, Yes, Uriah Heep, Pink Floyd or other English prog groups; Roesli defines his style in a unique and original way as no one else has ever succeeded and will succeed in the musical panorama of the archipelago!
With "Tigra Bendera" we return a little more to Western music, but the result is still great. There are now references to Pink Floyd, Santana, ELP and especially Gentle Giant, with extensive use of the typical counterpoint of the English band. The following "Gadis Plastik" is a little less progressive and a little more pop, with funk and bluesy streaks, the latter due to the harmonica of his faithful collaborator Harry Pochang (former member of the Philosophy Gang). The 1978 records, albeit inferior, present interesting ideas, continuing along the lines of “Gadis Plastik”. An exception is the splendid EP "Daun" which is certainly the most progressive and not surprisingly published by SM. Between '77 and '78 the two collaborations with the vocal ensemble Kharisma (in which a very young Fariz RM also participates in the drums) also stand out, discs always poised between melodic and more experimental solutions and where in some points involuntarily recalling also the Magma. In particular, the second shows us the most experimental and ingenious Roesli that we had left in Titik Api and Ken Arok.
