.....	Smithsonian Folkways Series Volume 1 to Volume 10 Covers, RealAudio sound files, and purchase links via amazon.com
	Volume 1 East Java 1: Songs Before Dawn-- Gandrung Banyuwangi Purchase info and RealAudio samples	Volume 2 Indonesian Popular Music: Kroncong, Dangdut, and Langgam Jawa Purchase info and RealAudio samples
	Volume 1 The vibrant and earthy musical genre called gandrung accompanies a dance at the end of an all-night celebration, when the accumulated sexual tension of male partygoers needs to be safely dissipated. The provocatively dressed female gandrung dancer/singer emerges (backed by a small ensemble of musicians who play violins, drums, and metal percussion) accompanied by a clownish male vocalist, the pengudang. As she flirts and flits her way through the audience, flicking her scarf at her dance partner/victim of the moment, the penduang goads her with a steady stream of ribald remarks, commands and encouragements. The suite is recorded here is a full performance by one of the music's finest living singers, Gadrung Temu. Volume 2 Though the polished pop called dangdut (named for its tabla two-beat "dang-doot" anchor) at first blush seems safe and conservative, innovator Rhoma Irama made a big noise by using his music to protest the lot of his country's poor and by advocating a return to Koranic values. Though western rock provides the imagery, basic instrumentation and production values, dangdut leans more heavily on filmi, Indian film music. Rounding out the disc are examples of kroncong, nostalgic pop with roots in the 19th century as the music of Eurasian toughs. Its current incarnation, solidified in the 1930s, holds little indication of a life spent on the streets. But it does clearly reflect a Portuguese origin in cascades of arpeggiated guitar and gliding vocals that call to mind American cowpoke and Hawaiian ditties.
	Volume 3 Music from the Outskirts of Jakarta: Gambang Kromong Purchase info and RealAudio samples	Volume 4 Music of Nias and North Sumatra: Hoho, Gendang Karo, Gondang Toba Purchase info and RealAudio samples
	Volume 3 The old repertoire lagu lama comprising the first half of the disc isn't exactly your average roadside pop attraction. A lovely twisting current of fiddles, metallophones, flute and voice parry in and out, above and below, and on both sides of a melody, revealing a song's essence by cagily defining the negative space around it. Modern repertoire lagu sayur takes the shape of a shocking collision between New Orleans jazz and gamelan styles. Mexicali trumpet, Hawaiian guitar, gamelan backbeat, Chinese violin and Keith Moon percussive wallops shoot off blithely in their own directions, unconcerned as a Lisbon-via-Macao vocalist conducts a dogmatic discourse over the fray. After a few listenings the apparent traffic jam resolves itself into a joyous street parade. Volume 4 Gendang lima sedalanen consists of plague-of-locusts soloing on the sarune--a kind of high-pitched oboe--atop popcorn percussion bursts from a trio of the planet's smallest drums. Think of a furiously buzzing Egyptian mizamar set against a hail storm in a scrap yard, or how your head feels after a hangover. Add a moon-eyed female vocalist to the second cut, and you're close to the effect of this bright and brittle music. Soothing in comparison are the sonorous a capella hoho choral songs from the thickly forested island of Nias. Built on a measly four-tone scale, hoho sounds far richer due to the dramatic modulation of notes by the male leader and back-up singers as they perform overlapping phrases, the sharp precision of the pieces accented by the megalithic courtyard where the music was recorded. Hoho sounds like tones extracted from stones, a tapping into essential harmonies similar in sacred resonance to the chants of Tibetan monks. In gondong sabangunan of North Sumatra's Toba people, tuned drums playing full melodies lay the groundwork for literally breathless flights on the sarune. A circular breathing technique allows the sarune performer to blow nonstop for long durations without having to come up for air, no doubt encouraging the trance-like intensity of these seemingly boundless solos.
	Volume 5 Betawi & Sundanese Music of the North Coast of Java Purchase info and RealAudio samples	Volume 6 Night Music of West Sumatra: Saluang, Rabab Pariaman, Dendang Pauah Purchase info and RealAudio samples
	Volume 5 The three styles presented on the disc, especially examples of tanjidor and ajeng, come across like an art school student's wetdream of fourth world jazz. Tanji Modern Grup Marga Luyu jolt unfamiliar meandering tones and unsettling harmonies from familiar European brass band instruments, from the fractured waltz through the rubble of a Bavarian beer garden on "Was Pepko" to the mewling saxophonics raising hackles against an exhausted New Orleans funeral parade on "Gaple." Yet even this assault on the vaguely recognizable is pathetic preparation for the sheer unwavering intensity of the three ajeng tracks, which feature a local Pharaoh Sanders blowing endless circular breaths through a complaining shawm. Around him, members of a gamelan ensemble speed up or throw on the brakes as inspiration seems to strike them in the rare metallophone-driven pieces on all of Java that toss cyclic structure to the trade winds. Volume 6 These highly intimate chamber music performed with only one or two singers and a single accompanying flute or bowed lute were a little too subtle in theory and practice for me. According to the label, these 1990-1992 recordings from the coastal region near Jakarta focus on one of the richest traditions of the performing arts found in Indonesia. They're certainly pleasant enough as background music, though that's kind of the same as damning them.
	Volume 7 Music from the Forests of Riau & Mentawai Purchase info and RealAudio samples	Volume 8 Vocal & Instrumental Music from East & Central Flores Purchase info and RealAudio samples
	Volume 7 Recorded in 1993 and 1994, this recording focuses on the music of three indigenous forest societies of western Indonesia. It features songs and drumming for shamanic curing rituals, and private singing and instrumental music (played on xylophones or a gong-row) performed for entertainment or emotional release. Volume 8 Flores serves up lots of manly singing--in particular, men's choruses from the Sikku Regency performing a cross between Polynesian vocal music and raucous English football songs. Melodies of these first group of pieces are simple, but the dynamics bring them alive, as a lead vocalist backed by sparse percussion is unexpectedly joined by an entire throng ringing out a rounded-vowel chorus that put me in mind to sign up with a truck driving school. Deedle-deedle vocal counterpoints ornament the Lero Men's chorus on the second cut, while the Sora Men's chorus favors throbbing handdrums. Elsewhere on the disc are male and female vocal duets disturbingly similar to Bulgarian village styles right down to the verse-concluding "whee!" on "Lalu Gogok."
	Volume 9 Vocal & Instrumental Music from Central & West Flores Purchase info and RealAudio samples	Volume 10 Music of Biak, Irian Jaya: Wor, Church Songs, Yospan Purchase info and RealAudio samples
	Volume 9 Series editor Philip Yampolsky found more diversity on Flores than he had imagined, calling the island "a textbook anthology of vocal music" and devoting two discs to the performances. Volume 9 is an admirable follow-up if you enjoy the styles on Volume 8, but I found the relentless dissonance somewhat off-putting. These 1993 and 1994 recordings present the virtually unknown choral singing of Ngada and Manggarai. The songs, performed mainly at funerals and agricultural rituals, include rare instances of Indonesian counterpoint. Volume 10 This album presents music for celebrations and church services on Biak Island in Irian Jaya, which is the Indonesian name for the western portion of the island of New Guinea. Wor songs, usually sung by choruses in seemingly chaotic, free-for-all style, were once central to traditional Biak society. Two other genres have recently developed: church songs , sung here by women's choirs in churches and in secular performances; and yospan, string based music for dance parties.
	Music of Indonesia, Introduction Music of Indonesia, Volumes 1-10 Music of Indonesia, Volumes 11-20 Technobeat Central