It’s been a good while since I’ve heard some excellent Jazz Fusion from Indonesian group, Simakdialog. They have been laying down the groove of the genre with a touch a Canterbury, Prog-Rock boundaries as they kick into high gear and decide which direction of the musical sounds they would take to follow into the highway while laying down the groove and the tempo.
The follow up to 2009’s Demi Masa, The 6th Story is another wonderful experience to sit
through and enjoy the music and the Sextet have unleashed another home run for
a laid-back yet adventurous Prog-Fusion beauty. Opener, Stepping In, is a 10-minute epic featuring Riza Arshad’s wildly
keyboard improvisation and featuring Tohpati’s melodic guitar lines and
percussion sounds of Endang Ramdan and Erlan Suwardana.
Like the crazy time signatures along with stop-and-go
moments, it is a knockout. Riza is doing
this Rhodes-like solo in the styles of Herbie Hancock and Mike Ratledge along
with a Canterbury twist as if he is paying homage to the Soft Machine’s later
years while Tohpati is going off the wall creating this Fripp-sque feedback yet
haywire effects on the guitar that is insane.
Lain Parantina is
Riza and Tohpati’s concerto-like surroundings that has a Cosmic Voyage beat as
the percussions get into a dramatic tension as both Riza and Tohpati and
bassist Adhithya Pratama comes in with some Hugh Hopper lines as each of the
pieces come in together like a thunderstorm. Harmologic is another haunting keyboard/bass/guitar composition as
more of the tension, comes in full swing as it captures the essence of ‘70s
Jazz Rock sounds of Return to Forever as if it was recorded for the sessions of
Romantic Warrior.
Then, everything becomes this middle-eastern downbeat tempo
as Tohpati is going into some Bluesy territory and shines on as if he
performing this composition in front of the Royal Indonesian family as they get
a kick out of What Would I Say? Elsewhere, For Once and Never has this Film-Noir like score as if this was
recorded for a movie set in the late ‘30s/early ‘40s set in Black and White
while Common League goes into the
Rock in Opposition mode in the homage of Samla Mammas Manna, Frank Zappa, and
the Attahk-era of Magma in a quirky yet catchy and fast-driven beat.
As Far As It Can Be
(Jaco) is a tribute to the late great bassist from Weather Report and solo
artist, the virtuoso Jaco Pastorius. Its very pastoral, haunting, and emotional
as Riza and Pratama go into a keyboard-bass beat as if we are walking in the
streets of the Jazz Clubs in the Big Apple at Midnight and hearing the sounds
just pulls your heart and makes you wonder if Jaco were alive, he would have
gotten a real kick out this piece.
5, 6 goes back into the Canterbury Prog and
Electronic vibrations. Riza is going through the funky wah-wah vibes and moogy
adventures and is going into different directions and doing this wildly
experimentations. At times it’s a combination between King Crimson’s Red-era, Hatfield
and the North and Matching Mole rolled up into one and you begin to understand
how they can take both the Jazz and Prog genres by taking it up a notch. The
closer, Ari, is a relaxation and
dance-like composition.
It’s more of an Indonesian Bebop Jazz sound while Riza moves
away from the keyboards and into the Grand Piano. He goes through this
wonderful improvisation and does it in the styles of Thelonious Monk, Wynton
Kelly, and McCoy Tyner and he just goes with the flow as if the masters of Jazz
Piano are watching over him to give him the thumbs up in heaven.
The 6th Day
is another cornerstone is Simakdialog’s musical career and 20 years later, they
still have the power and the touch of their sound and vision. And again, hats
off to Moonjune Records releasing this unbelievable album, and getting the
beauty to come at you out of nowhere, is an unexpected special treat for Jazz
and Prog lovers.
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