At the Voice of Valley festival in West Virginia last year, my friend J. Guy Laughlin was telling me about the noise scene he had become involved with while living in Indonesia, describing wild stuff being played at these shows popping up in all sorts of tiny spaces and strange corners. Less than two months later, a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi. It was the deadliest earthquake of last year and one of the fastest earthquakes ever recorded.
The Aftermaths series is intended to do the double duty: illuminating exciting music scenes while raising awareness and money for climate disaster. A compilation that could hip Western ears to a bunch of really sick music happening in Indonesia while also raising some money for people affected by the disaster seemed ideal, so I hit J. Guy up to see if he could help me source some tracks. Graciously, he did.
Shortly after, Sean Stellfox got involved and did a lot of the heavy lifting reaching out to artists and getting music sent my way. He also made the savvy suggestion that I reach out to Insitu Records since I was interested in some getting some gamelan music on this compilation (I’m really obsessed with gamelan music).
The result is a sprawling compilation of harsh noise, industrial music, improv, synth jams, and gamelan featuring musicians either living in, born in, or significantly connected to Indonesia. The artist Ayam Kaili was directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami in September, and it took a few days before other folks in the scene heard from him.
While this compilation was being put together, another massive tsunami hit Indonesia, this time affecting the Sunda Strait. Groove Cafe will be donating the proceeds of this compilation to the organization Helping Hand for Relief and Development’s Indonesia Relief Fund, which is working in both regions affected by tsunamis last year, but primarily focused on the Palu area.
Just like with the last Aftermaths compilation, the vast majority of proceeds raised will be donated. Bandcamp takes a percentage, and there are PayPal and credit card processing fees. Groove Cafe receives money once all of that has been deducted, and reserves a small percentage of the revenue for operating fees. This ensures that there’s money to pay folks who master, do album art, etc.
Thank you as always for listening to and supporting some righteous music for a righteous cause.
—Host