By Idhar Resmadi
Translated by Beta D. Adiwidjaja
Bandung – The sound from that palm frond or bamboo music instruments is able to soothe hundreds of audience in Gedung Teater Tertutup Dago Tea House. The bamboo music instrument called ‘Karinding’ which once used to scare away plant pests, now in the hands of Karinding Attack become a musical instrument that can be used to explore any kind of music genres. Like what is seen in their solo music concert, “Gerbang Kerajaan Serigala [Gate of the Wolf Kingdom]” on Tuesday (3/13). They mix the traditional music of karinding and make it more wide and colorful with a collaboration of pop, folk, until jazz music.
The “Gerbang Kerajaan Serigala” concert is held as prove of Karinding Attack’s commitment to develop karinding music and spread it to the public. Today’s youth are not feeling uncomfortable anymore to learn karinding, like what is seen in that night’s concert, which are attended by many youth. Some of them even brought their own karinding.
Karinding Attack is born, raised and develop in the metal community of Ujungberung. Most of its personnel are even metal musicians like Man; vocalist of a death metal band Jasad, Amenk; vocalist of death metal band Disinfected, and Kimung; former bassist of Burgerkill. Musically, Karinding Attack’s music is full of nuance which is not limited only to the exotics of traditional music nuance. The influence from metal music is felt strongly in their highly spirited, energetic, and fast tempo music.
As a band that grows up in the metal and punk music environment, Karinding Attack’s lyrics mostly contain social and political critics, mostly seen from the locality point of view.
The concert which is also a third anniversary party of Karinding Attack is open with a song “Bubuka”, sang by Trie Utami together with Budi Dalton. Then it is continued with “Mantram Gayatri” and “Hampura Ma bagian 1”. That night Karinding Attack is not forget to insert their messages of social and political critics like in “Dadangos Bagong”, and “Wasit Kehed” songs.
In “Burial Buncelik” song, Karinding Attack shows a different kind of music when collaborating with jazz musician Sony Akbar Trio. Those bamboos music is moving rhythmically with the piano and guitar and it is greeted by a loud noise from the crowd.
“Karinding Attack’s music is not a traditional music or even a modern music. We make music and explored with what we want,” says Man the vocalist, which that night performs very communicatively and often tells jokes or criticism.
That richness of exploration is also perform by the band consisting of Man (vocal), Ki Amenk (karinding), Wisnu (karinding), Kimung (celempung), Hendra (celempung), Papay (celempung, kohkol), Okid (gong tiup, toleat), Jimbot (toleat, suling, serunai), and Yuki (suling, saluang, and serunai). In “Because-Kelas Rakyat” song, they are collaborating with Paper Back, a folk band. Even though their music genre is different, their performance is not awkward at all. A very good harmonization is heard from these different genre musicians.
One of Karinding Attack’s commitments in preserving the karinding art to the youth is when they take students from “Kelas Karinding [Karinding Class]” to perform “Nu Ngora Nu Nyekel Kontrol” song on that night’s concert. That night, Karinding Attack is not forgetting to bring out artists who have a great contribution in preserving karinding art like, Abah Olot, Mang Engkus, and Mang Utun. Collaboration between these young and senior karinding artists happen when they perform “Ririwa” song.
The concert that lasted for almost two hours is closed by three songs; “Yaro”, “Gerbang”, and “Maaf Kami Tidak Tertarik Pada Politik Kekuasaan”. For the encore, a sinden [gamelan music female vocalist] is singing “Kembang Tanjung”.
The evening’s special moment happen in the end of the show. Karinding Attack invites vocalist Risa Saraswati to sing together Michael Jackson’s “We Are The World”. That emotional moment is then continued by music collaboration of Jazz musician Sony Akbar Trio, folk band Paperback, and hip hop band Eye Feel Sick. This concert is proving the commitment and passion of Karinding Attack that there is not any framework or music genre that can hold them down.
