ALAM RAYA

A friend showed me this little prog band from Indonesia! Now, that´s something really interesting since the record is from 1978. I really never thought that there was a prog scene so far away! And never thought it would be recorded stuff from that period. Anyway, it´s a very interesting group that mixes pop songs with symphonic prog parts. The results are quite interesting and has a bit of local flavor since the vocals are all sung in their native language. The flute and oboe interventions add to the eastern feeling of a few tracks. Unfortunately they are not used too frequently. As expected, the production is only average, but adequate.

Iwan Madjid vocals are a bit too high for my taste. However, the instrumental passages are very good, specially when the symphonic parts kick in.

I found this record to be more interesting than really good, but that´s just my personal taste. It´s obvious that those guys are pro and are skilled musicians. It´s a shame they didn´t record another album since the potential is there. If you like to discover exotic stuff that it´s melodic and well done, don´t miss this one.