PANBERS 1+1 = 3 ultra RARE Indonesian 70's PSYCH LP 

	£		29
	$		38

  PANBERS 1+1 = 3 ultra RARE Indonesian 70's PSYCH LP 

could only say what i found on popsike... so this is a very beatyfull copy, very rare and hard to find...

The Panbers were one of Indonesia’s finest pop rock bands in the late 60’s/early 70’s – amazingly, according to their website (only available in the Indonesian language), they’re still going strong today.  Of course, the rest of the world has no idea how great these guys were, because, let’s face it, not many Indonesian albums were pressed back then, and, like Gilligan, most probably never got off the island.  And until David Byrne discovers this untapped, lost continent of music, it looks like it’s gonna stay that way.  Thankfully, worldwide sites like eBay make finding these formerly-buried musical treasures a little bit easier. 

The Panbers first two albums were raw, raucous slabs of Asian garage funk steeped in the Beatles but recorded at 1/1000th the budget.  It was the kind of music that could only come from this isolated part of the world – indigenous instruments and musical styles come clashing with whatever outside rock music the border patrol allows in that week - electric guitars and go-go beats colliding with Far Eastern instruments and the choppy rhythms of Asian rock.  This is the group’s equally rare THIRD album, “1+1=3,” and much like the musical evolution of most English rock bands, this one finds the band toning it down a bit, stripping down their sound and getting a little more experimental.  You could say “1+1=3” is the Panbers’ equivalent of Led Zeppelin III.

Of course, there’s no pinwheel on the cover of this one, and chronologically, I can’t tell you exactly what year this album came out – none of these records have dates, and there’s no handy online Panbers discography either.  But then again, when you’re dealing with this kind of music, dates are pretty much irrelevant anyway – most of this stuff exists inside its own vacuum, a time warp of sounds that’s cut off from whatever the rest of the world is listening to.  I mean, here the Panbers are still heavily influenced by the 1965 Beatles, and even some late 60’s Pink Floyd, although it’s very possible this album could have come out during the heyday of disco.  Even the car and the men’s fashions on the front cover could come from any year.  Carbon dating may be the only answer.  And just as an aside, why is there a man named HANS in this band?

Inside, you’ll find an equally confusing mix of sounds – “Kampung Halaman” has a bridge that sounds just like the Beatles “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” yet the crude percussion sounds almost like some primitive beat box.  The vocals are drowned in late 60’s psychedelic echo, and the twangy lead guitar could have been stolen from some 1966 teen garage band from the suburbs of Portland.  It’s like an all-star band from every decade, and yet, in the middle of this maelstrom of time-traveling instruments, it’s the wild quivering discount mart organ that steals the show. 

There’s some great garage pop on here too, but good luck singing along to the best one, much less pronouncing it.  “Berdarmawisata” is pronounced “Bee-DAR-mah Wee-sah-TAH,” and that’s intended to be some sort of singalong in Djakarta.  It’s certainly catchy, I’ll give it that, like a good Justice label garage song set to the Sanford and Son bassline.  But as a dance craze, it’s doomed outside Indonesia.  I can hear those wedding DJs now:  “C’mon, everybody!  Berdarmawisata!”

The album’s trippiest moment comes on the very Pink Floyd sounding “Danau Toba.”  This song opens with sound effects of water pouring, and some distant, faroff cosmic Rick Wright organ.  At the 1-1/2 minute mark, the organ swells for a big dramatic singalong chorus, and the band breaks for a groovy cocktail lounge crooner break, like some archipelago version of Mel Torme.  The strangest thing about the song, however, is the Panbers never once turn off the water sound effects, so the entire song is bathed in a trippy sounds-of-nature sleep-machine kinda vibe.  It’s the Indonesian version of “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast,” with vocals from the Velvet Fog.  Now that’s something even Roger Waters at his most paranoid never dreamed of.

If you remember my Led Zeppelin III comparison a few paragraphs back, that rings truest on “Hari Bahagia,” whose crude backwoods glam beat makes it the Panbers’ version of “Bron-Yr-Aur-Stomp.”  They even throw some banjo in there too, which I guess makes it more “Black Country Woman,” although the Panbers were looking at a few more albums before they got to their own Physical Graffiti.  The singalong chorus line of “la la la”s is, thankfully, universal, so you don’t need to be well-versed in Malay to sing along, and once again harkens back to the band’s love of all things Beatle.  Inexplicably, the sound mixer raises the volume levels noticeably midway through the banjo solo, demonstrating that either 1) Indonesian recording sessions even in the 1970s were still very crude, off-the-cuff affairs, or 2) those Southeast Asians sure love them banjo solos!  Which, come to think of it, might explain why Burl Ives toured there incessantly.

Needless to say, none of the Panbers albums have been reissued, and there’s not even a retrospective Best Of or anything in the shiny compact disc format.  Even today, with Cambodian, South American and even much of African music available in the reissue section of your friendly neighborhood Borders, the Panbers back catalogue is still a complete secret to the rest of the world; a dark, shadowy corner of music that’s unheard by all but the most die-hard and adventurous collectors, like you, me and Thurston Moore.  And that’s a shame because, I’ll tell you this, the Panbers albums are infinitely better than Cambodian Rocks, and anything you’ll find on Love’s A Real Thing.  They liked the Beatles, they dug the Pink Floyd, and they had more than a few rump-shaking Asian funk grooves in ‘em.  And if that ain’t a recipe for a good time, I’ll eat my Berdarmawisata.

I use the VG/EX/M  +/- (Sleeve/Record). Postage & packaging is 3€ (Germany), 5€ (Europe), 7€ (rest of the world). Payment is Paypal or Bank-Transfer.

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