This band is in Indonesia. The keyboardist is the BL, his name is Indra and is the cousin of a friend of mine (Tony) for forty years (who is a drummer out in Calif). He sent me the link tonight. The body reminds me of Spector maybe and the headstock is Alembic-ish. First glimpse of bass is at :10 seconds in. Clearer shots of the bass start around 3:30 into the video and periodically get a quick glance. But what the heck is it? I asked Tony to ask Indra to tell him what the bass is so he can confirm what anybody here thinks it is. The bassist has some serious chops. Dannnggg.
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What 6-string bass is this guy playing?
- Thread starter MEKer
- Start date
Bridge and odd pickup route screams Alembic to me. Probably an Epic.
Band is killer!
Band is killer!
Oh, crap! I did not even notice the bridge, That IS Alembic. I'd never had imagined an Alembic would make it all the way to Indonesia. And yeah, that guy is SERIOUSLY excellent at this! The band is blow-away good. And none of the guys read music...all ears! Wish we had more stuff like this is the US.
I'd expect at least the BL to be a reader. Whoa, apparently Indra Lesmana is kind of a big deal over there.* He has 25 solo albums published and scores of collaborations under his belt.
The bassist goes by Shadu Shah Chaidar (a.k.a. Shadu Rasjidi)** and I bet he too can read a note or two.
Here's his YouTube channel: mad chops is all I can say.
"Other than Indra and Shadu, the remaining members of the band were the winners of an Instagram-based audition Indra conducted to recruit musicians for his new side project."
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* as was his dad Jack Lesmana (born Jack Lemmers), an important fellow in Indonesian jazz history.
Indra's older sister Invalid Link Removed is a well-known movie director.
** he is the son of Idang Rasjidi, another illustrious jazz playing figure in Indonesia, and trumpeter/singer Bayu Wardani, a former pop-star under the alias "Happy Pretty" both solo and with the girl-band "Happy Sisters".
Shadu's brother, drummer Shaku Rasjidi, is also known as Qadra Shaku Chaidar and Shaku Hachi.
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The brothers play together in the Shadu Rasjidi Band and with their dad in the Idang Rasjidi Syndicate.
Pheew, that was quite the rabbit hole... Thanks, OP!
Yes, it really is quite a family story/rabbit hole. Their cousin, Tony Thijsen of Indonesia, was the best man at my wedding and we played in a couple of bands together in the 1970's so we have been friends for like 40 years. Great drummer. And no, Indra really does not read music (Tony does). When Indra was "auditioning" for guitarists, he would simply send them a song and say "Play this and send it back to me" He had like 350 guitarists he went thru to pick who he wanted, more than that for drummers! The bassist is a good friend of his. Indra is interesting because he is primarily a jazz guy and when Tony called me and said Indra went metal I was surprised big time He lives on Bali and also owns a couple of nightsclubs: in Bali and Jakarta. Tony gets back to Indonesia maybe once a year or so and of course sits in and plays with him. He'll be back there in November. I only met Indra once when he came to the US for a family reunion thing many years ago. The whole family are musical and just simply good people.
Right now, last night Tony told me Indra is trying to see if he can get hooked up to get a tour in the US. Hope he does. Also, the song in the link is from a 4-song EP for an initial release and a longer LP to follow. I'll most def be getting it of if makes it to the US. I don't know how that works from/in Indonesia.
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That's impressive! He must have lived and breathed jazz from the cradle.
Reading up about these folks I get the overall feeling they're anything but stuck-up musical elitists. It is indeed cool that they find progressive metal a perfectly legitimate means of expression.
