What we want? Soul Power! Soulnation Festival, Jakarta 18 October 2008

I recently cast my mind back to the previous decade of life in Jakarta by trying to remember who and where western artists were invited to play and entertain in Jakarta. Sure enough only a handful of artists spring to mind; Metallica at Lebak Bulus sometime in the 90s (ended with riots), Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys, Greenday & Mick Jagger at Istora Senayan to name a few were the handful of artists who played in the nation’s capital where tickets were as good as gold dust and attendance a mere dream. Let’s not even mention any alternative acts shall we (Sonic Youth withstanding)? A decade and the fall of Orde Baru later, the entertainment industry in the capital seems to have been turned on its head. A Deep Purple gig here, The Roots concert there, Megadeath belting out their metal tracks, The Bravery appearing at Ancol, Rihanna showing her Barbados backside later on in the year. Things have changed for the better.

The Jazz World has been slightly different with the Java Jazz and the Jak Jazz festivals a constant and regular occurrence in Jakarta boasting heavyweights of the genre down the years. Yet these festivals are mainly geared towards Jazz aficionados and any rock/soul festival has been conspicuously missing from the lists of events the capital can offer. Whilst no rock festival is yet to occur, the good people from Java Jazz have had the good sense to organise Jakarta’s first Soul/R&B/Hip-hop (I hate using this term, but call it black music if you like) festival on the 17th and 18th of October 2008. Footurama of course didn’t hesitate to attend this festival and bring you a comprehensive report on the latter day of this two day festival. Why the latter day only I hear you ask? Mainly because alternative acts like Blackalicious and Arrested Development were scheduled to appear on the 18th and as you know, our mission is to provide you, the reader, with alternative news and reviews.

The festival itself, being the first, was not without its faults. First of all, many of the prospected artists who were due to appear changed from week-to-week and in some cases from day-to-day. From boring bling-bling rappers like Souljaboy to big time MCs like Snoop Dogg to artists Footurama were dying to see such as DJ Premier appeared and later disappeared from the list of performers. Worse still, Arrested Development were scheduled to play on the 18th and disappeared from the list on the 11th hour leaving many fans rightly disappointed and highly confused. Secondly, the promotion of the festival perhaps could have been better with very few print and electronic advertisements used to promote the show. Relying on word-of-mouth would be much more beneficial once the festival has already been imprinted in the minds on Jakartans and not for the first occurrence. That said having a festival like this in itself was nothing short of revolutionary as Soul Music Festivals are not widely available in Europe, never mind South East Asian countries.

The festival was held at Istora Senayan with 3 outdoor major stages circling the main indoor grand stage (where the most popular/mainstream acts were held). Dotted around the area were also stalls for sponsors as well as copious amounts of food vendors/stalls which differ greatly from festivals held in the western hemisphere which tend to be dominated by alcohol selling stands. While this provided festival goers with their necessary food requirements, the multi orgy of stalls made most of the few people who attended spread out and not congregate in front of the stages. This made most of the performers play in front of a small crowd hardly exceeding 100 people for the small stages.

Surprisingly the act that attracted the most number of punters (outside of the main stage) was Jamie Aditya Graham, a local musician/ex-MTV VJ/travel channel host whose nu-soul band combined modern soul keyboard chops with a slightly more laid back jazzy sound of 90s acid jazz outfit Incognito. Add that with some political jabs/references and spontaneous humour by Jamie, it was a thoroughly enjoyable performance by this local act and gave a positive prospect of the nation’s non-pop musical landscape. After his show ended I ventured down to the main stage to try and get a glimpse of Arrested Development only to find out that R&B band Blackstreet were playing their radio friendly tracks instead to the enthusiastic crowd (the biggest I saw on a single stage throughout the festival) that filled the main stage. I was fortunate enough that Arrested Development didn’t get a chance to play as cameras were off limits from the main performing stage (which was confusing to say the least).

Amid all this confusion I visited the other smaller stage to find out that Dutch acts La Melodia & DJ KC The Funkaholic were performing who appeared courtesy of Kindred Spirits, an Amsterdam based record label/collective responsible for releasing Madlib & Ivan Conti’s 2008 album Sujinho. It was such a shame that they performed only in front of a very small yet partisan crowd hardly exceeding 50 spectators. This was a particular shame as their very hip-hop orientated performance displayed the art of sampling manipulation at its finest by the aforementioned DJ KC The Funkaholic (who recently released a John Coltrane tribute: the Love is Supreme EP on Kindred Spirits). I’m also compelled to give a special hats off to MC La Melodia and the band who kept up their performance despite the absence of an actual credible crowd.

Following these Amsterdam geezers were Blackalicious, one of the main reasons Footurama attended this festival. All of the main suspects attended the show with DJ Chief Xcel, MC Gift of Gab, two excellent backing vocalists and the quite frankly jaw-dropping Parisian keyboard player (all present in the 2006 Blackalicious DVD set: 4/20 Live in Seattle). Blackalicious mixed track after track from their 3 previous albums: Nia, Blazing Arrow and The Craft with clinical precision with The Gift of Gab adding the hip-hop standard call and response routines. The short yet intricate instrumental session between Chief Xcel and the Parisian keyboard player was the highlight of the performance even if it only lasted for about 2 minutes. Sadly this posse wrapped up their performance after 45 minutes or so out of the scheduled 1 hr 15 minute slot which was perhaps not completely surprising as performing in front of a crowd totalling less than 100 (the rest were busy ogling Ashanti at the main stage) was bound to be uninspiring to a certain degree. After the band failed to heed the encore calls, the crowd left shortly afterwards and so did yours truly to cap off the evening.

Yes there were promotional problems, yes most of the acts played to a small crowd yet it was truly heartening to see such a festival showcasing both commercial and alternative Soul/R&B/Hip-hop acts held in Jakarta. Better still Soulnation is planned as an annual event which should only get better and better in the coming years.

For further information on Soulnation 2008, please click here

Pictures to follow!