Panbers 77 v. 2 (1st Pressing) Indo LP psychedelic RARE

	£		32
	$		43

winbert Store

 In the ever-growing endless sea of international musical obscurities filling Ebay’s Music listings each week, this album that now stands before you is so unknown, listening to it on your home stereo is like the musical equivalent of finding a jackalope grazing in your backyard.  You wonder if anyone in your neighborhood – no, make that your friggin’ country – has ever heard what you’re now hearing.  Probably not.  There aren’t many dark, unexplored corners of the musical world left – thanks to reissues, we now know what Malaysia was up to in the early 70’s (the Strollers, October Cherries, Truck), and you can thank David Byrne for putting pretty much all of South America into your local Borders’ music section, for your shopping convenience.  Heck, even Cambodia has had a handful of compilations in the past few years.  And no, they didn’t “rock,” despite what they wanted you to believe.
 
But even the plucky Bindi Irwin hasn’t yet explored the mysterious region of music known as Indonesian Rock.  And yet, for much of the late 60’s and early 70’s, a pretty twisted little psychedelic rock band known as the Panbers were releasing album after album of freaked-out funk and swinging go-go rhythms that bore little resemblance to anything else in the world, probably because no one outside of Indonesia was even listening.  But Crikey, here’s your chance to reel in a Coelocanth of new sounds!

Panbers 77 vol. 2  was recorded some time in the middle 70’s, from what little information I can gather.  But all that’s irrelevant, because everything you hear on a Panbers album exists in a chronological vacuum bubble removed from whatever was going on in the rest of the world.   Vocals are run through an echo chamber at least a half dozen times, rendering any chance to decipher the English lyrics (there are quite a few) that much slimmer, while fuzz guitar solos stumble randomly in and out of songs with no rhyme or reason, clumsier than George W. Bush looking for the exit door.  This is the kind of music that answers to no one – program directors, record labels, pop charts – and so it’s f&**ng brilliant on its own terms.

The album begins jubilantly with the Panbers’ hometown shout-out “Djakarta City Sounds.”  Every band’s done one of these, from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “ Sweet Home Alabama ” to Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” to Geddy Lee’s “Great White North.”  Despite their obvious enthusiasm, the Panbers would make lousy travel agents:

 “There’s lots of buildings and busy people every day,
Crowded by people, every day you see the person,
At night you see the lights.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!”

Buildings?  Lights?  Crowds of people?  Gee, when’s the next tourbus?  The 1963 Beatles seem like Ralph Waldo Emerson in comparison.  Okay, so they’ve got the language barrier thing working against them, I’ll give ‘em that, but lyrics aren’t what the Panbers are all about, anyway.  It’s the music, man – and despite their studio limitations, these kids thrash and burn their way through this album like the best Pebbles garage band out of Peoria .  A tinny organ whines and vibrates while barely-recorded drum s thrash at pie plates six feet away from the nearest pick-up mike.  Vocals are shouted at nothing less than full volume and ran through an echo chamber at least a half dozen times.  And yet, somehow, the band’s desire to create a psychedelic dance floor epic remains undaunted, so they stick in an ambitious middle break full of city sounds and police whistles (Iwe love our third world police state!), followed by a ham-fisted, hesitant fuzz guitar break that sounds like a dozen crazed elephants crushing a power mower.  Yeah, it really is that good.

Recklessly drifting back and forth through time like a  young Hiro Nakamura, the Panbers disregard for a singular style continues on the amazing Beatlesque “Colour of Your Heart.”   This one rides the descending guitar from George’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” while the echoey falsetto vocal style is eerily reminiscent of John.  Doesn’t really matter, though, because the raw, thrashing freakbeat chorus sounds more like something the ’66 Who would’ve banged out for “A Quick One” if they had one twentieth the recording budget and tree stumps for limbs.  Now this is real rock and roll, boys and girls.  Made by kids who really love what little music they hear.

And that love is music is precisely what they celebrate on the amazing “Haai.”  Despite the exotic title, this is an English language tribute to the bands who inspired them – set to a beefy, rumbling British Chocolate Soup rhythm broken up by crazed Indonesian jungle rhythm breaks – an otherworldly mash-up of the Koobas and Quiet Village – and clearly something no other band in the world could ever bring you.  So who should we be sending our thank-you cards to?

 “I like Beatles songs!  I love Rolling Stones!
I love Led Zeppelin, but also the Bumbles I love!
Every music and melody I lo-o-o-o-ve!!!”

Which is followed immediately by a flurry of ear-piercing screams, more rumbling freakbeat bass, and a roomful of listeners left scratching their heads and wondering, “Who the f&*$ are the Bumbles?!”

But don’t stop ‘em for small details, the Panbers are on a roll – breezing through musical genres like Paris Hilton through a William Faulkner novel – culminating in the rollicking off-the-cuff rock and roll rave-up that is “Let Us Dance Together.”  This, my friends, is what being in an Indonesian rock band is all about – banging out a song that’s pretty much the lines “We danced, yeah, we danced” over and over, backed by blazing fuzz guitar licks and stoned Pink Floyd organ that meanders around the song like Lindsay Lohan at a sobriety checkpoint.  Best of all, it gets in and out in a truly rock and roll two minutes flat, ending with yet another patented Panbers blood-curdling Monsters of Djakarta Rock scream.  Is there really any reason to ever listen to Maroon 5 again?

 The answer is no, and it’s these little fossilized Fiji mermaids of psych rock popping up from the depths of uncharted waters that make collecting vinyl such a life-affirming hobby.  Without much technology, a tiny bit of talent, and an armful of albums by the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin and the Bumbles, they’ve created an exciting, unpretentious and exuberantly different style of music that makes their heroes sound slick and bloodless by comparison.  Besides being monstrously rare, Panbers albums are incredible creations that could only come from some remote island nation cut off from the rest of the world.  And I don’t mean New Jersey .  Ancient cartographers once wrote next to uncharted areas on the globe, “Here there be monsters.”  I couldn’t agree more.

Original pressing from late 60’s.  The long-gone specialist in international obscurities, San Francisco ’s Record Vault, once described the Panbers albums as “major rarities fetching $1000 and up.”  Unfortunately, those that do show up tend to be in rough shape, due to the primitive pressing facilities and the fact that Indonesian teens probably used thistles for styli.

But This one’s is a bit different, the vinyl LOOKS very good!!. Both sides play surprisingly well.  Although I should admit it there are some light scuffs and marks.

Please note, as in 1977 most Indonesian were no longer use LP at home but cassette, so many LPs were released only for radio broadcast purposes. In this regard, the company did not issue cover with picture but only in white sleeve like this LP.

I provide below some close up photos of the vinyl surface for you to judge.

This is a very rare stuff, and I have sold the Panbers 1 and 2  before for above £ 50, and now this is the third album of Panbers.

I am also selling Panbers vol 3 (Sound 3, released in 1960s). Check my other list.

This is a First Pressing!!! ...  look at the matrice numbers provided below and it is under "PT Irama Tara"  (Cat # IT 090)

Track List:

Side 1

1. Hilangnya Kekasih Hari
2. Penggemar Setia
3. Mutiara Gadis Halmahera
4. Ciptakan Perdamaian

Side 2

1. Kisah Seorang Duda
2. Tamasya
3. Setangkai Bunga Indah
4. Hari Ulang Tahun
5. Hanya Engkau Dihatiku

Item is located in the North America, so it will be sent from here using the most economical cost or any other type of shipment on your request. Combined shipment with other stuff I sell will reduce your postage a bit, but not really much.

Postage cost provided by Ebay is not correct please refer my own list below or contact me for other countries not listed:

- United Kingdom £8.5
- Italy EUR 10
- European Union EUR 10
- Japan & Australia US$ 17
- United States & Canada US$ 9


Please note that I am not taking money from the postage. What you will see on the stamp is what you are going to pay.

Pay with Paypal (use your Credit Card), Bank Transfer, cheque or cash.

Refund is allowed if you are not satisfied as long as you return the item to my address in 7 days on your buyer's cost.



HAPPY BIDDING!!!

in white sleeve



Side B


Close up on side A




Close up on Side B