The Big Playback: For the Record Part 1

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a conversational, in-depth podcast about all things music. Episode 3 is a four-part series entitled For the Record, exploring the role of the archivist from all angles, released in weekly installments.

In this series, host Margaret Munchheimer talks to an independent archival collective in Indonesia; a sound and performance scholar decolonizing sound archives; a journalist turned label founder offering alternative histories of the global South; and a producer/dj using archival material as a springboard for musical collaborations in the here and now.

While it may seem like a coincidence, we must remember that ‘records’ are in fact, just that: records- documents… testimonials. They’re meant to capture a moment, to tell a story. Which if you think about it, makes every record collector an archivist of sorts. The question is just how much the collector shapes the work in how they present it-the story of course is in the hands of the storyteller.

Part 1: Irama Nusantara
Digitizing Indonesian music one record at a time, with a priority for the oldest first. Featured in LGW’s 2020 online collection ‘Reports From Other Continents’, this independent collective formed in 2013, many of them musicians themselves, with an eye on changing the fact that young people in Indonesia know way more about western music than the rich and dynamic music from their own Archipelago.

Besides the 6000 albums they’ve compiled onto iramanusantara.org, they’ve authored articles and even books about the history of the Indonesian music industry, including featured article, “Rock and Roll is Forbidden Here”, by Alvin Yunata, presented on our website for the occasion of this episode, in an English translation by Oriza Sativa Taufani.

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Credits
Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Audio Post- Production: Francisco Marujo
Article translation: Oriza Sativa Taufani
Artwork: Marishka Soekarna

Featured tracks
Elly Kasim w/ Orkes Arsianti - Lintuah
Elly Kasim - Relakan Daku
Euis Karwati & Layung Bandung Group - Eleh Deet
Elly Kasim w/ Orkes Arsianti - Peujeum Bandung
Benny Soebardja and Lizard - Candle Light
Idjah Hadidjah & Jupala Jaipongan - Senggot
S. Alimin Husein, Zaenal Arifien - Merantau
S. Alimin Husein, Zaenal Arifien - Ampat Lima Dalang Djambangan