Thank God for bringing me these two albums Kafilah and Ya Mahmud of Kelana Ria directed by musician Adi Karso, and interpretated by legend singer Mashabi, Munif, Djuhana Sattar, and Adi Karso himself, in a single cassete. It was produced by Media and Disco record, with no date of releasing and with no appropriate image and title Keluhan Anak Tiri. Despite a bad cover and packaging of this cassete, these two albums are rare and valuable matter for Indonesian music history especially dangdut, or Melayu folk music. But for this post, let me talk an other aspect of album Kafilah.
The album Kafilah consists of 12 songs. This album actually consists of various genres, not only dangdut, even cross over. Musthafa is gambus-folk, Gelang Sipaku Gelang is chachacha-pop-with ketimpring percusions. Ja Gadzibny is gambus-Melayu-chachacha. Hati yang Luka is Melayu-Indian. Tong Sampah is pop-chachacha.
But what I want to talk is this album may be such prototype for dangdut music. Since this album consists of various genres, so the arranger and composer Adi Karso actually made any prototype for various kinds of dangdut-Melayu music. Song Termenung which interpretated by singer Ellya Agus is such a mellow-Melayu-Indian which supposed to be a prototype of mellow-dangdut for the next musicians.
Just check it to albums which released later entitled Penyakit Asmara by singer A. Rafiq (Naviri, DD record, no date). This album is about Melayu-Indian music, and song Hilang Tak Berkesan is likely prototype for Lirikan Matamu, a big hit of A. Rafiq. Or album by Ida Laila and S. Achmadi the seventh edition (Indra, Golden Hand record, no date). This album is about a mellow-Melayu-pop-dangdut with it’s two hits Khayalan Masa Lalu, and Dip Dip. Is there critic dangdut music out there who can explain this?. *
