I STRONGLY recommend that you listen to some gamelan.... The slower
pieces tend to sound like trance, the faster stuff is like jungle played at twice
the normal speed.
(posted 23 March 2000)How might this appropriation be interpreted? I suggest two possibilities: the shared
use and value (in both Balinese and rave contexts) of a particular kind of musical
structure commonly present in communal participatory events leading to altered
states of consciousness—specifically, repetitive, minimalistic, seamless cyclings of
sonic patterns accompanied by a relentlessly driving or metronomic rhythm; and the
self-conscious desire of ravers to associate themselves with icons of a generic “ethnic-
ness.”
As both a gamelan player^9 and a rave initiate, I am willing to consider the
structural or textural similarities between much traditional gamelan music and music
played at raves, and to speculate on the connection between the roles and contexts
of each. David Roberts describes the structure of “transformational” music in rave as
containing a minimum of melody and vocals, “substituting a mesmeric, repetitive
beat as the central element” (in Redhead 1993:124). Dance ethnologist Georgiana
Gore describes rave music as “minimalist with a relentless 4/4 beat,” reputed to
drive ravers into a state of frenzy (1997:58). Numerous sources detail the structural
aspects of traditional gamelan music (both Balinese and Javanese), which often
(though certainly not always) involve seamless repetition of rhythmic and tonal
patterns over a steady beat. Ethnomusicologist Margaret Kartomi, in describing the
required musical elements in Javanese gamelan accompaniment to folk trance, states
that music must be “mesmeric in effect,” and contain a steady regular pulsation with
repetitive tonal patterns based on a restricted number of pitches (1973:166).
Balinese psychiatrist Luh Ketut Suryani discusses the hypnotic effect of traditional
Balinese ceremonial gamelan music on Balinese gamelan players, and describes the
music as having a basic, relatively unchanging pattern, repetitive, rhythmically
steady, and tending toward monotony in volume and intensity (Jensen and Suryani
1993:123). Suryani reports that Balinese ceremonial gamelan players feel “as though
they are floating above the ground,” “nearer to the gods” and “in another world”
(ibid.). In both gamelan angklung (and commonly in other types of gamelan music)
and techno, there are simultaneous layers of musical complexity playing out at
different levels of tempo and “busy-ness.” Although rave music is much louder than
gamelan music, often the emphasis (in both musics) is on the creation of a kind of
endless ground through minimalistic repetition of instrumental bytes which tends to
entrain the mind of the listener.
Coincidentally or not, types of techno and gamelan music, and their respective
musical textures, are both present in communal gatherings where dance and altered
states of consciousness are the intention of at least a subgroup of participants.
Institutionalized occasions for “entranced” dancing (with gamelan orchestra
accompaniment) in Bali include the Kris dance (male, group trance ritual) and the
Barong/Rangda ritual (protector dragon vs. monstrous witch in showdown between
GAMELAN AND TECHNO-PRIMITIVISM IN SAN FRANCISCO 201