Vinyl very much alive on Menteng's Jl. Surabaya

Vinyl very much alive on Menteng's Jl. Surabaya

By Chris Brummit

JAKARTA (JP): On the lookout for a 1968 Japanese harmonica
compilation? Or perhaps just up for complimenting your existing
set of early Minangkabau guitar-pop records? If yes, then browse
your way down Jl. Surabaya in Menteng, Central Jakarta, and bring
home these and other equally exotic stuff besides.

After the shops selling antiques, which the street is famous
for, have petered out and made way for ones selling bags, there
are six or so that deal in records, quite possibly the only
places in Indonesia which do so.

"People come here from as far away as Surakarta and Medan to
look for records. They are mostly DJs, students, foreigners and
old-time collectors. Maybe a few other places sell vinyl, but
they are not specialists like us," said owner Haris, while cueing
up a T Rex 7" single in the corner of one such pleasantly chaotic
shack.

For the post-vinyl generation, an attachment to records may
appear old-fashioned and even slightly dumb. CD's are portable,
indestructible and, according to those who care about these
things, their sound reproduction is incomparably better.

So be it. These people have never spent an adolescent Saturday
morning in the aisles of their local record store (note: not a
Virgin megastore), counting out their money for a 7" single and
an album, and sat on the bus home reading the sleeve notes in
anticipation. They have never gently dropped the needle in to the
groove, heard the crackle and watched as it starts its journey
around the disc to the center or had to get up and give the
record player a gentle nudge when the needle gets stuck.

Amir Nasution, a record trader on Jl. Surabaya since 1965,
understands this attraction. "I have a decent Rolling Stones and
Beatles collection at home. Pretty much complete. A bit of
Genesis. I wouldn't sell them no matter how much money was
offered to me.

"People these days just follow the trends. One day cassettes,
the next laser discs, CDs then VCDs," he laments, before stating
categorically, "I am a record man".

He smiles when recounting the time Lulu, a pint-sized British
singer from the 1960s, paid a visit to his store some years ago.
"She was doing a show at the Mandarin or somewhere. She came in
and I gave her some of her own records to sign, which she did."
These records are now, too, safely at home. "I then, like a fool,
offered her some Bee Gees records, not realizing at the time that
of course she used to be married to one of them." This anecdote
was confirmed by more than one trader on the street, (though
details of her marital status have not been).

The cataloging systems in all of the shops are almost as
primitive as the Irianese masks that spill out of the neighboring
ones. A quick flick through one box in Haris's shack unearthed
the following gems: an enticing (Dutch?) record, with a half-
dressed pony-tailed girl on the cover entitled 13 hits aan de
spits 4; Union City Recording's classic dance tune I'm comin'
Hardcore; a red vinyl Chinese pressing of a Four Tops "soviner"
(sic) greatest hits from 1967 and an album by the Croatian Song
and Dance Ensemble. Prospective buyers would be wise to set
aside an afternoon or two.

Indonesian stabs at 1960s pop and other more indigenous and
regional forms of popular and classical music are well
represented. Haris reserves his highest prices for dangdut and
keroncong records, most of which are sold to Betawi people.
Depending on the age and the singer, these are the most expensive
records on the street, selling for upwards of Rp 30,000.

Hame and Fauzi's spacious shop is the place to go for "lagu
tripping" or house music. DJs hang out here on the lookout for
something for the weekend, while nodding their heads knowingly to
the beats. Slightly alarmingly perhaps, the records here are
cleaned with water and a rag, "to make them shiny", and then
washed with regular shampoo.

In common with most of the shacks, they also sell turntables,
amplifiers and speakers for about Rp 200,000 each depending on
the make, etc. Though if your current tape recorder/CD player has
a line out socket, then you can simply buy a turntable and plug
it in. Needles can also be bought and/or repaired.

It should also be mentioned here that most of the shacks have
bowed to the demands of the time and now sell secondhand CDs for
about Rp 20,000 and cassettes (Rp 7,000) as well, with a similar
mix of the unusual and the bizarre.

Back to records, prices start at about Rp 10,000. And this
makes for another delight of shopping on the street. Records are
collectible and people pay a lot of money for the ones they want.
(Offers above US$50 only please for my Jl. Surabaya-sourced 1954
This is Glen Miller double 7" gatefold sleeve in mint condition.)
If you know what you are looking for, quick profits abound.

So, if you are hoping to get into the import-export business,
forget the Dutch clocks, the stone Buddhas and other such antique
or not-so-antique bits and pieces that line the street. Get your
hands on some rare records instead.