... TOT LICHT

...tot licht! is the second studio album by Indonesian avantgarde/progressive rock band Discus. The front cover album is much less than beautiful, and their English lyrics are sometimes a bit juvenile(in two songs they sing in their native language), but these are my only serious complains about the album. The music is honestly quite amazing. We have here six tracks in about 62 minutes, performed by an eight piece band. We can hear beyond the female and male vocals (all band members share the vocal duties) and the usual rock instruments 21 strings harp guitar, violin, diverse woodwind instruments and Indonesian percussive instruments. The music on ...tot licht! is a fascinating blend of Symphonic Progressive Rock, Jazz, Frank Zappa-esque avantgarde , traditional Indonesian music and some rather heavy metal. The first two tracks System Manipulation and Breathe, plus the fourth rack Verso Kartini are rather heavy and weird pieces mixing menacing metal, qurky avant music and calmer jazzy parts with an indonesian flavour. The third track P.E.S. A. N. is a shorter and a rather soft piece sang in Indonesian, the guitars are acoustic here, accompanied by woodwinds. Music for 5 players is the least accesible track, it is instrumental and it sounds like some "out there" contemorary classical music. The concluding track Anne is based on the Diary of Anne Frank and it is the longest track of the album, with clocking over 19 minutes. It features really everything, that this band stands for, but this is the part of the album which is the closest to "traditional" Smyphonic Prog. The musicianship of the band is absolutely outstanding, and all compositions are very rewarding and well-written, even Music for 5 players has some charm. ... tot licht is surely one of my favourite albums from the new millenium. It is very sad that excellent woodwind player Anto Praboe and the great bass guitar player Kiki Caloh have already passed away. May They Rest in Peace.