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Reviews

Discus — ...Tot Licht!
(Musea FGBG 4500.AR, 2003, CD)

...Tot Licht! Cover art

It’s been a few years since Discus’ debut, and they’ve been using the time well. The hour of music here encompasses elements of progressive rock, and excursions into metal, avant-garde territory, and jazz. In a genre where real innovation is so rare nowadays, Discus fearlessly combines musical styles, much to my delight. Listing musicians and instruments would kill my word count, but there are tons, including ‘gamelan’ type tuned percussion, and Iwan Hasan’s 21-string harpguitar. The band covers trad prog, metal (including clean and gruff “cookie monster” vocals), chanting, lighter acoustic pieces with guitar and winds, and so on. The five-movement “Music 4.5 Players” is a highlight, an instrumental composition by Hasan with elements of chamber music and some modern classical moves, at least from my superficial standpoint. Half of the lyrics are in English (the rest Indonesian, I think), but broken grammar hampers their effectiveness. Combined with the metal parts it can get funny, like when the guy threatens to “Kick your ass, dude!” Like any band that takes chances, some work flawlessly and some don’t, but these guys are on the right side of the divide. The final piece of the album proper (there is a six-minute “bonus track”) is the ‘proggiest,’ a 20-minute multi-part suite conforming roughly to the genre’s conventions, even throwing in some Steve Howe-ish guitar work, although the presence of a female a cappella section shows a reluctance to stay safe. So much to say, but this one has to be heard. Thumbs up.

by Sean McFee, Published 2003-12-01

Discus continues to create interesting music using a mix of both traditional Indonesian and Western instruments on their second album …tot licht! With eight people in the group, Discus usually employs several instruments and multiple lead vocalists for each track. The most obvious change from their debut album is that on this release, there is more of a progressive-metal element present. “System Manipulation” and “Breathe” both have chunky, fast guitar power chord sections and death-metal type vocals in parts. Of course, interspersed with those heavy sections are the smooth jazz, gamelan, and acoustic components that you would expect from Discus. Frequent stark changes in style are the norm for them. Two of the tracks however, “P.E.S.A.N.” and “Music 4.5 Players,” use only acoustic instruments. Acoustic guitars, strings, and clarinet are featured in “P.E.S.A.N.” — a song about missing a friend. “Music 4.5 Players” is an instrumental that features violin and winds and has a nice harp-guitar cadenza. “Verso Kartini” is one of the album’s best tracks and is a tribute to R.A. Kartini — a champion of women’s rights in Indonesia who helped open the first schools for girls. The lyrics for this tune are based upon a collection of Ibu Kita Kartini’s letters. Anne Frank’s dairy is in the inspiration for the song “Anne” — a tune with several very cool gamelan sections, including a couple of great kecak multi-part rhythmic vocal sections. Discus has a unique sound and …tot licht! is a more consistent effort than their debut. An enjoyable listen.

by Mike Grimes, Published 2003-12-01

Discus entered the scene a few years back with a CD that captured an interesting fusion/prog mix, with a touch of Indonesian gamelan splashes. Well we can forget all about that! They have now totally reformed their sound, and it’s a confusing admixture, to put it lightly. The problem: they can’t decide what kind of band they want to be. The eight-member ensemble excels at just about everything they touch, but that doesn’t quite conduce pleasing results when considering how many angles they throw at us. Often you’ll hear a band jump from style to style between compositions, but Discus does so within each individual track. So you’ll find a power-metal moment, followed by a subtle jazzy section, followed by a blasting symphonic workout, all in one title. But that’s not all. One piece — for me the pinnacle of the whole CD — is a beautiful chamber music work featuring bass clarinet, zither, gamelan instruments, and violin. Not ironically, it’s also the only one on which they don’t genre hop. Overall however Discus is at their most original when they stick to simpler song structures, with the mixed chorus vocals that pop up during their softer moments. If they would focus on this side, then they would hit on a unique Indonesian character, and allow the individual members to satisfy their jazz and metal leanings elsewhere.

by Mike Ezzo, Published 2003-12-01

Filed under: New releases, Issue 28, 2003 releases

Related artist(s): Discus

 

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