Singer–songwriter Alifchief plays rock in the vein of The Jimi Hendrix experience or Cream, but combines the size and space of these power trios with a touches of funk, afrobeat, uncut psych and folk (and I definitely hear some Santana in those guitar solos). Recalling the days when rock songs were long and you could fucking well like it, the opening (and instrumental) track Neraka sets a languorous pace, taking its time, leaving plenty of space and looping a guitar solo that could strip wallpaper. The vibe is consistently psychedelic, even in nusantarafrika‘s most riff-driven moments of Ready to Go, Night & Day or Buzz Like Flies.
The trumpets on Ready to Go are a particularly nice touch, complementing the Doors-esque guitar line, and the acoustic The Wanderer continues to expand the sonic palette, a bit like an update on Going to California with a few more African influences. Crucially, there is a range of moods on nusantarafrika, even whilst continuity is maintained – one of the things that has allowed Led Zeppelin II, Eat a Peach or Morrison Hotel to last the test of time is that they fit together distinguishable songs, rather than being mood pieces*, and there’s a similar approach here. One of the things that Alifchief does really well on this album is mix up sounds without it becoming an act of dilution. Besides the aforementioned classic rock vibes, Morning Mist is a beautiful, slightly folk-y acoustic track which suits its namesake, and Rumahku is a blissful five minutes, before Jaya took me on an Allman Brothers trip down the river, concluding with Buzz Like Flies making me want to get my overdrive pedal out and indirectly tell everyone to piss off.
Alifchief’s style of guitar playing is old school in that you hear each note – there are no big crunching riffs, but rather, in a guitarist’s parlance, what I think of as a single-coil sound; every note is audible and the dynamics – again, as per classic rock – are wide. You would certainly never call this sterile. I probably would have opted for a bit less reverb on the vocals, but this does create a certain, woozy sound, which psych fans will dig. Although it takes its time and leaves space, it’s a tight, interesting listen and there’s plenty to dig into; eight great songs, one great album.
*Not that the latter necessarily dooms any such albums to insignificance – I like Nails as much as the next guy**, but I can only tell a couple of their songs apart – it’s more of a mood thing, from my perspective.
**Turns out the next guy hates Nails.***
***That’s OK, Nails already hated him anyway.
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