Jakarta's very own, Orkestra Odong-Odong

“Odong-odong” is the term we call these “mini-carousels on wheels”—an organic reply to the diminishing public space for children to play in. Rika has written an extensive article before (the original articulative article in Indonesian has just been published by Karbonjournal.org, the far-from-perfect Google-translated version can be found here).

This month, we decided to hire four different kinds of Odong-odong (complete with designated drivers/operators for each), so all four could debark at one point, offering free rides to the children of the neighborhood—their regular customers. Having four fun-looking carts with ability to play songs through cassette tapes (no CDs for these guys, let alone iPods), we couldn't help ourselves to take the fun further. What kind of sound could be played in cohesion by four synchronized different sources? After several unfruitful efforts, we found the answer in the experimental album Zaireeka by The Flaming Lips (the Wikipedia entry for it can be found here). The original album consists of 4 CDs, intended to be played at the same time using 4 different players in order for the listener(s) to be able to grasp the direction the band was aiming for.

Successful or not? Fruitful or totally tutty-frutty? You be the judge. Watch the video below, and cast your vote & opinion on the comment section. Please.