About two years ago, local DJ Carl Hamm found himself in a Malacca food stall interviewing some big names in an obscure, but amazing, form of music.
About two years ago, local DJ Carl Hamm found himself in a Malacca food stall interviewing some big names in an obscure, but amazing, form of music.
This was the second time Hamm had been to Malaysia to meet artists from this era and this was the most grueling day of the trip – Adnan Othman, a musician from the era, had offered to drive him 2 hours east to meet these artists, but his car had broken down on the way and another musician, Joe Chelliah, rescued them and took them the rest of the way.
Known as Pop Yeh Yeh, the music played by those he was meeting with doesn’t really sound foreign – it sounds old, and it should because most of it was recorded in the late 60’s – but until the artists open their mouths it’s pretty hard to tell it apart from early Beatles records, or the Kinks.
Pop Yeh Yeh came out of East Asia in a weird way to begin with. As the British Empire began to loosen their grip on that part of the world, the culture and music from the UK still clung to the nation’s youth. While Americans were fiending for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Cliff Richard and the Shadows was making a bigger splash near the South China Sea.
According to Hamm, Richard played a massive stadium show in Singapore and quickly became a regional phenomena.
“Everyone (in Malaysia) wanted to be Cliff Richard and the Shadows – he’s the British counterpart to Elvis or Buddy Holly,” Hamm explained. “Everyone idolized him.”
This lead to contests where local bands would compete with their best Cliff Richard-cover bands and the winner would get a recording contract. These records were often recorded in one or two takes, and would incorporate British and American song structures with traditional Malay lyrics and messages – usually about innocent activities like dancing on the beach, but sometimes referencing or observing the nation’s close ties with Islam.
Young Malays didnt want to hear bad cover versions of Western hits, they wanted something to call their own… Rock music sung in Malay. This, according to Hamm, is how the genre was really born.
“They made their own rock and roll,” Hamm explained. “But even then, I’m pretty sure most musicians were also observing the fundamental traditions of Islam… including daily prayer… When I visited a practice session with Dato’ A Rahman Hassan and Orkes Nirwana in Johor Bahru in 2010, they put the guitars down and prayed right there in the recording studio.”
Hamm’s love of this unique music started about 10 years ago when he began his radio show, If Music could Talk on WRIR 97.3 LP-FM. He was among some of the few folks who got in early on the independent radio start up and secured himself a Sunday evening slot where he made a point to play music people hadn’t heard before.
Other DJ’s had locked down African and other world music, but he found a niche in Indian, Thai, and before long, Malay music.
“They were the weirdest, most unique things I could find on Ebay,” Hamm told me. “I liked to keep people guessing.”
People started asking him where the records came from and who the artists were, but these questions were often left unanswered. Hamm started to dig and managed to narrow down a few of the performers through Youtube and other obscure, fan-created music forums – most of them written in Malay.
As his collection grew, so did his love for for Pop Yeh Yeh. Before long he realized the music he’d come to adore was getting lost to the ages, and he looked to other fans and the internet at large for support through a kickstarter.
Sure enough, his sister managed to get a story about his efforts on the website Boing Boing and Hamm raised enough money to go to Malaysia and Singapore in search of the original artists from a genre he’d come to love.
His first trip was a whirlwind to say the least – he interviewed artists in some of the most random places — hawkers stands (large open air food malls), restaurant patios, hotel lobbies, a McDonalds in a Singapore Mall, and in their private living rooms.
There’s a much deeper and bigger story from that first trip, and Hamm (who called it “magical”) is working on a documentary all about it, so I wont go into much deeper detail here. But a key part of that trip involved meeting Adnan Othman, a man who would soon become his next musical obsession.
As part of his Kickstarter, Hamm constructed his first compilation record, Pop Yeh Yeh: Psychedelic Rock From Singapore And Malaysia 1964-1970 Vol. 1, featuring a number of the artists he met. He worked with many of the artists individually or through a kind of musicians union, the “Pop Yeh Yeh Welfare Club” (Kelab Kebajikan Artis Pop Yeh Yeh), which was formed by Dato’ A Rahman Hassan, a popular band leader of the era, to support the performers who were still alive.
But it was Othman who would lead to his next big project. Not only had the performer been a stand out host during Hamm’s stay, his music in particular stood out to the star-struck Dj.
“He had this kind of cavalier persona, ya know?” Hamm said about Othman. “He always has this cool pose on his records, and I was like ‘who is this guy?’”
Hamm kept in touch with Othman when he returned to the states and before long, as his collection of records grew, he realized he had a kind of duty to preserve the singer’s sound.
Hamm returned to Malaysia and spent much of his time with Othman, learning more about him, meeting his family, and listening to his music.
“That week and half I stayed with Adnan, he just made it happen – connecting me, chauffeuring me, feeding me.” Hamm said. By this point, he’d started to compile Othman’s music and the two had been working via email to get it all together. Othman would answer questions and send photos, and Hamm got to work digitizing the old records from home.
He worked with the folks at Sublime Frequencies to help with design, remastering, pressing, and distro. The Seattle-based label specializes in obscure tunes from around the world and while it took some time, they’ve finally finished the discs.
Bershukor: A Retrospective of Hits by a Malaysian Pop Yeh Yeh Legend, is yet another fruit of those two bountiful trips to Singapore and Malaysia, and Hamm’s hard work. Spanning Othman’s 8-EP career, Bershukor is both a “thank you” from Hamm, as well as an expression of thanks from Othman himself.
The attachment he formed with Othman ran deep, and it seems the appreciation is mutual. The final product that is this new compilation is a labor of love with tons of history, amazing photos and even better music.
The liner notes of the vinyl release are formed in a personal Q&A style, with questions from Hamm and responses from Othman. Much of it happened via e-mail with Othman’s daughter, Ariana, a musician herself (Couple, and The Venopian Solitude), helping to keep the two in touch when Othman’s computer was acting up.
Hamm said he went back and started getting this record together to create this new masterpiece for two main reasons:
One, it’s for young people to discover, specifically people playing garage rock-derived music, which Othman’s tunes could easily fall into.
“It’s a good message to spread; that we, as western people weren’t the only people making this music,” Hamm said. “I want people who are into that stuff to be able to tap into what was happening in Malaysia, not just happening in America or the UK.”
He also stressed he hoped his work wouldn’t be misinterpreted as exploitative.
“It’s foreign to me, yes, but foreign doesn’t mean I’m other-izing it or exotifying it, it just means it’s extra interesting to me. That incarnation of rock and roll you’ll never hear anywhere else,” he said.
His other reason for making the record is Othman himself. Hamm called the singer “always humble,” and explained how the record’s title itself is a tribute to that quality.
“When Othman first got the opportunity to record in Singapore in those early days, he had a moment of realization.. of “Bershukor”…. where he realized ‘I’m very grateful to god for the opportunities I have right now,'” – a memory Adnan relayed to Hamm about this song title. Between the performer helping him get his first compilation together and shoot the documentary, Hamm said this release was “a nice ‘thank you’ to help him get his music and his story out.”
You can pick up the new record set at Steady Sounds this Friday, Plan 9 by Monday, and other local vinyl shops like Deep Groove in the near future.
