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Alex Stahl wrote about the band Djam Karet (the indonesian proper spelling). Djam Karet means 'time is rubber' and refers to the elastic quality of time when you live in the tropics. The first time I heard it, I was touring as a dancer in the first American theatre troupe to perform in Bali, Indonesia. I had to meet a Balinese man in the market of Denpassar so that he could help me get my visa extended and we agreed to meet at noon in the market place. My visa was to run out the next day, I was low on money and Denpassar was pretty far from Ubud where I was staying so I had some major anxiety when he failed to appear at noon, and then one , two three and finally four o'clock. At five o'clock he appeared and I was pretty pissed off and said "where the hell have you been? We agreed to meet here at noon". He just shrugged his shoulders, giggled guilessly and said "Djam Karet". It diffused the situation (my uptightness at least) and I got my visa extended but I was really taken with the whole concept and so in 1989 we wrote a tune in my world fusion band, Worlds Collide called Jam Karet (a pun on jamming). For the intro to the tune I had our bassist, Ernie Provencher (who I miss dearly) play long rubbery glissandos on the track. I turned off the volume of the original tracks (my brother Bill playing a taqsim (unmetered improvisatioin) on a gamelan-esque metallaphone patch on his guitar synthesizer so that Ernie's parts were completely random. We went on to do a long piece with an ersatz-ketchak (or monkey chant) that I multitracked my own vocals over. I'm rather proud of that piece of music. I don't think it sounds like anything out at the time (or maybe even since). Anyway, Max Valentino heard that story years ago and also loved the concept and has done a really cool solo bass track on his new CD borrowing the title and using the same Balines Pelog scale with prepared Bass (alligator clips and such). Check it out. Our CD "Everything's Changing in the Global Village" is long out of print but I will happily burn a copy and supply artwork for the CD if anyone is interested in hearing it for $15 (shipping included). We go all over the planet and shamelessly fuse many different styles (with some degree of knowledge of the traditional aspects of the music I might add for all you purists out there). With the exception of the slightly dated new agey opening track (New Age radio were the only stations playing creative instrumental music at the time and it was the last time I ever make a decision based on purely commercial considerations for the rest of my life, thank god), the record holds up pretty well I think. I'm still proud of it. If anyone is interested, just send a check or money order to Rick Walker 412 Darwin Street Santa Cruz, California 95062-2629