Home Grown: A stunning vintage Indonesian pop collection in Jakarta

Because every record collection has a story.

Home Grown is our series profiling you lot and your excellent record collections. Taking our cue from the brilliant submissions to the #VFRecordCollections thread on Instagram, we want to share a little of your hard-earned love for vinyl with the world.

Each week, we’ll be profiling a different collector from around the world and finding out what makes them tick. Want in? Send us a pic and a few words about your collection to [email protected].

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Agasyah Karim

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

Size of collection (approx.): 700-ish

How long have you been collecting for?

I got my first turntable in the mid ‘90s, a cheap Indonesian-made pick-up, but back then I was listening mostly to my dad’s record collection. I only started collecting seriously, with my current set-up, since 2005.

What part of your set-up are you most proud of?

Two things: my Grado SR325, and my rug, which I got from my mother in law, bless her. It really ties the room together.

What record(s) are you most proud of?

I’m an indie pop fan, so my copy of Blueboy’s Unisex — a surprise birthday gift from my wife — is one. My Bandcamp finds are also great, mainly because I get to support all these artists more concretely by buying directly from them.

I should also mention my Indonesian pop records from the ‘70s and early ‘80s. Indonesian pop from this period is quite underrated. Artists like Chrisye, Candra Darusman, Yockie and Fariz RM blended prog, jazz, disco and funk with a strong Indonesian lyricsm, creating music that are as unique as they are catchy. Fans of Brazilian MBP or West Coast yacht pop will find much to like in their bodies of work.

Sadly, due to bad archiving, vinyl reissues are still a rarity. To build an Indonesian pop vinyl library, one has to dig for original copies—most of them promotional and pressed in very limited quantities. I’m lucky enough to score a handful of these, but ultimately I’m hoping someone will properly restore and reissue key albums from this era. They deserve to be heard by more people.

What does your record collection mean to you?

Remember that huge signage in front of Tower Records in Shibuya, Tokyo? No music, no life. It’s as simple as that.