Malay Funk and Soul: Digging Into Malaysia and Singapore’s 60s and 70s Sound
by Daniel Finn
Guys, I’ve fallen into another one.
This time it’s Malay funk and soul.
I started digging into records from Malaysia and Singapore from the 1960s and 1970s and quickly realised there was a lot more here than I expected.
Soul, funk, jazz and rock were making their way through Southeast Asia, and Malay-language musicians were working those sounds into pop, film music and local studio recordings.
The scenes in Malaysia and Singapore were closely connected. Musicians, singers and producers moved between the two countries, while records travelled through radio, clubs, cinemas and record shops. Indonesia also formed part of this wider musical exchange.
And the records are all over the place in the best way.
You get heavy funk basslines, electric guitar, brass, Hammond organ, strings and percussion. Some records lean towards soul and jazz. Others move into psychedelic rock, disco or elaborate film arrangements.
What I love about this stuff is how little I knew about it before I started looking.
There are records here I would never have come across through the usual funk and soul rabbit holes. You start with one artist, then find another, then another, and suddenly you're looking at an entire musical scene across Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
So I’ve started putting together a playlist of the music I’m finding.
Malay funk, soul, jazz, psych, disco and pop from the 1960s and 1970s.