Djam Karet

by Gary HillDjam Karet is a band that is based in Los Angeles. Taking their name from an Indonesian phrase the means "elastic time, the hour that stretches," they were formed in 1984 to play improvisational music. Their first album, No Commercial Potential, saw the light of day in 1985. The follow up was a live album entitled The Ritual Continues that was released in 1987. The group soon began pursuing soundtrack work, over the years creating music for such shows as Hard Copy, infomercials, and commercials, among other venues. 1989 saw the release of Reflections From the Firepool. By 1991, the band had gotten quite ambitious and released two albums meant to be taken as a set. The discs were Burning the Hard City and Suspension and Displacement. The follow-up to those discs would come in the form of 1994's Collaborator. 1997 would see the band on a new label (Cuneiform) and with a new release (The Devouring). Two years later, the group would release another live album, this one recorded at Orion Sound Studios and entitled, simply enough, Live at Orion. That same year also saw the release of Still No Commercial Potential (a limited-edition CD). Cuneiform reissued much of the Djam Karet catalog in 2000. The following year saw a virtual avalanche of music from the band. First was the compilation A Beginners' Guide followed by New Dark Age and the limited edition Ascension and #1. The group released Afghan (Live at the Knitting Factory) and #2 (both limited-edition) in 2002.