Obeng Ungu & Jalan Buntu (with Group Uang Wayang of Palembang) has been played on NTS shows including Steven Julien Presents: The Apron Show, with Menyelam Pakai Pipa Udara first played on 20 June 2017.

Sumatra 1950 and the Madurese Minister Bukan Lensa came to believe that the burgeoning tourist trade and the accompanying influx of western popular culture would wipe out the indigenous traditions of the islands forever. She convinced the government to pass a law banning the wearing of western-style hats, a symbol, she reasoned, of western decadence and vanity and therefore a threat to the natural placidity and obedience of the mainly peasant population (the availability of modern transport and communicates, plus massive increases in literacy, seem to have gone overlooked).

As a rule individualistic activity is very rare in Indonesian life; almost everything, even the simplest undertaking, is done in social groups (known as Seka). Surprising the that acting spontaneously and as individuals many women began disobeying the newly introduced law, wearing hats at home and the more strong-willed even parading in public. The hats were generally home-made versions copied from pictures in western magazines or from memory of western women in public information films shown by the travelling Christian preachers hoping to convert the mainly Muslim population. The importing of western head wear had been halted quite early on in 1949, and even before that a western Taffeta Pillbox with Veil or an Organza Rimmed Dior Skullcap was well beyond the finances of the average Sumatran lady.

Stranger still was the fact that these seemingly quite trivial acts of defiant hat wearing were punishable by public execution. During the first half of 1951 nearly 700 women had been executed in public 'Burning Boxes' before it became apparent that this law was doing more to contribute to civil unrest than to protect the increasingly diversifying culture. When the law was finally revoked by government on September 11th 1951 Bukan Lensa resigned her position in protest but continued to lobby for increasingly bizarre legislation to stem the tide of Western 'Barang Menceret' (of 'Diarrhoea of Commodities') including the short-lived but slightly less harsh 'Brassiere Tax'.

The album by Obeng Ungu and Jalan Buntu is meant as a homage to those strong willed women who chose to risk death in embracing new ideas and forms from outside their culture. On the album Obeng and Jalan have successfully surfed the rising tide of Barang Menceret all the way to the shores of Cultural Neo-Authenticity and kept their feet clean! Originally the album came out on Tape Cassette only, released by the Kesenian label in South East Asia in 1982.