Manhole-cover Gamelan

Last night I visited a new road in Singapore and found this entire pavement of drain covers. As usual, when you walk over one drain cover, it makes a 'tonk!' sound. But walking down a whole street of them started to resemble a kind of weird, post-industrial Gamelan. Which was quite appropriate for SE Asia, I suppose!

What is Gamelan?
Gamelan is a collection of 'gongs' and xylophones of varying size and tone, which together form an orchestra of soothing 'plinky plonky' music. (It's rather hard to describe, so listen below!) Each person has a 'gong' and you have to learn to play in sequence / time with each other. Apparently it's quite difficult! There are usually other instruments in the Gamelan too - flutes, drum things, string things.. It's a nice sound. 

Gamelan is native to Indonesia, and has an important place in Indonesian culture. But variations can be found in Malaysia and other parts of SE and South Asia.

(Thanks to Aurel Hollo for the video)