Kurumitto - A Sri Lankan Sci-Fi Song by The Gypsies

As Sri Lanka & sci-fi are two topics discussed on this blog, I decided to write about “Kurumitto” a Sri Lankan sci-fi song by the popular Sri Lankan band The Gypsies. It is a cover of the Dutch song “Smurfsången” by singer Father Abraham. The original song was in Dutch and The Gypsies version is in Sinhalese & changed the topic from smurfs to aliens. This song is baila, a type of Sri Lankan music. I’ll be embedding the original version/music video of the song below that The Gypsies themselves have uploaded to YouTube and give my thoughts on both the song & video.

I like how this Gypsies song has prominent piano as piano is my favourite instrument. I’m pleased that the piano is louder in the mix than the most well known 2003 re-recording of this song featured on The Gypsies album “The Beginning”. You can also listen to the official audio of that version on YouTube. Speaking of piano, I had written another blog post tying sci-fi to songs I like using piano, that being “Sci-Fi Elton John Songs”. This song has some similarities to Elton John, with it being a bit like Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock”, which I will come to later.

The video starts off with weird sound effects and a spaceship. We then move to a shot of the short aliens in an interesting effect where the aliens are in a white silhouette. The aliens get out of their spaceship into a black background with a big blue line. Then we move to a full colour shot with Gypsies lead singer Sunil Perera singing. This is followed by the aliens (now also in full colour) singing in a high pitched way which is obviously created by speeding up their voice. The verses of the song feature back and forth between Sunil and the aliens.

The song’s chorus has the aliens going on “lal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la …” which is reminiscent of the “la la la la la …” in Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock”. The aliens say bye and become a white silhouette again, this time with a colour changing background. The background becomes fully black and the aliens walk into their spaceship. The spaceship sound effects come again and the spaceship flies over the screen in white as basic computer graphics. This video is a good colourful video giving us a look back into 1980s Sri Lankan culture.

This is a good Sri Lankan song. I’d be interested to hear from those who were alive when the original

song came out and if seeing the video again brought back memories. Also, feel free to give your

thoughts on this song.