30 The Wire Senyawa Like twin spirits possessed,Javanese duo Senyawa crosswire the energy of thrash metal with the raw power of trance rituals. Together and apart, the pair are key nodes in Indonesia's underground scene. By David Novak. Photography by Benjamin Butcher The Str eet Senyawa | The Wire | 31 The sounds pouring out of the monitors and into m y in on the group on tours from Singapore to Malaysia dots of the microscenes s p r e a d i n g out across the ears are raw and powerful as hell: a beat that is both to Los A n g e l e s and back to Java over the past two archipelago. Artist and longtime scene organiser relentless and entrancing, a voice that is beyond years, Shabara and Suryadi trace their musical roots Woto Wibowo ( a k a Wok The Rock) generated a crucial a voice. I'm in the control room at the Jogja Audio deep into the weird alchemical mixtures of Indonesia's node with his open culture netlabel Yes No Wave, School studio, checking out the early mixes of Tabuh dynamic underground. which, since its formation in 2007, released all of Langit Tanduk Jawara (Sky Drums On The Horns Of These days in Jogja (Jogjakarta or Yogyakarta in Shabara and Suryadi's recordings as free downloads, The Champion) by Senyawa m e m b e r Rully Shabara's long form), Senyawa are one especially solid branch alongside many of Jogja's core underground acts such new project Setabuhan. Two p e r c u s s i o n i s t s , one extending outward from a lively tangled thicket of as Frau, Punkasila and the noise rock band Seek Sick at each end of a huge skin-covered drum, blast out extreme sounds and experimental art, including Six. Wibowo is also responsible for putting S e n y a w a a complex interlocking matrix driving Shabara's noise collectives and electronic media g r o u p s like together at his Yes No Klub, an itinerant performance distorted, wordless, panting breath in and out of Jogja Noise Bombing, Lifepatch, Yogyakarta Synth series held at ad hoc spaces around the city. the mix, f i r s t a noisy scrabbling submerged into the Ensemble, House Of Natural Fiber and Kenali R a n g k a i "Wukir got up on stage with his instrument and flow of beats, and then punching out in groaning Pakai. In its dual role as both a college town and a started to play," Wok told me, " a n d I i m m e d i a t e l y operatic incantations and whisper-screams that historic centre for Javanese traditional arts, the city texted Rully: 'Drop what you are doing and get down echo in open space. Inspired by the trance-inducing provided rich turf for growing an alternative culture here right now! If you don't come it'll be t h e biggest balia rituals of Shabara's home i s l a n d of Sulawesi, scene since well before the turn of the m i l l e n n i u m . mistake of your life.' Rully arrived on his motorcycle a the visceral mass of sound evokes the technological When I lived in Jogja to study music in 1993-93, few minutes later. I pointed to the stage and said, 'Go possession of Super se-era Boredoms, a r e m i x e d during the long dictatorship of Suharto's New join him.'" bootleg of Einsturzende Neubauten, or a close-miked Order regime, a l t e r n a t i v e media w e r e suppressed. The two recorded their first album a few days later. field recording of a spirit possession ceremony g o n e Underground subcultures were there if you squinted, Wok dubbed the release Senyawa, an Indonesian wrong. Grinning at my a w e d expression, Shabara but only as a public secret at the fringes of social life. word that refers both to a chemical c o m p o u n d a n d pushes my c h a i r toward the mixing board. "Mess with But as the country stumbled blinking out of the long a syncretic mixture of elemental forms. The n a m e it for a minute. See i f you can open up the c o m p r e s s i o n dictatorship and into a new era of economic a n d social stuck, and Senyawa became a staple at Wok's monthly and get the drums to kick harder. I w a n t it to be a s change at the end of the 1990s, grass roots networks shows, where they developed a unique sound and intense as possible - to j u s t fucking rip out of t h e exploded across the country, especially in Java. From began to attract visiting collaborators to Jogja, speakers. It should make you feel like fighting." Bandung to Jakarta to Jogja, Solo and Surabaya, including Japanese guitar improv great Kazuhisa The sound is as exciting and powerful as the city of organisers brought local independent performance Uchihashi and Arrington De Dionyso's Indo-post-punk Jogja itself, the bright core of a growing Indonesian scenes, as well as DIY publishing and merch (called outfit Malaikat Dan S i n g a . In 2011, curator Kristi network of experimental music. T h e city is home to distro in local parlance), to the foreground of popular Monfries brought Senyawa t o Australia for their Senyawa, Shabara's explosive duo with the equally culture, binding together a generation of Indonesian first overseas tour and things have been nonstop prolific multi-instrumentalist Wukir Suryadi, w h o youth in the politics of punk. And over the last 20 since, with stints at Mona Foma, W O M A D , Unsound, coaxes dark soundscapes and bone-crunching riffs years, Indonesia has boasted the largest subcultures Europalia and the Asian Meeting Festival exposing the from unique handmade instruments, including his of metal, hardcore, grindcore and punk in the world, group to new audiences in Europe and across East iconic spear-like bambu wukir. Since their formation as well as recent surges in more pop based indie and and South East Asia. in 2010, Senyawa have catalysed a t r a n s n a t i o n a l shoegaze bands. But more e x p e r i m e n t a l a p p r o a c h e s Along the way, S e n y a w a b r o u g h t new (or perhaps audience through tours that stretch from Australia tended to circulate mostly in Java and Bali, mainly a s truly old?) influences to Jogja's experimental scene, to Europe to North America a n d Japan. Their studio academic projects in art schools and on the margins drawn from the raw intensity of traditional cultural recordings construct a diverse soundscape of vocal of galleries as performance art. performances. Like most Indonesians living outside and instrumental improvisations, and their magnetic of big cities, Shabara and Suryadi had grown up live street performances have been documented in Neither member of Senyawa w a s born in Jogja but seeing kuda lumping (also known asjathilan), a Vincent Moon's trippy short film Calling The N e w Gods migrated there, like many y o u n g people, to tap into wild improvisatory possession ritual that brings (with a soundtrack newly issued on vinyl by OkraTna its creative resources. When Shabara arrived from young dancers into trances in villages across Java, Records) as well as in breathless YouTube videos shot Sulawesi as a high schooler in the late 1990s, "there shouting, spasming v i o l e n t l y , whipping one another by awestruck audience members in clubs, concert was no scene. No one knew w h e r e t o play, so we j u s t and, according to some accounts, even eating halls and galleries. played at punkgigs, metal gigs, hardcore gigs... and glass. Musicians bang away on cheap and broken With the energy of a teenage thrash metal band no one liked us really," he laughs. We're talking over iron gongs and drumsets, pounding out a hypnotic and the shamanistic tumult of a v i l l a g e exorcism, it's Skype in April. The situation he describes began to accompaniment. impossible to deny their volcanic effect. Senyawa can shift in the 2000s as d i g i t a l infrastructure brought "It's very raw a n d brutal," adds Shabara gleefully, be counted among t h e most thrilling, edgy and original net cafes and mobile phones into daily life, bringing "and it's not like experimental music, or popular forms live performance units anywhere in the world. Indonesians onto the internet en masse, i n contact from elsewhere. It's more punk than punk. It's our with each other, and a world of new media resources. music: this is what we w e r e listening to as kids on the For new audiences, who may have picked up on their Music fans had heard Sepultura and Sonic Youth; streets." early international releases on Morphine in 2015, or now they passed around bootleg mixes of Captain caught the pair at festivals such as Tusk and Unsound Beefheart, Merzbow and Sleep.