Porous Borders: Experimental Music in the Southern Hemisphere

Today I'm speaking with Indra Menus, one of the founding members of the Jogja Noise Bombing collective. Indra has been active in the Jogja underground music scene for a long time now with many many projects, including his major noise project To Die, which, as I found out doing this interview, started out as a pop-punk cover band. He also sings in the post-hardcore band LKTDOV and his new hardcore punk band Narcholocos. Recently he has also been collaborating with the rapper Joe Million. They've released two records together and recently completed a European tour. Indra has also toured extensively in Southeast Asia and I think it's fair to say that there are a few cities in Indonesia which now have pretty active noise scenes because of his influence.

This is the third of three interviews I'm doing with members of the Jogja Noise Bombing collective. The Jogja Noise Bombing festival for 2020 is happening this weekend in Yogyakarta on the 25th and 26th. I will be there so if you're listening and coming along, please say hi, if I don't know you already. It would be great to chat. I also have a short documentary film screening on the first night. It's about the group Sarana, who are an experimental group from Samarinda in East Kalimantan. They're mentioned in this interview and I think were mentioned in last week's episode as well. If you won't be at the festival I'll have some details about how you can see that film coming up in the future.

Please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, please share it with your friends. Please check out my 5 way split with DJ Miko, Coffee Faith, Mahamboro, and Dissonant. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel Concrescence Records; I'm putting new stuff on there every week. And if you want to say hi or suggest someone I should talk to you can email me at [email protected]

Tracks played: "Sindikat Indi" by Joe Million x Indra Menus, "La Solución Es Narcholocos" by Narcholocos
Links
Relamati Records: https://relamatirecords.bandcamp.com/
Narcholochos bandcamp: https://narcholocos.bandcamp.com/
Indra Menus and Joe Million album: https://noisebombing.bandcamp.com/album/nb21-joe-million-indra-menus
LKTDOV self-titled 7": https://otakotorrecords.bandcamp.com/album/self-titled-7
Pancawala split (Coffee Faith, Dissonant, BRRR., DJ Miko, Anquan): https://mindblasting.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/pancawala-split/
Concrescence Records YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqKkFOv5-FOVTTbl0oojrfw

My friend Tesla Manaf returns to the podcast with boundless energy to talk about his two recent full-length Kuntari albums: 2021's Last Boy Picked (jointly released by Grimloc and Orange Cliff) and this year's Larynx (released on Yes No Wave). The two records mark a radical departure from the purely electronic Black Shirt Attracts More Feather (2019) and see the project operating in band-mode, utilising acoustic instrumentation and long-form composition. We discussed doing nothing during the pandemic, going back to the guitar, learning trumpet, being put on the right path through mistakes and accidents, and the childlike joy that comes with discovering new sounds.
I admire Tesla's dedication to craft and relentless drive to push forward into new creative territory so much and found this conversation extremely energising. I hope you do too.
Links
Last Boy Picked: https://orangecliffrecords.bandcamp.com/album/last-boy-picked
Larynx: http://yesnowave.com/releases/yesno101/

Dylan Amirio (Logic Lost) is a young producer, musician, and DJ from Jakarta who has released music on labels such as Orange Cliff, Blank Orb, and DEAD Records. Before the coronavirus hit and everything shut down, he was a regular on the live circuit in Jakarta, as well as playing in Malaysia and Thailand. In 2019 he played a few different sets at Jogja Noise Bombing Festival, which was where I saw him play for the first time. One of those was a collaboration with Dios De Techno from Spain and you can find a link to video of that in the show notes. He also did a live scoring project called Puppetry of Life, which was a tribute to the work of the Czech filmmaker Svankmajer. Dylan's music is very personal and he's very sincere and open about his story and the life events that have influenced his music here.

Dylan's most recent release is an EP for the excellent Jakarta label Blank Orb. It's called Hero Worship, and it sees him going in a darker direction that emphasises the more experimental aspects of his work. In 2018 he released his second album, which is called Forgive Yourself, and I highly recommend checking that out as well. I've been listening to it a lot this week and it's making me really miss being in Jakarta. This interview was recorded at a coffee shop in South Jakarta way too along ago, back in November of last year.

I'm playing a streaming set on Saturday evening at around 10pm AEST for a festival called Sounds of the Underground, which is a festival from Amsterdam. The festival going 24 hours a day from the 15th until midnight on the 19th, and there are a lot of fantastic people doing different things for it. I'll put a link to the festival in show notes. My set is in between two of my favourite noise/experimental guys from Indonesia; Karnivulgar from Surabaya is playing before me and Rama from the amazing Bandung psychedelic band Gaung is playing directly after me, so check that out if you're interested.
Links
Logic Lost and Dios De Techno performance from JNB 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud4IsDZfHoE
Logic Lost bandcamp: https://logiclost.bandcamp.com/

Sounds of the Underground festival: https://www.sotufestival.com/
Anquan bandcamp: http://anquan.bandcamp.com/
Sonic Vortex Vol. 1 (compilation of South-East Asian noise and experimental music): https://mindblasting.wordpress.com/2020/01/25/sonic-vortex-volume-1/
Pancawala split (Coffee Faith, Dissonant, BRRR., DJ Miko, Anquan): https://mindblasting.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/pancawala-split/
Concrescence Records YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqKkFOv5-FOVTTbl0oojrfw

Today on Porous Borders is Josten Myburgh, a composer, musician, improviser, and curator from Perth in Western Australia. I met Josten last December at KLEX festival in Kuala Lumpur, and in the interview, we talk a lot about Josten's performance from the festival. Video of that performance is available in full at the link below.
Josten performs on saxophone and electronics as a solo improviser and with the groups Tchake, Mahagonny, and Breaking Waves, and he's part of organising the record label Tone List, which is a label focused on experimental music and sound from Western Australia. As part of his work with Tone List, Josten also organises the Audible Edge Festival every year. This year's festival was set to run in April and obviously it has been postponed, so if you have any cash to spare, head over to the Tone List bandcamp and grab something from there. If you want something that Josten's involved with, check out the record called Berlin Split; you can get it as a CD or a download.
I've been working on this podcast for about 6 months now, and I've really loved all the conversations I've had for it. This conversation in particular is one of my absolute favourites, and if I had to pick one that represents what the podcast is about and what I want to achieve with it, it would be this one. Josten talks a lot about why he's stayed in Perth instead of moving to a bigger city, and also why he's made a point of making strong connections with South-East Asia.
To give you a bit of context, this interview was recorded the day after KLEX, which is why we spend a lot of time talking about the festival and some of our favourite performances there. Again, check out my YouTube channel because there's video of a bunch of those performances on there, and whatever isn't there already is coming in the future. At the time of recording, I was in the middle of a tour with some friends from Indonesia and Malaysia and I don't think I'd gone to sleep before 3am for the three or four nights prior, so I was really struggling to form sentences. Josten was about to head back to Perth after many months of traveling and performing all over the world, and he still managed to be incredibly articulate.
Later this week, I have a new Anquan record coming out, so please follow me on Bandcamp or Spotify or whatever you use. If anyone's stuck at home and want to talk, please reach out over email or Instagram. I'd love to hear from you. I'm in day 7 of self-isolation at the moment and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the sun again next week. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you again next week.
Links
Josten's website: http://www.jostenmyburgh.com/
Tone List bandcamp: https://tonelist.bandcamp.com/
Tone List website: https://www.tonelist.com.au/
Josten's performance from KLEX 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqkQZohX7IY
Anquan bandcamp page: https://anquan.bandcamp.com/
Sonic Vortex Vol. 1 (compilation of South-East Asian noise and experimental music): https://mindblasting.wordpress.com/2020/01/25/sonic-vortex-volume-1/
Pancawala split (Coffee Faith, Dissonant, BRRR., DJ Miko, Anquan): https://mindblasting.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/pancawala-split/
Concrescence Records YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqKkFOv5-FOVTTbl0oojrfw

This week on Porous Borders I'm speaking to Duto Hardono, who is a sound artist based in Bandung, Indonesia. If you're in Australia, particularly in Melbourne, you might recognise his name because he just in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago playing some shows for the AsiaTOPA festival. If you're in Canberra you might also recognise Duto's name from the Contemporary Worlds exhibition last year, where one of his pieces was performed. If you're not in Australia, you might know Duto as the owner of the fantastic cassette label Hasana Editions, which has been getting some pretty good press lately. In the past couple of years they've released work from people like such as Kate Carr and Will Guthrie, along with a number of Indonesian artists. It's an amazing label; I've listened to everything on it and I absolutely recommend that you do as well, especially if you're stuck inside at the moment. Duto also teaches at the Bandung Institute of Technology and he's a very interesting modular synth performer. We talk about all of that in the interview and a lot more, so please enjoy,
A couple of other notes: I'll be inside for the next two weeks (mandatory self-isolation after overseas travel), but the podcast will continue as normal. I also have a new Anquan release coming out in the next week or so, so keep an eye out for that.
Links
Hasana Editions Bandcamp: https://hasanaeditions.bandcamp.com/
Ata Ratu, Anton Toba Lenda & Duto Hardono performance at Goethe Institute, Jakarta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4isYtaRcDNY&t=2s
Duto Hardono website: http://dutohardono.art/
Audio excerpts taken from the above performance with Ata Ratu and Anton Toba Lendra. The whole performance is very much worth your time.
Sonic Vortex Vol. 1 (compilation of South-East Asian noise and experimental music): https://mindblasting.wordpress.com/2020/01/25/sonic-vortex-volume-1/
Pancawala split (Coffee Faith, Dissonant, BRRR., DJ Miko, Anquan): https://mindblasting.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/pancawala-split/
Concrescence Records YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqKkFOv5-FOVTTbl0oojrfw