Seahoarse : Live in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

While we were in Jogja, Indonesia, I came across something to sooth my rattled nerves caused by all those motorbike rides, harsh noise, and brutal punk rock.  They're called Seahoarse.  The band brings in chilled out, poppy songs that'll stick in your head for days.  Particularly the slow-burning "Submarine", which we'll likely use to the footage of for Episode 4 of the film project.  Seahoarse is a relatively new band, and this recording is only their 2nd show ever, so I'm interested to see where they go from here.  They're also ridiculously nice people, who came out to almost every gig I saw while spending a month in Java.  Perfect stuff to soak up all that coffee and sun if you're ever in Central Java. 

You can head to the band's Soundcloud page above, or cruise over to the bandcamp and listen to a live recording of their set at Suave Bar.

"TO DIE"

"TO DIE." Jogja. Indra Menus' collaborative noise project. Supposedly constantly changing form, members, and sound. It's all an experiment. A show with Made Dharma 's hardcore / grind jam Warmouth, who played last because they're "too loud" and were cut short near the end due to neighborhood complaints. Happens everywhere. 

Gisela Swaragita and Seahoarse brought some refreshing reverb pop style stuff that'll mix great with all of this chaos. Today was a travel day.

We trekked clear across Java, south of Jakarta, to a city called Bogor. Saturday, there's a 12 band bill. A birthday party, for a baby...named Nirvana.

Nobody thinks this is as funny as we do.

Halo, Bogor. I like you already

Lintang the Wizard

Jogja. Indra Menus and Hendra pick me up, and it's a short motorbike ride south to Kasongan Village. Our first stop, the Kenalirangkai Pakai headquarters, where Lintang Radittya crafts "Javanese Modulars".

We chat about Javanese culture and Islam as his little girl curiously runs around. The synth building crew in Java has strong bonds, and seriously unique, intense, inspiring creations. Afterwards, we zip to Andreas and Budi's lab called lifepatch. They screw around with 8-bit synths built out of Nintendo cartridges, tin containers. Indra adds the names of collaborators on these machines, right next to the dials.

Java's crafting of these is a lot more clean lines, less of the insane mutant meat-grinder stuff in Surabaya. They all watch each other, though. Thanks for a rad day, all! Tomorrow : Noise bombing the street.

Jogja, Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta. Jogja. Whatever you choose to call it, I already like it here. It's the only region in Indonesia headed by a monarchy. Indra Menus meets up with me. He's an archival nerd after my own heart, compiling a backlog of recordings I know all too well.

This is another important hub of noise kids, building synths out of Nintendo's, found and made objects, whatever they can make work. We walk around the central market area, and end at a coffee shop ran by his friend. The amount of dark spaces here that house expertly crafted products amazes me. You just have to know where to look. I finally meet Lintang Radittya, who makes something he calls the "Javanese Modular". Great conversations. Heavy week coming.