SENYAWA
Alkisah
PHANTOM LIMB
Indonesian ritualists put the ‘manic’ into ‘shamanic’
of Java’s Senyawa have always straddled the uneasy divide between innovation and traditionalism, infusing the rigours of ancient ritual with an invigorating spontaneity. With its clear reverence to native folk tropes, there is something engagingly exaggerated, even cartoonish, about this latest anarchic missive from Indonesia’s chief ‘experimental metal’ export. Alternating between the doom-laden drones of their 2018 offering,, and more skittish forms, finds the duo of vocalist Rully Shabara and multi-instrumentalist Wukir Suryadi locked in a series of shamanistic communiques, seemingly directing their animalistic wails and junkyard clatter toward impish spirits trapped someplace in the afterlife. Yet, there are also several passages where the hallowed hijinks spill over into smirk-inducing slapstick.
