Year-end node from End of the Alphabet, basking once more in neighboring (Indo)nesian land. But true to the title’s implications, Pekak! is truly experimental music. Not field recordings catching whiffs of pop radio or street musicians orating seasonal history (all of which are great testimonials of second hand musical culture), but in-your-face noise, drone and collage that rattles and shakes. We’re all nose deep in travel guides and misconceptions of far-fetched cultures; Pekak! shoves ‘em in our faces. Our smug, ignorant faces. My nose is smashed. Lips are torn from mouth. Eyes bulge and dangle from the sheer force. Spanning 20 years of Indonesian experimentation, Pekak! succeeds not in shining a light on Indonesian mainstream culture, but rather what lurks beneath. This is beyond Anthony Bourdain asymmetry. This is the good shit; the stuff that takes multiple trips and chance encounters to discover. But it’s here; real street music. Those of artists looking to skewer tradition without tearing it asunder. Very little points Pekak! to its locale, but the noise emitting from this overloaded tape is top notch — not matter its port-of-call. Snap out of that seasonal affective disorder with some real (time) travel. Gotta fly digital; the physical plane ticket has long been blacked out.
