Takkak Takkak by Takkak Takkak

A playfully eccentric, pulsating mass of precarious polyrhythms and DIY drones, Takkak Takkak is a brand new project from prolific Berlin-based Japanese producer Shigeru Ishihara (aka Scotch Rolex) and Vilnius-based Indonesian composer and instrument builder Mo’ong Santoso Pribadi, best known as one half of Raja Kirik. The duo found common ground with their borderless enthusiasm for rhythm - hence their tongue-in-cheek, onomatopoeic moniker - and tasked themselves with hacking contemporary and traditional musics, fusing eardrum-piercing club sounds with wiry Asian traditional patterns and howling vocals. And although there are discernible fingerprints from across the musical map, Ishihara and Pribadi debut a sound that's doggedly unconventional.

Ishihara has spent the last few years obsessively producing and collaborating, working with Shackleton on 2023's 'Death By Tickling', assembling the Nyege stable on 2021's 'Tewari' and collaborating with artists as diverse as Duma, MC Yallah and Aunty Razyor. Pribadi meanwhile has developed his craft alongside Yennu Ariendra, challenging colonial oppression with deviously original music that modernizes medieval Javanese dance forms. His work as an experimental instrument builder - primarily working with found objects and trash - has set Pribadi in good stead for Takkak Takkak, where he goes toe-to-toe with Ishihara, who weaves trance-inducing rhythmic patterns, low-end thumps and dizzying effects around his collaborator's rusty twangs, woodblock clacks and xenharmonic chimes.

On the opening track (name here), rattly, tempo-fluxed percussion is caught in a vortex of brassy fanfares and thick subs, building furiously until it's interrupted with a cheeky answerphone bleep. It sets the stage for Garang, a punky, metallic tremor of guitar-like chugs, obscured vocals and fictile strings that wisp around driving kicks - there's gqom, drill and sweaty techno in there somewhere, transformed into a serrated, ritualistic buzz. Ishihara takes the mic on Amok, grunting over Pribadi's clattery beats and breathy handmade instruments, and the track mutates at the half-way point, spiraling into a hybrid of gamelan and diagonal bass music, pneumatic kicks vibrating against pinging metal.

It's an impressive balancing act; Takkak Takkak navigate their cross-continental palette with not only knowledge and skill, but a refreshing level of humor. This makes their music as infectious as it is fearless - it's experimental, sure, but Pribadi and Ishihara are having a blast, and they don't care who knows.

Tracklist

1.	Dedemit	1:17

2.	Garang	3:37

3.	Raung	5:28

4.	Raksasa	4:32

5.	Amok	4:29

6.	Kyouzon	4:04

7.	Mezame	4:20

8.	Salamander	4:44

9.	Takkatakka	6:21

Credits

released June 7, 2024

Artwork by Enka
Mastered by Declared Sound

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