Takkak Takkak, “Abu”

The second Takkak Takkak album arrives as a logical but sharper step forward. Shigeru Ishihara and Johanes “Mo’ong” Santoso Pribadi have tightened their collision of metal, electronica, and traditional Japanese and Indonesian sonics, giving “Abu” a sense of purpose that feels earned rather than assembled.

Ishihara’s history in breakcore as DJ Scotch Egg and Pribadi’s deep study of Indonesian archipelago music, along with his homemade junk instruments, could easily produce a cluttered listen. Instead, “Abu” leans on the noisy overtones of Javanese instrumentation and seething distortion with a control that keeps the record from ever tipping into chaos. The groundwork laid by artists like Senyawa and Gabber Modus Operandi is visible, but Takkak Takkak don’t borrow gestures. They build their own.

The album’s loose concept centers on an active volcanic landscape, a fitting frame for music that moves between brooding quiet and bludgeoning pressure. The opener, “Hai no uta,” is all tension—tinkling bells, hollowed-out reverb, and distant choral tones that refuse to settle. It’s the calmest stretch of the record, yet full of a restlessness that hints at the eruptions to come. The title track hits later with chugging power-chord crunch and guttural growls that cut through meticulously layered details. The piece stacks switch-ups and tone shifts that cling together with a strange elegance.

Recorded across Yogyakarta, Švenčionėliai, and Berlin, “Abu” absorbs those non-places without losing its core. Pribadi’s instruments thrive in harmonic distortion, a natural partner for Ishihara’s boisterous production, but the album finds just as much weight in intricate gamelan-coded percussion sequences that pull the music into meditative depths. Takkak Takkak keep the extremes, yet the second record leaves more room for subtlety between the power surges. The live energy of their sets—kinetic, explosive, confrontational—translates here not as a blur but as a deliberate, almost tectonic push and pull.