When the gamelan met gabber: Bali-based duo fuse blistering beats with Indonesian folk music
- Gabber Modus Operandi are mixing the high tempo Gabber with metal, punk and traditional Indonesian genres
- Vocalist Ican Harem and DJ Kasimyn talk about dancing, having fun and making a record deal in the toilet
Gabber is back, but you’ve never heard it done this way before. The ultra-fast electronic music genre popularised in Europe in the early 1990s has been given a new lease of life by Bali-based duo Gabber Modus Operandi. Fusing the West and the East, they are crafting Indonesia’s ultimate musical globalisation at a speed well beyond a blistering 180 beats per minute.
Gabber Modus Operandi (GMO) is the brainchild of electronic musician Kasimyn and vocalist Ican Harem. The duo have created an abrasive, fast and unique blend of gabber beats, metal wailing, punk attitude, and Indonesian musical folklore.
Obnoxious yet rigorous, they borrow from a treasure trove of sounds spanning from black metal to traditional Indonesian gamelan, dangdut and penceng – a domestic genre consisting of endless solos played on cheap keyboards.
It all started when Ican and Kasimyn moved to Bali and met at DIY punk and noise gigs. Before that, the duo had already sharpened their musical fangs in metal and punk acts: Ican lived in artsy Yogyakarta, playing in avant-garde black metal band Cangkang Serigala, and was involved with the Jogja Noise Bombing record label. Meanwhile, Kasimyn played in Jakarta punk band United by Haircuts before moving to Denpasar.
GMO’s debut album, Puxxximaxxx, was released by Indonesian Yes No Wave Music in 2018, but it’s their latest eight-track album, Hoxxxya, released in August this year by Shanghai-based label SVBKVLT, that really been turning some heads. The duo were signed by SVBKVLT after playing at landmark Berlin’s CTM Festival earlier this year.