Anatomy of the Heads
Jungle Cult Terror
Deep in the hinterlands of Sumatra, there is a village whose only claim to minor historical notoriety is an annual procession around the ruins of an ancient tower. In a ritual of dark, heathen origins, this tradition is accompanied by some of the finest music you have ever heard—music that is shunned by the ignorant masses on the basis of its embrace of its savage origins.
During a chance visit to Sumatra, a disease of slow insanity started to descend upon us. Every night, half-asleep, half-awake, we were hypnotized by the gamelan music of a local radio station. After the orchestra finished, we were entranced by the radio static that seemed to be part of the composition. Any thoughts of sleep left us, and after a few days, we couldn’t help but seek out the origin of the music.
What we found were social misfits, dismissed as primitive savages or "country bumpkins." However, these musicians were able to create gamelan with a love of raw, pagan nature. They are musicians who understand that drama is the supreme rule of all music. They embrace unbridled lust and poisonous vitriol in a carnal philosophy of life that seems to permeate their every performance.
Naturally, we invited them for a three-day-long recording session and proudly present the results with this new EP. But just what makes them so different from other traditional orchestras? Ostensibly, their unique brand of gamelan portrays romantic, but canonical, journeys of brave explorers. Featuring slow, melancholy beginnings representative of primal darkness; bombastic overtures in the spirit of the blessing received by another blazing sunrise; and massive, contrapuntally complex third acts that are just as tumultuous as the raging sea.
