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| TURBIDITY, February 2011 line-up. Left to Right: Dada (vocals), Iko (drums), Mamay (bass), Daniel (guitar). |
At the show with TURBIDITY
in Ujung Berung, East Bandung, Sunday 9 October 2011 by Kieran James aka Jack Frost
At 4pm on Sunday, Bobby, Popo, and I headed for East Bandung to
attend a rock show to be headlined by the young, first-rate death-slammers
TURBIDITY. It was a 45-minute drive from the northern suburbs of Bandung out
through to the residential areas near Ujung Berung and then to the border with
the countryside. As we headed into the residential or the suburban areas the
roads narrowed, buildings became closer together, the graffiti on walls became
more prominent, and the traffic began to thin out. Popo told me that this was
near to Ujung Berung, that near mythical working-class locality, much like
California’s East Bay for legendary punks RANCID, where the first death-metal
bands developed and a supportive but demanding death-metal brotherhood emerged.
In Ujung Berung the older death-metal bands have always mentored the younger
bands and pushed the younger bands towards excellence. Popo states that she
knew Man of JASAD within the metal community of Ujung Berung before she even
became a death-metal vocalist.
The neighbourhoods we went through were not completely
poor – here and there we saw what were obviously higher status houses and
apartments but they too lacked arrogance and pretension. The area has a harmony
and cohesion, even in the midst of apparent chaos, a statement which could even
apply to Indonesia as a whole where everything and everyone appears to be in
perpetual motion but where social behaviour still remains highly regulated and
controlled.
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| Kieran and Dada, 9 October 2011, East Bandung |
We eventually reached a road where, to cite RANCID again
from the 2009 song “Disconnected”, “the city was on the left and the country
was on the right”. Heading towards the show this lyric actually reversed itself
as the rice-fields, in the shadow of the mountain and perhaps less than a
kilometre away and shrouded by eternal grey cloud, were on the left and the
houses of East Bandung were on the right. The ancient rice-fields on the left,
a sight which must have remained unchanged for generations, were interspersed
with modern-looking petrol stations with their MNC brand-name logos prominently
displayed. Such are the contradictions of Indonesia.
As soon as we had reached the rice-fields, 500 metres or
a kilometre ahead on the right, around a bend in the road as it curve
rightwards, was the music venue and its large compound. It was hard to be sure
what the music venue was primarily designed for. Certainly the parking area
compound was very spacious and there was a long internal entrance road after
you entered the front gates.
The music venue was a large hall, much larger than the
Cibinong venue and perhaps 50 metres long and fifteen metres wide or even 60
metres long and 20 metres wide. The roof was raised very high and in one corner
there was a staircase leading up to a balcony. The balcony stretched along the
entire back internal wall and was around ten metres deep. We exited the car to
see all of the death-metal community of Bandung, or so it appeared, relaxing on
a low brick wall running parallel to a side wall of the building. There was a
line of around fifteen metalheads seated on the low brick wall, holding court
as it were, with others sitting on the ground and crouching in front of them.
The seated metalheads were smoking, passing around bottles of traditional
“arak” wine, and staring peacefully out over the sea of parked motorcycles
inside the compound to the mist-shrouded mountain beyond. Bobby, Popo, and I
(Daniel may have been with us as well) enthusiastically greeted the seated
metalheads.
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| Glenn Bloodgush, Uus Bleeding Corpse, Kieran James |
There was a real atmosphere of community and brotherhood
which was very obvious to everyone. Although this was just an ordinary rock
festival it had also become a death-metal community event because local East
Bandung favourite TURBIDITY was the headliner. On closer inspection of the
seated people it seemed like some unofficial ranking system was being observed.
As my pictures of this show reproduced here in this book reveal, Glenn [the
25-year-old lead vocalist of the emerging death-metal band BLOODGUSH] was
seated third or fourth from the left as you approached the group. To his left
was the smiling veteran of Ujung Berung death-metal, the BLEEDING CORPSE
guitarist Uus Death. Clearly he was the most highly respected metalhead present
at the show. He was wearing his denim jacket replete with sew-on metal patches
of the type associated with the Western metalheads of the 1980s. Everyone was
very relaxed and cheerful. This was a regular Sunday afternoon home gig in East
Bandung of the type that Uus and Glenn must have attended hundreds of times
before. Dada Rosadeath, vocalist for TURBIDITY, was floating around, wearing a
red tee-shirt and cheerfully greeting people. Respect was being shown by
younger metalheads and friends to people such as Uus, Bobby Rock, and Dada. I
took pictures with two young and attractive teenage fans who were not dressed
as metal chicks.
Once inside the venue it was apparent, and conversations
confirmed it, that this was a mixed show and a mixed crowd. There were some
death-metal fans in black death-metal tee-shirts, mostly dancing, slamming, and
headbanging in a group of perhaps 100 in the moshpit directly in front of the
stage. Others leaned against the side walls and watched proceedings. Other rock
fans among the crowd wore tee-shirts and hoodies of a variety of colours and
this was clearly a completely different crowd from the 100% death-metal crowd
at the previous night’s gig in Cibinong. The senior metalheads outside did not
appear to be too interested in going in to watch the bands. Clearly they were
all waiting for TURBIDITY and enjoying the cool Bandung breezes, the wine and
cigarettes, the companionship, and the mountain views. However, as befitting a
non death-metal show, many senior metalheads were missing, including Ferly,
Abaz, and Man of JASAD. Man may or may not have by this time returned to
Bandung from his trip to visit his mother’s home.
I moved around out in the car park area sitting with different
people, chatting with Uus and Glenn, and taking pictures for this book. I met
one interesting character, a young man who is a serving but off-duty Indonesian
policeman [see picture in this book]. He informed me that he had been part of
the death-metal scene before he took up his current job and that he kept
up-to-date with developments in the death-metal scene. He had a heavy-metal
denim jacket buttoned up over his police uniform and to everyone’s delight he
stood up to take off this jacket so he could be photographed with me in his
full police gear. Clearly the guy enjoyed juggling and trading off his multiple
identities although he wanted to make clear to us that his death-metal scene
involvement predated his current job. This statement signalled his authenticity
and sub-cultural capital to the death-metal scene. He was keen to make it clear
that he was not a police spy or a police plant which was important given the
tense relationship presently existing between death-metallers and the police in
Bandung due to the eleven deaths at the BESIDE show.
The crowd inside appeared to be mostly teenagers. Due to
the vast size of the hall the group of 100 dancers and headbangers right at the
front looked somewhat lonely and isolated. The show lacked somewhat in
atmosphere due to the large size of the hall and the mixed nature of the crowd
and the bands on the bill. This lack of atmosphere was certainly not the fault
of TURBIDITY as the band tried their best to perform with total passion and
ignore the empty spaces in the venue and the lack of atmosphere. Most of the
floor space of the hall was empty with groups leaning against the side walls.
The senior metalheads, including Bobby, Popo, and Uus, headed to the raised
balcony section at the back of the hall while I chose to stay at the front at
ground level to headbang. For a time I leaned against the side wall talking
with two teenaged guys who proclaimed to me that they were “death-metal”; asked
me if I was “death-metal”; asked me if I spoke Indonesian (“sorry no” was the
answer); and also asked me whether TURBIDITY was really going to play or not.
Given that TURBIDITY’s name was top of the bill and listed on the giant wall
poster behind the drum kit the guys’ faith levels did not appear to be very
high. I presumed that they had had negative past experiences with bands not
showing up at gigs or showing up but not playing. I told the two teenagers that
the TURBIDITY vocalist Dada was already here and I pointed him out to them.
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| Iko (drums) and Daniel (guitar), 9 October 2011 |
TURBIDITY finally hit the stage as night fell outside
and the headbanging and dancing began in earnest down at the front. Dada moves
around a lot on stage and the large stage here suited him. He has the hardcore
look of short hair, tattoos, non-black tee-shirt, and cap (featuring the
communist hammer-and-sickle logo, a logo which is still illegal in Indonesia).
Dada adopts the hardcore genre posturing of arm holding the microphone raised
up high, so that the forearm is parallel to the floor and the microphone is
very close to the mouth. Dada’s body is in a permanent crouch and he places one
foot on the amplifiers. Dada is very unlike Bobby Rock whose style is more that
of a classic or traditional metal front-man with very few hardcore genre
influences. This is probably to do with the generation gap as Dada is much
younger than Bobby and he grew up under the inspiration of the 1990s hardcore
genre influenced styles and sounds of bands such as BIOHAZARD, MACHINE HEAD,
and PANTERA. There was almost a hardcore genre style of death-scream and the
music simply did not slow down or stop at all except for the few seconds of
silence between songs. If you go to a TURBIDITY show expecting melodic
power-metal or even 1 second of melody in the whole show then you will be
disappointed! In complete contrast to Dada, Daniel really looked death-metal
style, in black death-metal tee-shirt, baggy shorts, and with a scary and
brutal expression! He stood by himself to Dada’s left or to the right of Dada
if viewed from the moshpit [see picture in this book]. He indeed looked like a
magnificent, solitary death-metal warrior with no-one else coming within two
metres of him.
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| Dada and Bobby Bleeding Corpse (vocals duet) |
The death-metal kids at the front were totally enjoying
themselves in the presence of TURBIDITY and a group of four girls aged around
15 or 16-years-old were dancing around enthusiastically and just as crazy as
anyone at the back of the moshpit. It was hard to be sure whether these four
were death-metal chicks but probably they were not. No-one interfered with
anyone else and the atmosphere was courteous, cordial, and non-threatening
while not losing any of the tough-guy look that is expected from death-metal.
For the four girls I think the afternoon was an exciting time of dancing and
they were very safe in the crowd. Later I saw them walking away from the show,
still together in a group of four, along the internal entrance road of the
compound.
To my surprise, Bobby Rock joined Dada on stage, each
one giving the other considerable space and respect, and they performed a
death-metal duet. There were happy cries of “Bobby!” and many phone cameras
were raised above heads as their owners tried to capture a shot of Bobby. On
the next day at the band interview, Dada showed me in his shop “Deathstar
Tattoo” a video-clip of TURBIDITY playing at Bandung Death Fest 4 (2009) and,
on that occasion also, Bobby Rock joined TURBIDITY on stage. I was very
surprised later to hear from Popo that Dada has left TURBIDITY. Bobby Rock
joining Dada on stage is a warm and fraternal gesture which shows to fans the
unity and brotherhood of the Ujung Berung death-metal scene. Just as when Ferly
and Man of JASAD invited Popo onstage during JASAD shows in Bandung and Malang
[East Java], Bobby’s actions can be seen as an endorsement of TURBIDITY to the
crowd. On these occasions, Man, Ferly, and Bobby acted in their accepted roles
as elder statesmen of the Ujung Berung death-metal community. The importance of UUs Death (Bleeding Corpse)’s presence at this show should also not be under-estimated.
Tonight was a night when the Ujung Berung death-metal
community honoured its own local heroes and enjoyed camaraderie in a very
easygoing, home-town atmosphere. It was like probably hundreds of local gigs
that the senior metalheads have attended in Bandung over the past years. The
atmosphere was not great because the venue was too large for the size of the
crowd. However, TURBIDITY played with pride, passion, and professionalism and
the 100 teenaged death-metal fans up the front enjoyed the TURBIDITY set
tremendously. The enjoyment of the TURBIDITY set was clearly added to by
Bobby’s surprise appearance on stage. He has many young male and female fans
and the fans saw firsthand the unity, respect, and brotherhood that prevails in
the Ujung Berung death-metal scene. This unity and respect has been one factor
behind the rapid rise to prominence of TURBIDITY. The unity and camaraderie and
mutual support of the Bandung scene has clearly given its members a charm and
an easy self-confidence which has allowed Bandung death-metal to occupy a
prominent place in the entire Indonesian scene. Bandung death-metal today is a
combination of Man of JASAD’s charm and intelligence and Ferly’s analytical and
humble nature and sense of fairness, compassion, and integrity.
JASAD’s professionalism has also been a major influence
on BLEEDING CORPSE and TURBIDITY. For JASAD, death-metal is a serious business
to be approached professionally reflecting Ferly, Man, and Yuli’s decade-plus
experience as death-metal musicians. However, their genuine love for
death-metal music and for the death-metal scene, still the same as when they
were all in junior high-school, shines through on occasions and gives the Ujung
Berung movement durability, inner strength, integrity, and simple joy. When
Ferly talks about his favourite death-metal guitarist [James Murphy] and album
[OBITUARY’s Cause of Death] you are
left in no doubt that he genuinely loves this music and its rich global
history. There are no Lars Ulrich-type temper tantrums or Gene Simmons-type
lawsuits within Ujung Berung death-metal. Man still loves his mother (!) and
his community, and Ujung Berung death-metal reaps the benefits of this warm,
humble, and very Indonesian approach to life. Yuli’s closing advice to fans at
our 10 October 2011 interview was “love your mum!” and while he was smiling and
enjoying the humour involved in making such a “non-brutal” statement in a
death-metal interview we don’t doubt that he meant it as well! Long live Ujung
Berung Death Metal!
[This review is published in my book Struggle Anger Hate in the Indonesian Underground by Jack Frost which you can buy from Sofyan Hadi in Jogjakarta.]
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| Left to Right: Bobby Bleeding Corpse, Dada Turbidity, Daniel Turbidity, Kieran James, Mamay Turbidity, Casper Hell Turbidity (Manager) @ Bandung, 10 October 2011. |
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| Daniel Turbidity discusses the food order with the waitress while Bobby Bleeding Corpse and Popo Demons Damn look on @ Bandung, 9 October 2011. |
KJ:
There must be a lot of young bands out there who are not connected.
