Tesla Manaf has come a long way since he first started releasing his music through Indonesian indie labels such as Orange Cliff or diasporic outlets like Berlin’s L_KW. Firstly, Kuntari is not his solo endeavour anymore, with regular collaborator Rio Abror having joined as a full-time drummer and percussionist. Secondly, because of that, Manaf’s previous work with field recordings and noise as well as brittle, breakcore-adjacent junktronics has increasingly been integrated to form only one part in the duo’s overall aesthetics. The improvisational character of Kuntari’s propulsive live shows has recently been captured on the excellent “Lahar” album for the Italian label Artetetra, while “Mutu Beton” on David August’s 99CHANTS highlights the more stylistically open, just as forceful results of the two working as composers and producers first and foremost.
Electric bass, effects, voice, the occasional acoustic instrument as well as different kinds of percussive sounds are combined in ever-new ways while the two venture into the border regions between the thrust of sludge metal and avant-garde sensibilities on the other hand. This obviously calls to mind Bill Laswell’s work with projects such as Massacre, and if John Zorn ever comes out as a die-hard Kuntari fan, this would take exactly zero people by surprise. However, “Mutu Beton” is less concerned with replicating any single musical tradition and instead uses its 30-minute runtime for shoving several of them into a blender. Maybe there have always been similarities between gamelan, minimal music, Painkiller, and Pantera. However, never before have those approaches been combined with such sheer power. Kuntari may have strayed far from the project’s roots, but that only means that they keep innovating. It’s a whole lot of fun to watch them do it.
Mutu Beton
