Arrington de Dionyso's third solo album for K Records, and his second billed as Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat Dan Singa, is a sequel to the journey started on his 2009 album. Like Malaikat Dan Singa (the album), the defiant vocalist ties together a strangely compelling bow of raga, no wave, and lo-fi. It's an otherworldly vibe, to be sure, sounding like the Contortions backing up Elephant Man in a cement-walled basement. Top this with De Dionyso's unique singing style, which involves guttural throat singing in Indonesian ...
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Arrington de Dionyso's third solo album for K Records, and his second billed as Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat Dan Singa, is a sequel to the journey started on his 2009 album. Like Malaikat Dan Singa (the album), the defiant vocalist ties together a strangely compelling bow of raga, no wave, and lo-fi. It's an otherworldly vibe, to be sure, sounding like the Contortions backing up Elephant Man in a cement-walled basement. Top this with De Dionyso's unique singing style, which involves guttural throat singing in Indonesian and crazed Middle Eastern scales, and you have a fusion that is sure to polarize audiences and make genre-tagging nearly impossible. Compared to I See Beyond the Black Sun, which played like a monk chanting over a didgeridoo, this is more akin to the upbeat skronk of Old Time Relijun; full of disjointed beats and tension. Taxing as it is, Suara Naga is one of De Dionyso's more accessible outings, and worth checking out if you're the daring type. ~ Jason Lymangrover, Rovi
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