“Balinese express a lot of emotion through dance, through creativity, through experimental music,” he said. “I love pop and experimental, like Pharrell makes pop music. I’m trying to find elements from Indonesian psych-rock, elements from Stereolab and Pharrell, and merge it into what I’m trying to do right now.”
Son of Agung play live this month.
Mango and Nikodimos first met in early 2019 at a studio in Sunshine where Mango had been working with a collective called PIIMP (Perceived Imagination in Multiple Perspectives). They clicked immediately.
“I’d been really wanting to do something different and Niko was into psych-jazz, instrumentation … so the process of the EP was so seamless,” said Mango.
“We both knew we wanted to push boundaries and do something nobody in Australia was doing. He took me out of my comfort zone and I took him out of his comfort zone, too. Niko’s style was jazz, hip-hoppy and I’m into heavy, boppy sounds so the merge of our two worlds is f—ing amazing, in my opinion.”
To label Son of Agung hip-hop doesn’t do justice to how eclectic it is. There are elements of jazz, lush sonic rock, synthy fuzz and melodic spoken word, there’s flutes, and there’s a bassline slung so low and bouncy it threatens to slap your ankles.
Mango’s style is informed by a diverse musical collection, including his passion for 1970s Indonesian psychedelic rock. His music is an adventure in musical genre-hopping. In the early months of 2020, he played Laneway Festival, Golden Plains and Spilt Milk.
His creative collaborator and the other half of Song of Agung, Nikodimos has established himself as an impressive instrumentalist and producer, a member of Melbourne acts Proto Moro, Messy Mammal and Rice Wine. Nikodimos – classically trained in instrumentation and composition – likes to veer off the well-trodden path when it comes to songwriting and production. The duo’s studio sessions were largely improvised, recorded in their home studios.
“Nik’s a magician – he can cook up a beat in an hour, so our sessions were short, but the EP took two years to make,” Mango explained. “All the beats on Son of Agung were made within an hour, they just happened so naturally. Nik is always down for my crazy ideas. I’d never met a producer who allows me to go crazy in the studio, [but] he’s down with me boundary pushing.”
The album’s art, by Balinese designer Degeha, is an important part of the package. “I’m so passionate about my Balinese culture – it’s colourful, it’s scary,” said Mango.
“The reason I gravitate to that sort of art style is that growing up, I was taught to know that the scary, demonic-faced sculptures from Bali are meant to scare away bad spirits. So, it’s not scary. It’s enlightening to me. If I see an album with cover art that’s trash, I’m possibly not going to listen to it. It’s like. c’mon man, you’ve gotta have dope artwork.”
Son of Agung perform at Max Watts on January 9 at 7pm and 10pm
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