The Women Actually Running Southeast Asia's House and Techno Scene

In 2012, three women who had just graduated from a Singapore DJ bootcamp called FFF Girl DJ Bootcamp started a collective of their own. Amanda Keisha Ang, who DJs as A/K/A, teamed up with Syaheedah Iskandar (Jaydah) and Serene-Rene Ong (DuriO) to form ATTAGIRL, and for a few years it was hard to find an all-women lineup in Singapore that did not run through them.

In a retrospective interview about her career, Ang recalled ATTAGIRL's 2015 anniversary party and her early days as an "inexperienced event organiser," entirely in the past tense. No public source marks the exact year it stopped booking nights. What it leaves behind is a useful starting point for a question worth asking directly: who is actually doing that work in Southeast Asia's house and techno scene right now, and where.

Where ATTAGIRL Started

It booked residencies at Blu Jaz Cafe, ran anniversary nights with Singapore's Good Times crew, and brought in guest DJs from Tokyo and beyond. Its anniversary parties promised sets moving between house, indie and hip hop.

ATTAGIRL mattered because Singapore's DJ culture in the early 2010s ran almost entirely through men, and a bootcamp plus a collective was a concrete way to change who stood behind the decks. It is also, a decade on, a reminder that representation work does not sustain itself by existing once. Someone has to keep doing it. In Southeast Asia today, that work looks less like one Singapore crew and more like a scattered handful of individual artists, each building in a different country, mostly without reference to each other.

Thailand's NOTEP Treats the Dancefloor as Advocacy

NOTEP was born Note Panayanggool. She first came to Bali's Potato Head on a family trip. She has since worked with Potato Head on music and wellness programming for two years. Environmental advocacy runs directly through her music rather than sitting as a separate hobby. Loopliner covered her most recent release in October, a six-track EP built entirely around coral reef conservation, which is a genuinely unusual thing to hear on a club system built for peak-time techno.

From Singapore's Underground to Germany's Techno Clubs

Muttiah Ashnim spent close to a decade running a collective called Into The Deep across six countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar, before relocating to Germany to DJ and produce full time. Loopliner profiled her move in a feature published in October. Her trajectory is the opposite of ATTAGIRL's: instead of building a platform at home, she built one, then left.

Both paths are legitimate answers to the same problem. Build the infrastructure here, or go to where the infrastructure already exists. Southeast Asia's scene is young enough that both are still being tried at once.

The Next Names Are Getting Signed, Not Just Booked

The clearest sign of change: international labels signing Southeast Asian women as producers, not just booking them as DJs. CHICHI, from Singapore, became the first Singaporean artist signed to HUGEL's label Make The Girls Dance on October 30, working across tech house and Afro house. Rani Jambak built an instrument from the traditional Minangkabau water wheel. She named it Kincia Aia. Her performance carried that work to a stage in Melbourne, where she told the audience, "I came carrying news of mourning from Sumatra."

Indonesia's Thee Marloes plays Singapore's RASA on December 11 as part of a bill called Flavours, alongside Badkiss.

What ATTAGIRL's Absence Actually Means

No single organization has replaced ATTAGIRL as a dedicated training pipeline for women DJs in Southeast Asia, at least not one with a public footprint comparable to its own. That is worth stating plainly rather than papering over with a tidy success narrative. The individuals carrying the work forward right now are each doing it alone, in different countries, under different circumstances. It still does not have a regional structure dedicated to getting the next ones there.

FAQ

Who founded ATTAGIRL?

Amanda Keisha Ang (A/K/A), Syaheedah Iskandar (Jaydah) and Serene-Rene Ong (DuriO) founded ATTAGIRL in Singapore in 2012, after meeting through the FFF Girl DJ Bootcamp.

Is ATTAGIRL still an active DJ collective?

No. A September 2024 retrospective interview with founder Amanda Keisha Ang recalled its 2015 anniversary party and her early days as an organiser, entirely in the past tense. No public source gives an exact closure date.

Which Southeast Asian women DJs and producers are getting international attention right now?

Thailand's NOTEP (Note Panayanggool) plays Wonderfruit. Singapore's Muttiah Ashnim relocated to Germany. Singapore's CHICHI is the first Singaporean artist signed to HUGEL's Make The Girls Dance. Indonesia's Rani Jambak has performed her Minangkabau-instrument compositions in Melbourne.

Where can I hear Southeast Asian women DJs play live?

NOTEP has played Wonderfruit multiple times. Thee Marloes plays Singapore's RASA on December 11 as part of the Flavours bill with Badkiss.

Cover photo: NOTEP, courtesy the artist, via SXSW.