Yogyakarta's RAMPAK G Just Had Its Busiest Six Weeks Yet, From Pecinan Stroll to Sanjonas's New Album

A metallic monster's head tangled around a bicycle basket: that's the cover of Pecinan Stroll, the single Sanjonas and NikoNikoNii put out on RAMPAK G on September 6. Five weeks later, on October 15, the same one-person Yogyakarta label followed it with Sanjonas's second album, Ngelmu Tirakat. For a label still run out of a single city in Central Java, that's a genuinely busy season.

Sanjonas, born Yonaz Kristy, has been running RAMPAK G out of Yogyakarta for years, and Loopliner covered the album's backstory when it was still three weeks out. What's new is the record itself.

Nine Tracks, One Promise

Ngelmu Tirakat takes its title from a Javanese spiritual practice built on self-discipline and intentional endurance, part Islamic mysticism, part older animist and Hindu-Buddhist inheritance. Sanjonas has called the record a nadzar, a vow he made to himself and kept regardless of what the last few years threw at him. Treat that as the album's actual liner notes, not marketing copy.

Across nine tracks, simply numbered Ngelmu Tirakat 1 through 9, Sanjonas deconstructs gqom, UK funky, marawis (the Arabic-influenced hand-drum tradition) and barongsai lion dance percussion, running it all through synths tuned to stand in for the real instruments. MAHAMBORO plays saxophone and co-produces four of the nine tracks. Khæmr handles guitar, bass and synth bass on track four.

Not Built For a Club

One honest caveat: this isn't built for a club, and it never tries to be. It moves at the pace of the ritual it's named for, patient where gqom usually hits hard, and the saxophone spends more time haunting the mix than driving it. If you came to RAMPAK G for the harder, more percussive compilation work Loopliner profiled back in August, this is the quieter, more personal record sitting next to it on the same shelf.

The full album is streaming now on RAMPAK G's Bandcamp, mixed and mastered at sa/ve studio, with liner notes by Hilman Fathoni.