The name of the label fits the release: Critique of Everyday Life. Émile Zener‘s Sumatra Method is an expose of the past and an indictment of the present, causing listeners to question what they think they know and what they believe. At heart lie a pair of quotes, one from Vincent Bevins, who bemoans the fate of “those who trusted too much in democracy, or too much in what the United States said it supported, rather than what it really supported—what the rich countries said, rather than what they did.” The other is also the title of a book by Omar El Akkad and of the last track: “One day everyone will have always been against this.”
The album begins in rain and sirens and proceeds to develop a phantasmagoric aura. A blend of field recordings, VHS tapes and CIA interviews creates a level of extreme paranoia, akin to The X Files. The truth is out there – now, literally – as Cold War secrets have come to light. Concentrating on Indonesia in the 1950s and 60s, Zener reflects the type of cover-ups that were ongoing then and continue now in new forms. Often one feels as if one is eavesdropping on a private conversation, whether by phone, radio or interrogation booth, hearing what should not be heard. Descending glissandos visit the opener, sounding like flying saucers, or like flying saucer films, adding to the intrigue. Percussion, like a furtive tapping, attempts to penetrate the low-flying drone.
An infusion of Indonesian home horror films makes the timbre even more terrifying, but even these films cannot compare to real life. El Akkad’s witness refers to the blind eye turned to Gaza, an ongoing atrocity. Zener suggests not that we have learned nothing from history, but that we have learned from history and decided to repeat it, an even fiercer accusation. The upper class continues to benefit while the powerless die unheard, or even worse, heard and ignored.
The album culminates in its two most powerful pieces. “Jakarta Is Coming” is a dense, uncoiling mass, simultaneously mechanical and drenched, a miasma of sound. Every time one thinks it has peaked, it advances a bit further, like an enemy army, like autocracy, like genocide. The volume drowns out any possibility of dissent, or even of a minority report. The title is whispered in the breakdown, “Jakarta” the codeword for US-backed mass killing. “One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” is a bittersweet prophecy that has already been proven, round after round, unfolding all over again.
El Akkad and Zener condemn our future selves for rewriting their past, which is also our present. The only way to avoid such condemnation: be against this now. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 