Bones 2025

Let me rewind a bit.
Bones started in 2024 as a platform for experimental, harsh noise, and performances that don’t fit into any “normal” music scene. It was already ambitious bringing in international artists like Facial Mess and Torturing Nurse, alongside many acts from different parts of Indonesia. This year, Bones leveled up like a broken cassette on fast-forward. More acts. More countries. More chaos. Names like Kazumoto Endo, Government Alpha, Like Weeds, Mei Zhiyong, Alessandra Zerbinati, Dick Trump, Anti Itch Cream, Terminal Liner, Enoyza, Jaw Surgery, Zenabi, and a big wave of Indonesian noiseheads all showed up with their machines and madness.
It wasn’t just about who played. It was how they played. The variety of performances. From cut-up noise to power electronics, from performance art to extreme art, made each set feel like a different world.
Highlights
The event opened with Torex from Bandung, but I couldn’t catch them playing because I was still stuck in traffic, cursing the city while scrolling through Instagram stories, watching Torex tear it up alongside one more opener. Even from behind a screen, you could feel the energy. A bummer to miss but what came next quickly took over my attention.
When I arrived at the venue, Jaw Surgery and Zenabi were already onstage, two acts from the Philippines throwing down a collaborative set that felt like being punched by a wind of harsh noise. Compared to last year I saw from Jaw Surgery performed, this set was louder, rougher, and somehow even more urgent. Zenabi’s contribution wasn’t just supportive, it was equal in intensity. Both killed the show. Their energies bounced off each other like distorted reflections, angry, chaotic, but in total sync.
The Bengawan Noise Syndicate crew are what I think also one of the most unique combos in this Bones 2025. They showed up like a gang of noise terrorists (pls don’t take this out of context). Represented by DDD, NASU, LOVEPOISON, and OTTR, they crowded around a shared table setup with each pedal gears setup. Even though it looked messy, but each artist’s individual tone still stood out like you can recognize who’s playing what you hear. NASU and OTTR went for that cut-up harsh noise style, frantic, glitched-out. DDD and LOVEPOISON are more dense power electronics, crushing textures and frequency. The switch-ups between them kept things unpredictable, like a noise relay race with no baton, just distortion.
Slaughter Table from Malaysia caught my attention with a simple but clever setup: an A/B switch pedal with one port left empty. That let him kill the output on command. That kind of cut control added extra tension. One second you're in a storm of sound, the next, dead silence. Then boom, right back into the wall.
Jogja’s Soda Dosa leaned into a more minimal, calculated style of harsh electronics. His approach reminded me of surgical work. Pedal chains, jumper cables, and sudden bypasses. He didn’t flail around or scream, he just let the machines do the work. There’s something hypnotic about that kind of control. Each moment of silence made the next burst feel heavier.
Next up was Dick Trump from Miami. Originally listed to play with Alessandra Zerbinati, he ended up doing a solo set and honestly, it was unforgettable. Imagine mixing gabber beats with harsh noise, then doing it all while wearing a Beavis head mask from Beavis and Butt-Head. Hilarious, absurd, but stil violent to my ears. One minute people were dancing to some mangled eurobeat loop, and the next they were hit with pure distortion. A brilliant mess.
Tangerang’s SAABA (from Potong Jari Rekords) gave one of the most intense solo sets of the night, like one of the craziest performance imo. His sound was all over the place in the best way possible. Janky cut-ups, frequency shifts, and full-on noise breakdowns. The man was like a possessed machine. By the end of his show, he smashed his gear intentionally. Could be a statement, a joke, rituals, but no one knew. The crowd exploded with cheers. Sometimes destruction feels like the only logical conclusion.
Terminal Liner from Singapore brought a power electronics set that leaned into delay, phaser, and mic tricks. Set like this is something I always wanted to see in a noise show. His vocals run through layered effect pedals and sounded like an alien. Like a creature yelling from another dimension. It wasn’t just noise, it felt like a story being screamed through machines. Still intense and way crazier than stuff he puts out online.
Then came RADIOAGE from Bandung. Lights off. All of them. Just pure sound, mostly static, drone, and harsh noise wall. The kind of set that tests patience and rewires your brain. I saw people slowly walk out, looking unsettled. I stepped out too. Not because it was boring, but because the tension was so real, it started messing with my chest. And that for me made it one of the best sets of the night.
Italy’s Alessandra Zerbinati wasn’t here to play it safe. Her set was both art and self-harm. Literally. She entered the venue with a wireless sound system strapped to her body, using pedals and generators to create mobile sound. It was already creepy haunting visuals, aggressive presence, total silence from her mouth but loudness from her body. Then came the cutter. She started slicing her tongue, blood mixing with saliva, smeared on her face like warpaint. People walked out. Some stared frozen. She wasn’t touching the audience, but the fear was real. This wasn’t for shock value, it was a deeply intense performance about control, pain, and visibility. Easily the most extreme thing I’ve ever seen on a stage. Traumatized me.
Next was Individual Distortion from Jakarta. Usually known for his experimental around breakcore or glitchy electronic stuff in his past materials, but this time he pulled a switch-up and went full noisecore with comedy. Using a handheld device, a few pedals, and a mic, he started dissing every act from the lineup. Loud, chaotic, and funny as hell. People were laughing, shouting requests, and even moshing. After the Zerbinati set, this felt like exactly what we needed: comic relief through screaming.
Division Fracture played a dark, minimal set of cut-up noise. Lights out, machines humming, and his hands play around the gear pedals like they are communicating with each other. Couldn’t really see his gear, but what came out was tight and clean. Not flashy, but precise. Sometimes that’s all you need.
Kae Takahashi's solo act Anti Itch Cream, was also a standout moment at Bones 2025. She delivered a wild performance set just by using a laptop and a microphone. With her fierce screams and growls, she moved around the venue like a force of nature and interacting with the audience. Her energy while performing was off the charts just like what I saw online, and this one was equally off the charts. Kae is also celebrated for her versatile vocal skills like what she did in her previous band, but she never boasts about it; she simply lets her screams do the talking, just like her online persona. Her presence was electric, and the audience truly appreciated her performance.
Bali’s Grintabachan took the room in a totally different direction. His set was rooted in industrial noise with some dark techno grooves. The low-frequency sounds were so heavy they shook the floor and your bones. He used live sampling and low-fidelity inputs that made everything feel unstable, dangerous. Grintabachan’s known for being prolific, and this set proved why.
Then there was Mei Zhiyong from China. One of the most prolific act with hundreds of shows played and always brings something unforgettable. He had a coil spring connected from a mouth rig, scraping it with a metal device while running it through handmade pedals. The sound was brutal, sharp and violent. At one point, he wrapped the spring around his face and neck while screaming into it. His body movements were as expressive as the noise itself. This wasn’t just a set, it was philosophy in action. He explores the edge between life, death, noise, and silence.
Like Weeds from Japan was another strange trip. Not playing a noise set like others but some kind of outter space minimalism techno. At first part of his performance, he playes something that felt like a slow-motion industrial dark techno. Deep kicks, spaced out, decaying into nothing. No flashy effects, no wild movement, just hypnotic loop rhythm. The kicks felt like heartbeats. Each kicks followed by a strange ring that also felt as vibration to audience chest. Some rumor says that he uses custom-built Trogotronic gear from California. Whatever it was, it worked.
Jakarta’s Ratred and Solo’s ABL teamed up for one of the most chaotic collabs of the night. Jumping on and off the table, and screaming like madmen. The crowd was wild, even helping lift ABL mid-set. And everyone kept asking: what was that pedal rig he used? Big, complex, full of buttons and knobs, sounded like war in a box. Definitely something worth asking about next time.
Japan’s Government Alpha brought decades of experience to the stage. Harsh noise, drone, wall, power electronics, you name it. He used two different mics for different textures: one gave deep drone-like reverb, the other cut like a knife. You could feel the history in his sound. It was violent, sure, but also refined.
Before the final act, VT-00 from Jakarta dropped some EBM and eurobeat fusion that lit up the venue like a rave. White light strobes, aggressive minimal beats, stylish costumes, harsh vocals, it was danceable and theatrical at the same time. Somewhere between futurepop and industrial, but fully entertaining. After all that noise, it was like a cold soda after spicy food.
And then, Kazumoto Endo. The final boss. A true legend in Japanese noise, he delivered a powerful, dynamic set that spanned styles and frequencies. He used hollow metal boards with mics, strange modular setups, and a wild audio visualizer in the background. Old school harsh noise, but with deep bass and modern aggression. It was cinematic, brutal, and impossible to ignore.
Closing
Sure I missed a few acts while catching up with friends or checking out the merch tables. But that’s part of the point. Bones isn’t just a show. It’s a gathering, a reunion, a network. People from across Indonesia and beyond show up to connect, scream, laugh, bleed, and celebrate sound in its rawest and weirdest form.
See you at Bones 2026. Or maybe earlier at some alley gig with broken speakers and a generator humming like a dragon.
Written by:
Anonim Gore
From Palu, Indonesia
http://earinfections666.bandcamp.com/
IG @anonim.gore