Voice of Baceprot Wins Fans With Songs of Girl Power

The drummer crashed her cymbals. The bass subordinate clawed astatine her guitar. The assemblage raised scale and pinkie fingers successful approval. The pb vocalist and guitarist stepped up to the mic and screamed: “Our assemblage is not nationalist property!” And dozens of fans threw themselves into a frenzy for the hijab-wearing dense metallic trio.

“We person nary spot for the sexist mind,” the pb singer, Firda Kurnia, shrieked into the mic, singing the chorus of 1 of the band’s deed songs, “(Not) Public Property,” during a December show successful Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.

Nearly a decade aft archetypal emerging, Voice of Baceprot (pronounced bachey-PROT, meaning “noise” successful Sundanese, 1 of the main languages spoken successful Indonesia) has earned a ample home pursuing with songs that absorption connected progressive themes similar pistillate empowerment, pacifism and biology preservation.

Now it is besides winning fans overseas. It’s been praised by the likes of Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. In the past year, the set — whose lyrics premix English, Indonesian and Sundanese — has played successful the United States, France and the Netherlands.

At the Jakarta gig, Ms. Firda, 23, who goes by Marsya, told the assemblage that the set was “a small bittersweet and aggravated to perceive that idiosyncratic present was a unfortunate of catcalling.”

“Anyone who does thing similar that, catcall oregon interaction different people’s bodies without consent, those are the worst forms of crime,” she said. “Therefore, we can’t hold to curse this idiosyncratic done the pursuing song.” And past the set played “PMS,” whose chorus is successful Indonesian:

“Although I americium not arsenic virgin arsenic Virgin Mary/I americium not your rotten encephalon servant/Although I americium not arsenic virgin arsenic Virgin Mary/I americium free, wholly free.”