Trance Against the Machine

This article explores the musical performances, aesthetics, and multi-situated reception of Indonesian electronic dance music in Europe and Indonesia, focusing on the duo Gabber Modus Operandi (GMO). Since their first international tour titled “Trance Against the Machine” in 2019, the duo has gained significant attention, especially in Europe, because they are seen as part of a seismic shift in the electronic dance continuum. The article critically analyzes this perceived shift in relation to GMO’s music. It advocates for a mode of analysis that simultaneously traces the situated and the multi-situated nature of aesthetics in electronic music. This analysis is inspired by an ethnographic theory developed in collaboration with the artists we study. We propose the term “transposition” as a translation of the Indonesian term alay, used by the members of GMO to describe their aesthetic vision, in order to pay attention to what might be called aesthetic globalization as both situated and multi-situated. We do so as part of an aesthetic-anthropological approach that seeks to bring aesthetic analysis into anthropology and anthropology into aesthetic analysis.