Hijab Heavy Metal. So What!?

Now and then something pops up and takes my attention. 3 young ladies playing heavy metal music dressed in Islamic hijab. Girls just want to make noise? So what!

‘So What’ is the title of opening track of one of the greatest jazz recordings of all time, ‘Kind Of Blue’ by Miles Davis. It’s sublime. I never tire of hearing it. I never understood why anyone would want to cover themselves head to foot in black. I might understand such white covering in hot climates. I saw a video of VOB, Voice of Baceprot, and still find it fascinating.

I am no fan of ‘noise’ and so called music I once listened to, today I consider little more than noise. This is just bloody bizarre. But hey, whatever floats yer boat. I’ve been to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, lived some months in Kuala Lumpur where women dressed in fundamentalist Islamic attire. I lived for more than a decade in Istanbul, Türkiye, where I observed women in mini skirts and dressed in full black hijab. Is it choice or cultural pressure? Either way, after a 25 year plus relationship with Türkiye, I realise it is their culture, language, religion, their business and choice. Mine is England and that’s more than enough to contend with.

Who are they?
Voice of Baceprot is often abbreviated to VOB. They are an Indonesian all-female rock trio formed in Garut, West Java, in 2014. The group consists of Firda Marsya Kurnia, vocals and guitar, Widi Rahmawati, bass, and Euis Siti Aisyah, drums. They sing in English as well as Sundanese. The word baceprot means ‘noisy’ in Sundanese. It is meant to represent the band's musical style.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_Baceprot
https://voiceofbaceprot.com/

What's the difference between a hijab, niqab and burka?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/24118241

I am not a Metallica fan. I’m not a heavy metal fan and generally lost the liking for loud electric music. I loathe noise as distinct from harmonious music. I do enjoy the odd AC/DC track. I still love Thin Lizzy’s Live & Dangerous. I still adore Free, Bad Company and the voice of Paul Rogers. I used to be a resident DJ at The Marquee Club, Soho, London, at a time when I would explore and play just about anything that came under my nose. I played Niggers With Attitude alongside Walk This Way. I had Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page seek refuge in my DJ booth before he made a guest appearance with Aerosmith. I was DJ for Blur’s first gig at The Marquee. I joined the silly activity of jumping from the stage into the ‘mosh pit’ during a Faith No More gig. I remember Terrence Trent D’Arby’s impressive voice and stage presence. I was also a resident DJ at The St. Moritz Club in Wardour Street, Soho, London where Lemmy once gobbed on my Lou Reed Transformer LP because Reed was a heroin user. Lemmy would come to the Moritz before opening time for a quiet whiskey and pour £100 cash into the fruit machine.

One night the Metallica guitarist lead singer James Hetfield asked me for a record request at the St. Moritz Club. May be they were playing at The Marquee Club in the same street at the time. I can’t remember if I had the record he wanted. I do remember reading in the Melody Maker or Sounds music papers a couple of years before about the death of their original bassist Cliff Burton.
The Day Metallica Bassist Cliff Burton Died in a Bus Accident
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/metallica-bassist-cliff-burton-dies-in-a-bus-accident/

VOB have just played at Glastonbury. I have no inclination to attend music festivals. I once went to the Reading Festival since I was a Marquee DJ, had a music journalist girlfriend and we both had back stage access passes to the ‘VIP’ bar away from the detritus of the public field. Glastonbury looks like woke eco-fascist cultural Marxist hell to me. To see Paul McCartney or Axl Rose waving a Ukrainian flag or hear Johnny Depp decry Donald Trump is just not my cuppa tea. You’d have to pay me well to endure attending. This fundamentalist Islamic female rock band does intrigue me. There is perhaps far more to say, ask and ponder. It seems VOB loved Glastonbury…

The hijab reminds me of Boris Bollox Johnson commenting on ‘letterboxes’. he was chastised for being racist. In Türkiye, Turkish women would refer to ‘letterboxes’ and ‘penguins’. They understood the cultural history whereby the founder of the Republic of Türkiye, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, removed the obligation for women to be covered in public. My experience is that ‘modern’ Turkish women could not abide the fundamentalist Islamic hijab; it was a visual threat to their freedom and liberty to dress as they wished. In the politically correct UK, such descriptions as ‘letterbox’ are perceived as offensive. Johnson is a loathsome creature, but there are far more compelling reasons to detest that lump of lard than weaponsied wording.

Political correctness is a disease within the collective West. Here’s the story of a white, straight, non-political activist, bare arms and legs on display, of whom I’d never heard of before Twitter X told me. Basketball player Caitlin Clark appears to be targeted because she does not engage in politically correctness:
The Truth Behind The Caitlin Clark Conspiracy
https://x.com/frankmikesmith/status/1805948098071478420

Good luck to VOB. They seem to be enjoying success.

I’m intrigued, but I’ll stick to this…

#StopStarmer
#TellThePartiesThePartysOver
#4thJuly
#IndependentsDay

-o0o-

As a wag once said,
‘The artist must go very far, so that the ordinary man will go far enough. Arsenal!’

Yurtta Barış Dünyada Barış : Peace At Home, Peace İn The World… if only.

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https://nedpamphilon.substack.com/p/the-new-spartacus-im-racist-misogynistic