How do you play an educational role in music while also remaining mysterious? How do you represent a region or scene or idea while also lurking in the shadows? These are riddles, the type of riddles that lead to more riddles and keep you asking questions. This is exactly how Thai producer Sunju Hargun likes it. As cofounder of Siamese Twins Records, he’s dedicated to representing Asian electronic artists, but their catalogue is full of untraceable aliases and cryptic sounds. His personal production follows a similar path, one built around Thai, Indian, and Chinese sounds, all hidden deep within a layer of smoke as to be nearly unrecognizable.
Hargun was born into music with creative parents, he was a drummer for 15 years, and he’s been lurking in clubs since his teens. He regularly tours internationally and runs a popular festival called Karma Klique. But he’s also a very thoughtful electronic music producer who spends plentiful time collecting source material which he then patiently rearranges and drenches in effects to create a moody, unique sound. His music hints at the tracks’ Asian roots but refuses to clearly identify them. “It’s like a kick drum layered with Thai percussion, so you won’t really hear it, but the character is there,” he says. “90 percent of my music features Thai sounds. People recognize that something’s different, but can’t pinpoint the source. ‘Why is it different?’ It’s more like a feeling. There’s something spiritual, deeper.”
Recently Hargun dropped a track called “मूलानि” on Indian label Qilla that dives into his own Indian heritage. He’d already been working on a more dance-focused collaboration project called Mogambo that explored these sounds, but he wanted to take those roots and plant them somewhere new for a solo project not meant for the dancefloor. When he made it, he visualized going into a village or a forest and hearing people chanting and stomping their feet. The track swirls and echoes, bouncing around the walls of your mind. Strings are stretched into eternity and hand drums keep you in an infinite state of motion. “It’s a track that doesn’t know where it fits.” Although it wasn’t meant for the club, he’s heard DJs layer it over dnb tracks and says he appreciates the life it’s taking on.
Hargun’s interest in mixing Asian instrumentation into electronic music was inspired by the launch of Siamese Twins, which he runs alongside Johan, Taychin, and Yoshi: “We’re from Thailand and use lots of Thai artwork—why not actually make Thai music? I was also frustrated because I wasn’t able to find music with Thai sounds in it. There was some out there, but it didn’t necessarily fit my world, my taste. So I decided to make it myself.”
Recently Hargun has taken that Thai influence out of the shadows and placed it front and center. He helped produce a sample pack of Thai instrumentation played by popular local band YAAN, and there’s a second one in the works already. Hargun also has a solo project dropping soon that makes his Thai influences clear to the world. It’s built around recordings from YAAN, field recordings from around Thailand, and sounds found online. He sees this simply as evolution; the idea of presenting the instrumentation more clearly is a new approach for him, and continuing to innovate is his main goal. “That’s the essence of electronic music,” he says. “It should never stay stuck, it should keep evolving.”
There can be a bias against using Thai sounds in electronic music in many circles here at home. Often, locals prefer European or American-sounding electronic music and cringe at the idea of blending them. But Hargun says it all comes down to quality. “If the tracks are good enough, then why not? I want to create something that lasts,” he says. And he bristles at the idea of simply following trends. “If I was just giving people the same thing as everyone else and following trends, what’s the point? I’d have no self-identity. I want to be very true to what I’m doing.”
The idea of pushing boundaries and charting new territory is exciting to Hargun. “I want to create something with no link in the world but that still belongs somewhere,” he says. And he hopes that others will feel the same; that they’ll create music true to themselves and not be scared to draw on their heritage for inspiration. It’s worked very well for him personally for the past five years, after all. And if more people choose to take a similar approach, that would make him proud. “Thailand has never really been on the map musically. At least I can participate in helping to change that. This is the movement we’re trying to create. We believe in it.”
