i've been thinking about a saying in malay, “mulut masin” or “masin mulut” which literally translates to mean “salty mouth”. “mulut masin” is a manner of speech which usually is directed towards someone who has a tendency to make things come true by virtue of utterance / speech; almost like spell casting. for example, if this person who is said to be someone who is “mulut masin” would say, “you might get into an accident if you don’t take care”, this outcome has a high likelihood to come true people who are “mulut masin” are often tasked to be careful of what they speak, as their speech may materialise. and often times people are also encouraged to be close to such individuals as a means of asking them to wish for the outcomes they desire. of late i wonder how many people out there are “mulut masin” in a manner which has caused tremendous shifts in the world we live in from well-wishes, prayers to curses, between utterances which desire either peace, destruction or vengeance, i am certain the world is filled with spell casters. it is so urgent today, that those of you who are "mulut masin", make your speech into a form of dhikir (prayer, recitation, remembrance?) to counter the people who speak for a kind of destruction, colonisers who weaponise speech to serve their desire for power; speech which have determined much of the horrors we are presently surrounded by i dedicate this record to the people who are constantly spell casting, sending curses to end tyranny and injustices, those who tirelessly speak of resistance against the violence of colonialism, extractivism, occupation and apartheid written / performed / recorded / mixed etc by bani haykal at /modularkitchen/ the photo of a masked entity cloaked in a long red fabric amidst a forest and trees felled is from a video / performance work by Singaporean artist ila, titled Lemas Semangat, which looks into the multiple histories of ‘keramat’ or shrines in Singapore Genres: Experimental/Noise/Spoken Word/Avant-Folk