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Sep
23rdThe GAR return: new EP, new sound & old friends
I love The GAR. Let me just get that out there before I even start. I love them so much my entire Oct holiday is planned around leaving the day after their EP launch. BD and I were hoping to get a review up before the show, but due to both of us being crazy busy last week, we managed to listen to it, but not find the time to collect our thoughts and put them together in a review. So this is going to be a combined show/EP review, written in the hours between the show ending and me jumping on a plane for 2+ weeks offline in the west of China. Mr Graceless were on opening duties at Yugong Yishan last night. A band I first saw a couple of years ago as 3 young shy indie kids performing what seemed like covers of their favourite brit-rock bands. How far they’ve come in that time, if you haven’t heard their album, The Tree Ever Green, you should definitely give it a listen. The 3 guys I saw on stage last night seemed so much more mature and confident. Yes, I can still hear a little Blur influence in their songs, but they’ve worked hard to make their sound their own. The GAR opened their set with two new tracks 爱，终将把青春遗漏 Love will lost your love and 后撤 Train, which were posted on Maybe Mar’s soundcloud a couple of weeks ago, so I’d heard them before listening to the [...]
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May
18thLidong Album Review: Northwest Folk Folk From The Heart of The Ningxia PlainsMigration complete… the bird has landed… I’ve been trying to come up with cool poetic ways to get things started on this Lidong album review to match the band’s music and lyrics but i find myself unable to. I’ve been hearing these songs for the most part of the last 2 years and I’ve seen them performed live countless times under different arrangements. Still, when I got a copy of the master tracks finally, it brought a smile to my face. Let’s see how it came off!! ‘daze on Lidong There are 9 tracks on the record, 2 of which are reapeated in an alternative arrangement. We start off with “Future” that boasts a lovely guitar opening and some funky accordion works courstesy of Lidong’s sole foreign member, Marie CLaude. The combination is a bizarre sonic caccophony, almost schyzophrenic. part of the song sounds like the boulevards of Paris, part of it sound like rowdy backyard barn concert. Xiao Mudan, the next number, is one of those earworms… you have been warned! I love this track live but it’s not really doing it for me on the record as part of it sound too clean. don’t forget to check out the promo video for the song… this one brings out the romantic in me with lyrics like “who can understand my heart”. It’s my favorite track on the album by far. Hexi is one of those songs where i have mixed feeling.. parts of the song are beautiful while others [...]
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Apr
2ndDong Chorus at 2 Kolegas: Dreamy Polyphonic Folk Views and a Little RantAbout a month ago, I had never heard of the Dong Minority 侗族大歌 nor did i have a clue about their musical proficiency, the uniqueness of their delivery or the imminent danger of extinction facing their folklore… Now, thank to a series of shows they did in Beijing over the past few weeks, it’s all changed. It’s not the first time that they get a bit of attention as Amy Tan had already covered this highly musical ethnic for NPR Music. I caught them at 2 Kolegas on a thursday night, 2 weeks ago, hoping to enjoy the show in an intimate setting with what promised to be a fantastic bill: Dong Chorus and Happy Avenue. At least one of them would deliver the goods. Things kicked off quite early, 8:00 pm, which is quite an exception to the norm over at the Drive-in. Sure, the band didn’t come on til 8:30 but there was a decent sizable crowd considering it was a Thursday and the the entrance fee was CNY80. The setup was quite simple and the evening moved pretty much at the same pace: Wu Hongfei, incivilian clothing, would read and explain what the next song would be about immediately followed by the band delivering said song. There was a beautiful variety displayed.. Some of the songs were love songs, others just nature praise, there were a few sad soppy ones as well. The girls’ sole instrument was their voice and they made it count in beautiful ways [...]
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Jan
18thGig & CD Review: Muma & Third Party Returns – A Musical EvolutionI’ve been meaning to get this one out for a while but it’s been a bit hectic. I mean here I am in 2012 doing the write up for a gig from 2011. I would normally skip it altogether but we don’t get Muma & Third Party playing that often lately so here comes. I had been waiting a long time for this gig where Muma & Third Party, latest incarnation, come up to Beijing and give us the goods they’ve been working on for a few years. It’s pretty much a whole new band with new dynamics, even between the only two remaining members who are Muma himself and Mico ( I stand corrected on the original members). Yugong was decently full for the occasion despite it being a cold december wednesday evening. The place was decked out with floating banners that reflected a matrix-esque random pattern of numbers. The band is all grown up, wiser and quite dark… The voice still sets the tone for everything else around but now, the music follows and matches. it tiptoeing a line between industrial and gothic sounds, very much along the lines of NIN and Joy Division… heck, i might be able to argue if i cared enough that that particular wednesday, MTP did Joy Division better than Joy Division on some songs. The concert lasted almost 2 hours with the band going through some classics. I especially liked the reworked, more organic version of “feifei run” that had the audience [...]
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Dec
22ndDouble Take: Jurat ‘Sans Famille’ album reviewWell, BD was away in Australia last week, and I thought it wouldn’t be fair on Jurat to do this one by myself, so I’ve invited a good friend and long-time member of the Beijing music scene Jean-Sébastien Héry (aka Zhang Si’an) to step into Badr’s shoes and take on the ‘He says’ side of this one. Here’s what we think of ‘Sans Famille’! Jean-Seb on Sans Famille: I have known Jurat for a long time. I first met him about five years ago somewhere in Beijing, in Jiangjinjiu bar I think. It is Ubul, a Uyghur percussion player I used to play with who introduced me to him. He was singing covers of Sting and The Police, as well as many other things such as folk songs from Xinjiang (China’s North-East region). Jurat is a Uyghur musician who came to Beijing a few years ago with an idea of making music in his own way. He is from the North-East part of that region, and when I was asked by Ruby to do the review of his CD while Badr is out having fun in Australia, I said why not. First of all ‘Sans Famille’ (Without a family) has a French title, which is an interesting point. The title comes from a French novel, written by Hector Malot around 1878 (Wikipedia says so…). That story is very famous in France. The novel was turned into movies several times, and there are even several Japanese adaptations in animated manga style. [...]
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Nov
18thDouble Take: Friend or Foe – My Claw is Never Limp CD reviewsomething is brewing down south folks… I’m not sure what it is but there’s definitely some quality coming out of Shanghai that we don’t get to see in Beijing. Don’t get me wrong, we have “some” quality up here but when you look at the quantity, the ratio is pretty dismal. Shanghai is not blessed with as many live music venues and it’s definitely harder to get noticed there so maybe that creates a sort of natural selection that we could use up here. One of the latest examples of this trend comes in under the name: “Friend or Foe”. My interests in this record was mostly from the conceptual and graphical perspective. I loved the artwork… then I heard the damn thing. How does it stack up? BD on My Claw is Never Limp I love me a catchy album or song name and this one does not disappoint. I don’t really know the band members but that’s already a good insight into their personality.. having now read a few interviews with them, I like what i see. But what about the music man… the music? The opening number, Terrorized, sets the tone right away! power chords, fast riffs, sharp vocals that keep me tapping my feet and wanting to jump up and down. That’s just the start! “Friend or Foe” is an interesting track: subtle, understated but in your face at the same time. It benefits a lot from a different production and interesting mixing! I love the [...]
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Nov
11thDouble Take on Low Wormwood’s Lanzhou Lanzhou: Soft and Warm, Like a Lanzhou Beef NoodleChinese Indie Music Lore goes something like this: Folks from Maybe Mars saw Low Wormwood perform live, they immediately started the Maybe Wood spin off label to sign them up and record their 2009 album, We Can’t Help Kissing Each Other. I’ll have to ask them about this at some point. Anyways, with the band playing Beijing this saturday at Mako Livehouse, I thought it was a great time to delve in and review their latest album: Lanzhou Lanzhou BD on Lanzhou Lanzhou The opening and title track, Lanzhou Lanzhou 兰州 兰州, for this record and the video that went along had me really excited from the get go! There’s something about this new trend of having a bluesy folk sound that makes songs appealing and earthy. 那只船 (That Boat) has a lovely flamenco after taste without really being a flamenco song with some interesting ad-libs in the middle parts.. it’s sure to be a popular one live. The other winner on the record is 一个和一万个 (one and 10 thousands)! It’s dreamy, subtle, rich and in-your-face all at the same time! It could be from anywhere in China but really sounds like Gansu would if it were a song with hints of Mongolian and even bouddhist melodies. The rest of the album is solid but without being as special as the above-mentioned songs! It almost sounds like the guys spend too much time listening to old John Denver records and watching HBO’s deadwood… At the end of the day, it’s [...]
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Oct
18thDouble Take: Glow Curve – Pedantically Progressive.I first heard the name Glow Curve in an article Wang Ge wrote about Raying Temple back in June. A soundcloud link at the bottom of the article had 5 songs from different groups that play at the music space out in Tongzhou – including Glow Curve, who are currently in residency there. I have to say out of the 5, Glow Curve’s track ‘A Song for Raying Temple’ was the only one I actually liked! I earmarked them as a must-see band, but due to the fact they rarely play in the city, and then usually out at D22, I haven’t yet been able to catch them. Ruby on Glow Curve Glow Curve (formerly Maze) have been around since 2007, but this is their first album and though they’ve created it themselves it really doesn’t sound like a low budget home made job. I’m loving instrumental post-rock at the moment and this album has slipped seamlessly into a playlist that also includes Hua Lun, Wang Wen, Zhao Ze and others. The tracks are just gorgeous, they sound like they could be the score for a movie. There’s very few vocals, a just little on ‘Flowers of Godmother’ and the addition of Samuel L Jackson’s ‘Ezekiel 25:17’ quote from Pulp Fiction in ‘Floating Mountains’. This style of math-rock/post-rock is often criticised for the musicians not knowing how to play their instruments and creating simplistic repeating melodies. That’s not the case with Glow Curve, their songs are a complex layer of [...]
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Oct
11thDouble Take: The Fever Machine – Living in OblivionDan Shapiro, to those familiar with China’s music scene, does not need any introductions. The guy has paid his dues years in a row by writing the scene and even playing in it… in other words, the guy knows his shit! So do his bandmates in The Fever Machine and this collective talent (Fabien Barbet and Miguel Bustamante) combines together in one hard hitting debut record: Living in Oblivion. BD on Living in Oblivion I’ve been expecting this record for about almost two years now, ever since Checo Fernandez ( formerly Wu & The Side Effects) mentioned that the band was in the process of recording and played me a song called HeartBrokenBleedingAgain (yes, that’s one word)… Unfortunately, the record itself doesn’t have HeartBrokenBleedingAgain (why? ) The have been described as Stoner – Psychedelic Rock which is kinda fitting but to me, it sounds vintage if there can be such a thing with. The opening number, Hell Yeah, is one of those grinder tunes that tricks you into a false sense of comfort thinking you know what’s coming…. and then it gets interesting! Out of Touch might go down as one of the weakest tracks but it’s really underrated with some good melodies and rhymes. Dance with Deviance has a chorus and pop hook that i just can’t get out of my head and The Arouser is lyrically stimulating. As I mentioned above, it’s vintage but with a modern edge to it. It reminded me a little bit of early [...]
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Sep
23rdDouble take: There’s nothing silly about Xiao He’s new record: Silly’s BalladI was excited and afraid to get my hands on this baby for a review as I’m not the biggest Xiao He fan in the world… let’s see what comes out of it: Beijing Daze on Silly’s Ballad I feel a bit weird writing this review because I’m getting that strange “not appropriate” gut feeling. See, Xiao He’s new release is meant to be so much more than just musical. It’s not a CD but a beautifully crafted book that is meant to be read and touched while one listens to the songs though one of a kind sound reducing earphones. Xiao He‘s genius, which borders on insanity, has brought forth a vision and an atmosphere and judging it sorely on the music doesn’t seem fair, not having the lyrics right now is also limiting. The opening seconds of the the first song bring me tons of relief… He is singing and playing guitar.. and most of the album goes that way! He is navigating through different vocal styles, strumming patterns, loops all while keeping the music very earthy. Some songs, like “Dark night is running back from a faraway place” sound like a fusion of different folk styles: Mongolian vocals, Yellow river rhythms and blues harmonies. Gugu Bird starts off sounding like a cover of Jolene and morphs into what Xie Tian Xiao would sound like acoustically. And the journey goes on with the rest of the record where I spent most of my time going ” What’s this [...]
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