Swung by Tango last weekend to have a peek at some of the Live Power Awards nominated bands in the indie category. More specifically, I wanted to check out the Hangzhou neo-psychedelic band Wogui de Houche whose 2016 release Aftermath was one of the my favorites of that year. The band is great at capturing that humid poetic sound that sways in and out of daydream romanticizing and reverb heavy rock and roll blitz. Lo-fi buzz that’s turns volatile when shaken. Highlight of the night by far. I was also surprised at how easily manipulated and emotionally man-handled I was by Beijing post rock outfit Sparrow who have been a mainstay of the post rock scene for nearly a decade and who just began hitting their stride last year. As far as post rock goes, these guys are the real deal – intricately assembled arrangements that hit you in the gut. Finally, I was quite disappointed with SiXi, the Nanjing electro rock outfit which sounded like a outdated copy of other female-led electro rock bands like Da Bang and Queen Sea Big Shark who are in their own ways already outdated copies of many of the new wave garage rock bands of the early 2000s (to be fair both of those bands have broke free of their influences already). Two out of three ain’t bad and it’s great to see more and more bands from around China making their way to Beijing.
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