Looking for some late summer goodies – well you came to the right place friend. Not the biggest week for releases, but it’s a new semester, kids be hitting the books and all that nonsense. Let’s take a look at the latest from post rock idols Zhaoze, Shanghai rockers Girls Like Mystery, new guitar/vocal duo RST + Lenz, and 2011’s Eurovision Finalist Saara Aalto. Yes, shit gets weird.
Alright, I mentioned earlier this summer that Zhaoze was releasing his seventh album entitled Yond – and that if you’re any bit interested into how post rock can be translated into chinese, it would be a must have. Well, said record is now up for listen on xiami and bandcamp. And it’s a thing of beauty – lush, delicate, and transcendent. And that guqin, man, goes straight for the gut – a lot more restraint in it this time round. The whole album as a whole is a slower paced beast, one that seems to avoid a lot of the ‘crash and burn’ ethos of most post rock groups in China, and takes off on some interesting tangents. Just look at ‘The World Is A Blue Stone’ – that’s pretty much how you’ll feel afterwards. Have they heard of these guys yet overseas? Missing out big time. Snag it here, here, and over yonder – I know I’ll be picking this up in the next few days.
For something lighter on its feet, it’s the debut work from Britpop indie rockers Girls Like Mystery, who sound like the biggest bunch of bros ever to hit China, yet alone Shanghai. I mean that in the best possible way. Their album entitled Distance Changes Everything (great name) is chock full of triumphant anthems that are propelled forward by crunchy guitar backing and melodies that scream for your attention. It could easily lean a bit heavily on the cheese (and it does, believe me) but there’s a lot to like here. Special tip of the hat to the Acid Pony Club boys who really know how to bring out those instruments (if only Beijing were so lucky) – love the drums here, and that trumpet – kills it every time. Particularly dig ‘Letters’, ‘Football Friend’, and ‘Minority Song’. Give the whole thing a listen on douban and watch it blow up on soundcloud soon enough. And if you’re lucky enough to be in Shanghai this Friday, hit up their release show.
While this doesn’t clarify as a new album, it’s new material nevertheless, and perhaps the start of an unlikely collaboration between two wildly talented artists – New Zealand experimental drone maestro RST and the ever ferocious frontwomen of Goushen, Lenz. After meeting last year, the two began a correspondent and soon after begun collaborating, sending each other guitar tracks and vocals, and viola – emerged the aptly named duo RST + Lenz (I’m sure they’ll come up with something better later) and four tracks are available online at douban. Like pretty cool, right. ‘Dark space blues’ it’s described as, and that ain’t too far off. Lenz’s voice complements the snake-skin guitar chords from RST – simple, mysterious, and sexy romantic. Check out the duo this Friday at XP (it’s their third time live ever!) along with droner kids Cloud Choir and Sick Car Sick, Carsick Cars descent into madness.
And for a little bit of WTF news that popped into my inbox last weekend, it seems Euorvision Finalist, and Finish pop star Saara Aalto has finally gotten around to releasing her first Chinese-language album. Wait, what? While translating one’s lyrics from English to Chinese isn’t new (i.e Hong Kong hardcore band King Lychee) – the whole concept kinda blows my mind. The album Ai De Zhu Fu (Blessed with Love) features nine of the original album’s thirteen tracks in Mandarin – which as her promo spells out will be accompanied ‘by a major push on Chinese social media’. Talk about strategic acquisition. She further notes how the label company (Finland’s Yume Records) has altered the production on many of the numbers to ‘sound more like chinese pop’. Whoa. First Hollywood, now the music industry. Can’t wait for China Music Radar’s thoughts on this one. Oh, give it a listen on Aalto’s douban page, hit her up on weibo, and throw money at Finland’s economy over on iTunes.
I’m out. Too much to handle.
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