News, Releases, Yada Yada Yada

Onwards!! Time to plug away some more with what’s new on shelves – let’s look at this week’s releases with Xian post punk outfit The Fuzz, Kazakh industrial folk heads IZ, neo folk artist turned film scorer Baishui, and another split 7’’ from Gening Records.

I’ve had this bad boy on repeat for the past two weeks – Xian post punk outfit The Fuzz isn’t going to win any awards for originally. With a sound that’s completely derivative of 80’s Manchester dance rock, namely New Order and The Fall, listing off the influences becomes meaningless when you’ve got some of the cheeriest, foot tapping, madly in love tunes to come out of China in sometime. On their sophomore album, Running Horse (谁会做奔跑的马), Yang Haisong led his golden touch and it sounds like he bought out the liveliness out of these kids cause I’ll be damned, this album shakes and moves. Give it a whirl. From their head bopping single ‘The Best of Love’, to the bittersweet hometown anthem ‘Xi’an’, to the beautiful animalistic buildup and reverb of their title track, it’s an album chock full of potential hits. One of the best releases this year period.  Purchase it over here.

That’s one of the tracks off of IZ’s latest Echo, which was released last week – three tracks can be previewed up on their douban page. IZ, fronted by one of Xinjiang’s more prolific artists, Mamer, has in the past years been diving deeper down the rabbit hole, drifting further away from the folk music of their ancestors – mixing heavy industrial elements to their anarchic melodies, IZ is beginning is sound like something cooked up in Trent Rezor’s kitchen (it’s like an acoustic version of Nine Inch Nails). It’s not exactly the most inviting sound, but I have to give credit where it’s due – I haven’t heard anything quite like this. Jarring, offbeat, organic, and above all, fascinating, this is reaching for something higher – curious to see what the rest of the album holds. Purchase it over here.

In music and film news, neo post rocking folk outfit Baishui, who were all the noise last spring when the Sichuan band were invited to participate in Austin, Texas’s South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. After that and a tour across the US, which Jonathan Campbell writes about in great detail in his article ‘The Sound of China’s Future’, the band is back at creating beautiful soundscapes. This time round, they’ve scored the upcoming Chinese domestic independent feature Einstein and Einstein (whose synopsis sounds disturbingly accurate and invective) – the score can be listened to in full (and purchased) on bandcamp. It’s quite captivating – sensual, delicate, with a hint of menace that gradually widens. Keep an eye on Jonathan Campbell’s blog for the latest on that front.

This one’s for you vinyl junkies out there – Genjing Records have another spilt 7’’ out in the world – split between Shanghai shit rockers Pairs, and New Zealand noise rockers God Bows to Math, it features three songs, two from Pairs’ 2012 Grandpa release and one from GBTM. A cute little addition to your ever-growing vinyl collection – right? Pick up a copy and catch the aggressively noisy New Zealanders at Mao Livehouse tomorrow night along with our own post rockers Illness Sickness and Nakoma, as well as fellow Kiwis Crab on Crab. Details here.