Round Eye, The Boys
Month: February 2015
AV Okubo – Opium/Heroin – 3rd February 2015
Cat #: 174TZM
If you’ve never been to Wuhan, let me tell ya: it’s fucking BLEAK. China’s landlocked industrial boiler room, smelting the future from discarded harsh metal scraps of past failures. The heat’s so hot it’ll melt your will to live. Opiates help. Wuhan’s AV Okubo know this, they even soundtrack this. “Opium” is a re-purposed stereo-heater churned out like some retro-futuristic answer to the prayers you’ll be praying years from now, as the decline continues to decline. The voice of “Opium” is a voice out of time, a bi-gender mensch-machine crammed into a vintage Japanese vocoder, sampled and re-sampled til the original is forgotten in a self-medicated haze (while reclining, eyes open but not seeing, slackjaw dreaming). No clue what it’s saying (something about the Qing Dynasty GDP) — but the bottom line is: we’re all damned if it doesn’t ease the growing pains.
“Heroin,” meanwhile, sounds like the Sex Pistols telling Lou Reed to fuck off. Actually this B-side was originally supposed to be straight up Velvets cover but, as AVO vocalist Lu Di laments right off the bat, “the price is too high and I can’t afford it.” Wuhan bathtub meth it is, then. Again! Maybe E, LSD and some more weed, to chase. OK, good now. Let’s do this. Only bass line that comes to mind is ripped straight from Sid’s dead mitts but it’s a miracle we’re even standing up at this point so… Wuhan’s fucking hot. Need more ice. What’s next? The rest… “and the rest, I don’t wanna know.”
credits
Recorded at Busy Bee Studios in Beijing by Andy Gill and Santi Arribas
Mixed at The Beauchamp Building, London by Andy Gill and Santi Arribas
Mastered at The Mixing Factory in London
GR028
genjingrecords.com
Imported to Australia under license
Snapline – Paper General – 3rd February 2015
Cat #: 173TZM
Welcome to the future! Snapline dusts off one from the vaults, a new two-song slammer with material from the pre-Phenomena (2012), pre-Future Eyes (2011) times, created in their hearts & minds ca. 1982 for a series of never-aired infomercials canonizing China’s proud martial might and technological prowess.
Yes, though the band’s members had only just been born, they were already on the vanguard. This is the sound of disaffected technical university dropouts graduates with honors. This is what’s been in the water. “Paper General” blasts it off at march speed, written for the happiest army in human history. Tens of thousands of men and women standing, smiling like the technicolor postcard you once saw in a kitsch shop. Operators Li Qing and Li Weisi stack the kosmische filter sweeps and pure analog noise generators with Snapline’s trademark loose cohesion. You can almost hear their fingers at the switches! While the picture adjusts (it never quite does), Chen Xi barks the orders. “Turn your radar ON!” His voice is almost lost in the static. Which is the signal and which is the noise? “It could be thousands of ways / to say a word in different tones.”
Next stop: “Wasteland.” The path forward seems infinite but your trip lasts just over seven minutes. Scientific progress sounds like a rickety synthesizer shuttling too close to the sun. Even the control melts. The rhythm is vaporized. It never mattered. Return to earth and you no longer recognize what you once called home. Spin it, flip it, repeat.
Bad Nerve/Fanzui Xiangfa – 2nd February 2015
Cat #: 172TZM
FANZUI XIANGFA is:
狂骂 [Kuang Ma] – Drums
逆反 [Ni Fan] – Guitar
毛病 [Mao Bing] – Bass / Vocals
冲撞 [Chong Zhuang] – Guitar
六六 [Liu Liu] – Lead Vocals
Recorded and mixed by Hou Likao at Jishengchong Studio. Vocals recorded by Deng Chenglong and Tan Hang.
BAD NERVE is:
Mårten Bläckberg – Guitar/Vocals
Anna Salonen – Bass/Vocals*
Jonas Lyxzen – Drums/Backing Vocals
Melody Almroth – Bass/Vocals
*On this recording: Anna – Bass/Vocals
All music and lyrics written by Bad Nerve
Recorded at Parasite Studio May 2013
Mixed and Mastered by Fredrik Lyxzen, Parasite Studio
Thanks: Fredrik, Nevin and Genjing Records, Dennis and Ny Våg Records, Amanda, all our friends and families.
GR038 – genjingrecords.com
Imported to Australia under license.
Low Bow/Dinged Up – 1st February 2015
Cat #: 170TZM
Bow low, my friends! The FAST SON’s coming and you don’t wanna lock eyes when he rises. Yes, it’s LOWBOW, and ooohhhhhh… “All of your future, stuck in your past / you still can’t work out why you’ll never last.” Baby. Sounds like these two rippers were cut fast & loose in ‘72, but no sirree, they got laid down last year right here in the P.R. of C, where time has ceased to be. LOOKOUT! You know the Fast Son moves quicker than the mutants on the bottom of the East China Sea, and “you can’t win with a draw.” LOWBOW, you see, rode from Dublin to D-22 on the wings of a faded dream and rebooted himself in the image of Bo Diddley’s ghost, putting his own grease on them post-proto-punk, gutter-oil-blues stompers we’ve come to need, all gold lamé and lightning speed. LOWBOW’s seen less than the Loch Ness ‘round these parts these days, but you know he’ll be back: that Fast Son won’t stay off the wagon for long.
DINGED UP, on the other side, is just that. Their nearest metropole is Baltimore, for Poe’s sake! Their two tunes on this end of the slab won’t get you too down, but rest assured they are both “Made of Grief.” Recommended for fans of: six-note solos, suburban burnout blues, Saccharine Trust – Paganicons, 21st century garages (they no longer hold cars, just withering ennui and empty space, amps, drums). DINGED UP’s about to rain down on a city near you, USA ladies and dudes. They fly on the late summer winds like a trio of tumbleweeds. Dust off and suit up, Big Red, these two are for you.
LOW BOW
All tracks conceived, written & performed by LOW BOW
LOW BOW are Richard Doran (Electric Git & Vox) Michael Cupoli (Drum & Drum)
Audio recording and final mastering by Mr. Yang Hai Song. Summer, 2013 in the People’s Republic Of China.
LOW BOW hope that you find this recording to be of a professional standard. Served best via headphones or on A.M. radio.
Thank you for purchasing this recording legally. Now, why not tell a friend that further LOW BOW recordings of HI fidelity standards can be found at lowbow.bandcamp.com
For information or parenting tips, lowbowband@gmail.com
DINGED UP
All tracks written & performed by
Joe Rankin
Engineered by Jason Nicholls
Produced & mixed by Joe Rankin & Jason Nicholls
All recording, engineering & mixing took place Fall 2013 at Mutant Sun Studio in the U.S.A.
Mastered by Chris Bentley in Fall 2013 at The Bunker studio, also in the U.S.A.
dingedup.bandcamp.com
josephmrankin@gmail.com
Beijing photo by Richard Doran
Western Maryland photo by Brad Reiter
Additional artwork by Jason Nicholls
Graphic Design by Jesse Davis
GR029
genjingrecords.com
Imported under license for Australia.
SMZB – A Letter From China – 1st February 2015
Cat #: 169TZM
Commemoration release for Tiananmen 1989.
The Yours – Public Eye – 1st February 2015
Cat #: 171TZM
Produced by The Yours
“Public Eye” recorded and mixed by Yang Haisong at Psychic Kong, Beijing, Dec 13, 2013
“Purple” recorded and mixed by Nic Wong, Feb 14, 2014
Mastered by Garrett Haines at Treelady Studios, Pittsburgh USA
All songs by The Yours
Drums by Nelson Ko and Pie Wong
Art by The Yours
Layout by Die Leung
Managed by Yuman Ng
Special thanks to our families and dearest friends; Yang Haisong, Fuhan, Zhang Shouwang, Nevin Domer, Nikki, Bebe and Reggie from S.T.D, Nelson Ko, Roland Lee, Pie Wong, Gosha Rubchinsky and Tim Head
genjingrecords.com
www.iii-records.com
© 2014 GENJING RECORDS, IMAGINE IMAGINE IMAGINE RECORDS LIMITED
Imported under license for Australia.
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