Author: shaun tenzenmen

Australasian DIY music specialist and practising poet, amongst other things

Yes I’m Leaving – Mission Bulb – 22nd May 2013

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Cat #: 140TZM

Mission Bulb was recorded live over a period of 6 hours in a rehearsal room at Keynote Studios in Homebush West, a suburb of Sydney. Guitarist/Vocalist Billy Burke manned the 8 track recording machine and acted as engineer, placing microphones where they needed to go, often with unconventional microphone choices to capture the sound.

Many tracks had only been finalised a week or two before recording, and many were done with live vocals, leading to a truly raw and live sound being created. The energy and other various factors on the day of the recording captures a particular time and place that is entirely unique, and would be impossible to recreate exactly again.

The end product is ‘Mission Bulb’, an album that for the first time comes close to re-creating the true sound that is ‘Yes I’m Leaving’.

Dear Eloise – The Winter That Disappeared – 17th May 2013

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Cat #: 136TZM

Since their inception in 2008, Beijing alchemists Dear Eloise have issued a steady stream of releases from their home studio that have been well-received by fans and critics alike despite shying away from performing live (they do not) and courting the media (they do not do that, either), instead quietly giving flight to their indelible fuzz-soaked concoctions and letting them speak for themselves.

“The Winter That Disappeared,” the duo’s fourth 7” on tenzenmen (and seventh release overall), is a departure from the playful shoegaze-influenced pop purity of their earlier work, tacking down a darker path with two self-produced cuts pressed on emerald-green vinyl.

“Vanishing Winter,” the A-side, forcefully announces itself with multi-instrumentalist Yang Haisong’s rhythmic ice-brittle guitar anchored by a trotting bass. In the background, a second unleashed guitar taps out bright arpeggios and Sun Xia’s disembodied ethereal voice rises and falls—nowhere and everywhere. And that ever-present fuzz glows like banked coals.

Behind the omniscient crackling and hissing like crossed wires from a supernatural radio transmission, the simple chord progressions and ghostlike vocals of the B-side, “The Place in White Light,” attempt to penetrate the dissonant wall like green springtime shoots. But they don’t—the static thickens and grows increasingly anxious before the rhythm section, a dirgelike bassline and percussive fills, are abruptly swallowed and extinguished like a candle snuffed by an unworldly presence. 

The Dyne – Swim . Fly Roots – 14th May 2013

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Cat #: 144TZM

With it’s shimmering guitars and bubbling bassline structured by crisp percussion work, the instrumental “Swim” glides along like a hot rod on a starless night, seductive, deadly and ready to pounce.

On the flipside, “Fly Roots” showcases the pair’s theory that vocals are best used sparingly, in this case, as another tool in the duo’s melodic toolbox, one that neatly accentuates that atmospheric, cascading tremolo and abrupt tempo changes marked by crisp percussive work.

Recorded over a weekend in Nov 2012 with acclaimed Genjing Records producer Yang Haisong, Swim. Fly Roots triumphantly emphasizes that Beijing’s musicians are spearheading an East Asian creative renaissance. “We’re currently in the era of a new enlightenment,” guitarist/bassist Si Yunge cooly remarked from behind his trademark shades. “We hope that more and more people will learn more about what we’re doing here in China.”

Death To Giants – Blood Pours Out – 4th May 2013

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Cat #: 143TZM

Blood Pours Out is the debut album from Shanghai two-piece Death to Giants, and serves as an apt introduction to the band. The songs on the album arose largely organically, as drummer Ivan and bassist Dennis recorded a series of jams in practice studios around the city. They went on to choose the tastiest bits from those recordings, and stitched them together to form the songs present here. Contents are highly flammable — ingest with care.

Death to Giants is:
Ivan: Drums and Vocals
Nichols: Bass and Vocals

Recorded on Saturday, November 13th, 2012 at db Studios by Ryan Baird of iAmalam
Mixed and Mastered in December 2012 at Studio Poney by Laura Ingalls of The Horses/Acid Pony Club
Artwork and design by Ivan Belcic
Cover photo by Kaine Lyu of Astrofuck

All Songs written by Nichols and Ivan
“30 Extra Lives” is based on “The Knitting Song” by Boys Climbing Ropes (boysclimbingropes.bandcamp.com)

Li Daiguo – Music For Advertisements – 20th April 2013

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Cat #: 122TZM

Li Daiguo has carved out a niche within Mainland China that few others occupy, that of skilled improvisational artist (he has a reputation for leaving jaws on the floor, layman and critic alike), musical polymath (proficient at a dozen traditional instruments as well as a deft vocal gymnast) and dynamic live performer known for his eclectic collaborations with a rich roster of characters and ensembles, including transgressive Japanese butoh dancers, fellow all-star experimentalists and other lunatics that he meets when he is busking, an activity of which he is quite fond.

Music for Advertisements sees Li presenting a series of sonic advertisements for seven locations that the 32-year-old appreciated during his six years in Chengdu, the southwestern regional hotspot, creative hub and capital of the country’s infamous Sichuan Province.

Using instrumentation dominated by his signature pipa and erhu and accentuated by a lush arsenal that incorporates everything from the cello to artfully-placed beatboxing, Li skillfully brings the 2300-year-old city to life with this dynamic series of self-produced sonic snapshots characterized by sudden and drastic changes of emotion and instrumentation.

“Music for Advertisements is about emotions that I had and observed that were associated in my mind with things going on around Chengdu,” Li said. “Not necessarily big things or events, but just little things that you might notice and have a feeling about—like the way that traffic moves or the atmosphere in hospital hallways.”

Highlights include the chilling pipa-spiked “Green Ram Daoist Temple”; the austere beauty of “The ‘Beautiful Thai Girls’ Under the Old South Gate Bridge,” a brief cinematic sketch that uses layers of hypnotic strings to conjure images of the secretive nocturnes who congregate around the city’s ancient landmark, and “Chengdu Tuberculosis Hospital”, a jaunty, fiddle-fueled effort that spins a resonant tale of mortality within its ephemeral-yet-memorable running time.

With Li as the city’s unofficial composer, Chengdu has never sounded so good. 

LI DAIGUO makes music with the following instruments: pipa, nanyin pipa, members of the huqin family (including the erhu, sihu and banhu erxian), a variety of ethnic flutes (including the hulusi, koudi, bawu, xiao and the nanxiao, the Chinese predecessor of the better-known Japanese shakuhachi), the Zimbabwean mbira, violin, viola, cello, beatboxing and overtone singing.

Based in: Dali, Yunnan, China
For fans of: John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Abing (阿炳)

Girls Pissing on Girls Pissing – Eeling – 12th March 2013

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Cat #: 138TZM

Try as you might to sum up Girls Pissing on Girls Pissing accurately, the sheer range in dynamics makes the group difficult to pigeonhole; at times post-punk, at other times experimental, even moments of folk. Eeling in every sense evokes the sentiments that this is something unique – not just in regards to its chosen physical release format.

“… an album of new discoveries upon each wonderfully harrowing listen” – Cheese On Toast

Recorded by S. Huf and J. Hobbs
Mixed by S. Huf
Mastered S.Huf

12th Mar 2023 – GPOGP always tickled that weird music itch I enjoyed. I just like music that doesn’t appear to make sense at first.