Various Artists / Look Directly Into The Sun: China Pop 2007
Album: Look Directly Into The Sun: China Pop 2007   Collection:General
Artist:Various Artists   Added:Dec 2007
Label:Bloodshot Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2008-01-06 Pull Date: 2008-03-10
Week Ending: Mar 2 Feb 10 Jan 27 Jan 20
Airplays: 1 1 1 6

Recent Airplay
1. Mar 01, 2008: New World Disorder
Chian
4. Jan 19, 2008: New World Disorder
Chian
2. Feb 09, 2008: New World Disorder
Jaijung
5. Jan 16, 2008: Radio Show
Shanghai
3. Jan 23, 2008: Brownian Motion Manque
Fight Your Apathy
6. Jan 15, 2008: The Wonder Girls of Canada
Mario And Peaches, Jaijung

Album Review
Sadie O.
Reviewed 2008-01-08
[coll]: Look Directly into the Sun
Reviewed by Sadie O., 12/18/07
Underground punk/rock/pop from China. The underground rock scene in Beijing in 2006 really was a dead ringer for the underground punk/powerpop/punk punk scenes in London and New York (and out here – but no one in the major press was listening) in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Mostly very raw, sometimes quite experimental – I think a lot of you will love a lot of this. I also think your tastes will be different from mine, so please give it all a listen.
FCC – pretty definite on track 18, possibly on 7 and 15. I like 15 best…
1. 3:25 **Power pop with a bit of syncopation, rather world-weary vocals.
2. 3:19 ***loud electronic riddim with interesting tune and scratching, fast hip hop vocals in Chinese.
3. 2:37 ***hyper girl-group pop, almost distinguishable lyrics in English. Moments of pretty serious punk, too.
4. 2:42 **basic and sometimes dischordant post-punk with terribly angst-ridden vocals in Chinese.
5. 4:27 **static, 4/4 beat and single tones, a bit of urban desolation in the vocals, occasional moments of punk. Reminds me of a lot of underground bands who didn’t fit into either “punk” or “New Wave” in the late 70’s.
6. 3:59 **club sounds intro, 4/4 beat, quavery guitar, turns punky after 40 seconds, muffled vocals in indistinguishable English. Ends with a few seconds of applause.
7. 3:44 FCC?? **midtempo 4/4 and loud fuzzy guitars, screamed vocals in English. May be an FCC – hard to tell. Nice bass work in mid-song.
8. 4:24 **melancholy sound, strummed guitars and floaty female vocals. Goes utterly punk after a bit over a minute, then back. Eventually it’s all-out war…
9. 4:45 ***girl punk, but definitely of the underground variety, odd repeated vocals, mostly yelled. Lots of dynamic changes and quite a few bits of quite odd vocals. Ends with applause.
10. 5:41 *simple guitar (and hiss) intro, slowly adds more guitars and electronics until you’ve got a lot of noise. Drums come in halfway through. No vocals, mostly noise to me…
11. 3:27 **soft intro, then loud post-punk with lots of high-hat, then rather sweet music with adenoidal and echo-laden vocals in Chinese. Almost like early U2, I have to say…
12. 2:04 ***punk at its most obnoxious – yay! Dischordant, screamy, nasty – it’s got the works!
13. 2:39 **fast punk with distorted vocals – think Stiff Little Fingers.
14. 4:12 ***downtempo bass-heavy post punk, female vocals – a bit like early Blondie but less cute (and the chick can’t really sing, but what the hell…)
15. 3:47 FCC?? ****emotional intro, then great downtempo garage rock/punk with strong vocals in Chinese. He might say “shit” at one point? Hope not – this is the poop!
16. 5:42 ***drums and chimes, and throat singing! Yippee! Rather like underground metal, actually, once the guitars start. There’s even some violin. Gnarly like Gwar.
17. 4:44 **jangly power pop, but the urban NYC heroin-inflected kind. Ends with noise.
18. 1:58 FCC: Pretty sure she says “bullshit” ***3-chord girl group ska-punk. Too bad it’s so short!


Track Listing
 ArtistTrack Name
1. Snapline Close Your Cold Eyes
2. China Mc Brothers Jaijung
3. Caffe-In Mario And Peaches
4. Pk-14 Storm Eyes
5. China Dub Soundsystem Pink 09 - Determining The Dose
6. Joyside Dang
7. Tookoo Take Me Home
8. Subs What More
9. Hang On The Box Shanghai
10. White Song 5
11. Ruins Love Of Sun
12. Scoff, The Nasty
13. Demerit Fight Your Apathy
14. Queen Sea Big Shark Hold The Line
15. Honey Gun Light
16. Voodoo Kungfu Chian
17. Carsick Cars Panda
18. Rococo We Just Free