Look Directly Into The Sun: China Pop 2007

[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!