Glamorous Pharmacy - Rumbling Footsteps [Re-Uploaded by request]

Glorious or Glamorous Pharmacy/美好药店 was an experimental-folk band in Beijing led by XiaoHe.




Download

Myspace

Guai Li - Flight of Delusion (Maybe Mars, 2010)

Guai Li is a punk rock band which loves the beautiful music ardently. Band’s name comes from Chinese saying “guai li luan shen”. It refers to something that happens that can’t be explained by science.

Guai Li’s history can be dated back in the year of 2005. At that time, Wen Jun, He Yifan(bass), Liu Yue(guitar) and original drummer Yang Fan established the band The Dirty Ones, which was the former of Guai Li. Afterwards, Yang Fan left the band. In 2006, Wen Jun settled in Wuhan and established AV Okubo with Xu Sheng and Lu Yan. After a show, Wen Jun and Xu Sheng left Wuhan. They went to the north to Beijing and changed band’s name to Guai Li. Later, the experienced rocker Shi Xudong who has played music for several years joined Guai Li. Then, the lineup of the Guai Li was completed.

Every member in band has his own preference in music. Each one brings different elements to the songs. Wen Jun likes all the noisy and weird music. Liu Yue likes new indie rock. Xu Sheng likes traditional rock and pop music. He Yifan influenced by post punk deeply. While Shi Xudong prefer original punk music and hardcore. The band aren’t confused for the different likes between the music but try to blend everyone’s idea and feature in the music. Sometimes, the motive is from someone’s experience in daily life. In arranging part, others will try to break the original feeling of the motive, to create a new impression and add everyone’s thinking in. Sometimes, five persons play impromptu together and come cross a new song.

As their name, Guai Li people love all the mysterious and inexpressible things, like the ghost, witchcraft, universe, white noise and a little addiction. Guai Li’s music and playing style are just like their name, weird but full of inexpressible charm.

Guai Li and famous producer Fang Wuxing cooperated in the band’s debut album Flight of Delusion. The album has released in September, 2010. At the same time, the band toured in China for debut album release.

Download

East Brunswick All Girls Choir - Dead Air [2009]

So I saw these guys play last friday. Reminded me of something from the 90s....slowcore/sadcore guitar music. I loved these guys and hopefully you will too.

Here's a short description from their website:

"We’re just four people from four different places. None of us live in East Brunswick nor have we ever lived there. However I did eat a curry there once.

Some were almost forced to join a voluntary choir in primary school but much preferred pretending to be Mark Waugh far too much to be able to spend summery days in a multi purpose room singing “..and he will raise you up on Jesus’ wings”. Fours had to be hit. The cricket dream was eventually given up though. It all got a bit too real.

It was time to make a real team of real talent and origin.

East Brunswick All Girls Choir is made up of a mini golf course curator from Lockwood South, a Pool Shark Ninja who relocated from Yokahama, a gaming pizza cooking nerd from Golden Square and one failed cricketer who once walked the hallowed turf of Maiden Gully."

Download

Myspace

Pairs - Pairs [2010]

“Pairs is/are some bitches and dickheads from Shanghai.
They have taken their broadway smash music to various death traps, both North and South and survived to tell the tale to deaf ears.
Pairs make music and don’t make it particularly well, almost like people who have lost their talent.
Their name is often misspelled as Paris, and Pairs understand that this is an easy mistake to make.”


Download

X is Y - Self-Titled (Shanghai, 2010)

X is Y is an upcoming math rock band based in Shanghai with hints of post-rock and early 90s post-hardcore.

Read this to know more about the band and the people involved.


Download the LP for free here (approved by the band).

Hualun (花伦) - Asian River [2010]

Wuhan, China is an industrial wasteland; crowded, dusty and forebodingly urban. Driving through the city, it is hard to miss the scenic views of cordoned off construction sites with their massive cranes and bulldozers, either erecting new high rise skyscrapers or destroying old buildings for the sake of better urban planning. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and also the hometown of Hualun, one of the few post-rock bands in China. Two years after their debut, Silver Daydream, they release their sophomore album Asian River, a more cohesive and polished effort.

Post-rock has always been interested in exploring the dichotomy between quiet build ups and controlled noisy chaos. Asian River explores this traditional concept with great care, featuring the classic post-rock template of clean and reverbed guitar melodies which coalesce into crescendos of distortion and delay, supported by clear cut drumming and solid bass lines. During the relatively silent sections, there is minimal interplay between the guitars, allowing for more appreciation of the individual trickling string melody.

The first half of the album evokes shades of Mono, with long and intricate passages (all songs are over six minutes long) and strikingly epic climaxes. Songs like ‘Echo’ and ‘The Pilot’ showcase disciplined driving bass lines around which the guitars faithfully build their melodies. The album ender, ‘Shanghai Tourists,’ takes a familiar Chinese string tune and reworks it into a beautiful modern day interpretation with a gentle duel between the rhythm and lead guitar. The band is careful in reeling in their indulgences; the songs never overstay their welcome.

The album is relatively short for a post-rock album, with seven songs barely crossing over the forty seven minute mark. The production is refreshingly traditional, in that there are no drum machines, synthesizers or any overt digital manipulation, allowing the instruments to shine in their rightful manner. Hualun doesn’t test the boundaries of the genre, but, it does an excellent job of working within its confines. The songs are forceful in evoking feelings of melancholy and nostalgia; perhaps longing for a simpler time in industrial Wuhan.

-Ashish Lohani

Download

Edit: I have been told that the 3rd song wasnt listed in the zip file I posted. My apologies. Here is the link for Track 3 (Songs of Maldoror: Six) which is probably the best track on the album.

Download Track 3

Summer Jams

Here's a playlist of what I'm listening to pass these sweltering summer days. Share yours too. Enjoy.

1. Burn Bridges - Dom
2. Monsoon- Delorean
3. Summertime Clothes- Animal Collective
4. Selfish Boy- Caribou
5. Collector- Here We Go Magic
6. Away FRM U- Oberhofer
7. Gemini- Wild Nothing
8. Daydream- Beach Fossils
9. Talamak- Toro Y Moi
10. You Hid- Toro Y Moi
11. New Science- Guther

Download