$45.00
Though it seems contradictory to search for the ethereal in genres as utterly human-made as synthwave and video game soundtracks, there's no shortage of modern artists doing just that and succeeding. Independent artists mainly drove the vaporwave craze that peaked a few years and showed a knack for transforming the accessible into something transcendent, playing with the opulent aesthetics of Tokyo city pop and the ease of modern technology to evoke an imagined past in creating the modern.
Taipei-based trio Mong Tong is of this decade-spanning ilk, making music that wavers like a well-played audio cassette and sounds like it belongs in the dramatic cutscenes of an early 1990s Capcom installment. On full-length debut Mystery, the group's human members, brothers Hom Yu and Jiun Chi, put together seven tracks of a thick atmosphere, taking concrete media influences and creating something celestial. The trio's third member is a noncorporeal computerized member, as they tell it -- just as important a component in the creative process. The album sees them joining the Guruguru Brain label that serves as home to psych-rock group Kikagaku Moyo (two members of which founded the label).
Largely based around samples and synths, Mystery is nonetheless richly multi-instrumental. That is clear from the ornate "Intro" that opens the album, where Hom's bass adds an urgent undertone to darkly ornate keys. The title track follows, and here, Chi's guitar goes heavy on the wahs, sounding like back alleys and neon lights over a melody that sways upward. Both are equally important in driving forward the shimmering "Chakra". Vintage vocal samples open ominous "Jou-tau", on which the occasional soaring of synths cuts through the languid wailing of guitar. – Pop Matters
Label: Guruguru Brain – GGB-022LP |
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition |
Country: Europe |
Released: 19 Jun 2020 |
Genre: Electronic, Rock |
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Experimental |
$58.00
Lost Ethnography of the Miscanthus Ocean contains six of their earlier works from 2013 to early 2014. “雲生/Cloudborn” is a re-recorded version. This album is dedicated to Grass Mountain and the incredibly hot, humid summertime in Taipei.
"Meditative Taiwanese underground music. Best-suited for hot rainy days, fishing alone, and gazing at Asian Mountains." - Its true!!
Label: Guruguru Brain – GGB-020LP |
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Gold |
Country: Netherlands |
Released: 31 Oct 2019 |
Genre: Rock |
Style: Drone, Experimental |
$45.00
"On their latest album, Khana Bierbood call themselves Strangers from the Far East, but there’s something strangely familiar about the Thai quintet’s debut LP. Throwing garage rock, surf, and psychedelic pop into one delightfully lo-fi mix, the seven-track album recalls the warm, radiating vibes of the ’60s and early ’70s, yet the consistent influence of traditional music from Thailand serves to inject its common inspirations with a refreshingly uncommon edge." - Bandcamp Daily
Item description:
Artist: |
Khana Bierbood |
Title: |
Strangers From The Far East |
Label: |
Guruguru Brain
|
Format: |
Vinyl, LP, Album
|
Country: |
Netherlands |
Release Date: |
10 Jan 2019 |
Genre: |
Rock, Folk, World, & Country
|
Style: |
Psychedelic Rock, Surf
|
Catalog No: |
GGB-019LP |
Condition: |
New |