Underground 29 : Review

Date : 9 June 2006

Bands : System Kick [from Macau], Hard Candy, An id Signal & Aloks31G

Venue : The Edge

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Aloks31G like smoothed-out coarse grain sandpaper in broad sweeps, they're masters at the art of drawing you into their back-and-forth rhythm, going from lush to minimalist and back again, all the while carrying you with it like an ocean wave upon the shore. very trance-like but in a slower way. they keep enough sound going at any given moment to keep your attention totally occupied, taking you on an interesting adventure every time. the emotional stories they tell through the performance of their music are simply fascinating and captivating. the sharp drummer keeps pushing the mellow mush of sound forward, eagerly and unrelentingly. you're never left hanging, even for a moment, there's always something going on.

review by Wally Amos

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Phew, after two sets of scream-death-hardcore-shrieking-angst pain, I'm in dire need of aural relief. "Doesn't anyone know how to sing anymore?" I asked myself, before Aloks31G open with a long psycho-metal instrumental, with plenty of sonic noise - reminiscent of the Deftones, but perhaps not quite as heavy. From this, singer Sean hits the stage and they move into an emo-80s Psychedelic Furs-on-steroids groove that sounds great. Someone's finally SINGING, hooray! My head's bobbing at last! However, their third song sounds like Joy Division on a bad acid trip before, thankfully, their fourth song moves into a funk-punk groove that would fit nicely on any 90s alternative dancefloor, a-la Primal Scream or the Stone Roses. Plenty of good musicianship, and it's not surprising considering half the band is made up of Unixx members. And this, their offshoot project, surfs a fine line between 80s and contemporary styles, and rock and dance music, and comes off sounding quite good. However, I personally find the songs very long and verbose, perhaps because they only played four and needed to fill time? Nonetheless, if they can chop them down into four-minute singles, and write four more, they could be on to a real winning formula.

review by Brendan Delfino

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more and more photos http://undergroundhk.com/u29.html

photos by Willem Van Der Merwe

June 17 Party Time @ Phonograph

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Address : A&B, G/F, 2 Austin Avenue, Tsimshatsui, kowloon
Time : 11pm til late

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The Night of Fusion but not Confusion

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Address : IdNPRO Shop, 5-9 Gresson Street, Wan Chai, HK

Time : 9pm - 12pm

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Underground 29 at The Edge

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Underground 29

Venue : The Edge

Date : 9 June 2006 (Friday)

Time : 8:30 pm

Bands : Hard Candy, Alok31G, An id Signal, System Kick

Address : G/F, 60 Wyndham St., Central

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HK Magazine #628 - Interview

Sound Of The City

HK Issue 628

By Alexandra Carroll and Adam White. Photos by Debby Hung.

Loud and Loving It

We talk to artists inspired by the sounds of our city.
Of course, not everyone thinks the city is too noisy. In fact, there are many people who revel in the soundscape of Hong Kong. Sebastian Seidel is the Artistic Administrator of Videotage, a new-media art collective operating out of the Cattle Depot in To Kwa Wan. Videotage supports new-media artists (film makers, digital animators and sound artists) by hosting exhibitions and performances. Its informal Friday night gatherings, The Rec Room series, have this month been focusing on sound artists and electronic musicians. With everything from the psychotic synthetic pop of Rainbowtron to improvisational performances by sound artists such as Magdalen Wong, Videotage has been loud and proud about Hong Kong noisemakers. Does Hong Kong make better sound artists because we have, well, so much more sound? “I guess it’s because we’re over-saturated,” says Seidel. “This place is so heavy with sounds and sights – people are used to having a multi-sensory experience.”

Alok Leung runs independent music label, Lona Records. Leung defines himself as a “real musician who just wanted to do something more experimental.” His last album, “Stalemate,” is a composition of quotidian sounds Leung recorded around his house (the hum of the air-conditioner, the sound of the fridge door opening) and mixed into tracks. Leung was inspired by the experimental music scene of Hong Kong in the 80s and early 90s when legends like Dickson Dee (who now runs the SoundAsia music label) and PNF were just getting started; “PNF were great – doing analogue stuff on their computers and then things like drilling into cans, hammering metal – all this really noisy stuff,” says Leung. “The didn’t worry about needing an audience. They just went out and made their music.” Leung’s three-year-old record label has already released nine CDs and has attracted experimental artists from the US, UK and Italy. Vince Li is one of the artists attached to Lona Records. Li does droning – holding notes together for a sustained period of time so that you can hear the harmonics. “When it lasts for a long time it gets you into this really weird headspace,” says Li. “You don’t need to take drugs because it’s a drug itself with its own energy and everything.” Li admits he found the noise of Hong Kong a bit overwhelming when he returned last year,

“It’s weird because you are overloaded with noise and it’s hard to distinguish different sounds,” says Li. “That’s the sound I’ve been trying to make with my droning– no matter where you are, the city throws back this drone sound at you.”

Sound artist and founder of experimental label Moneme, Cedric Maridet, won an award at last year’s Hong Kong Art Biennial for his sound and video installation, “Huangpu.” Consequently, he’s been asked by the Visual Arts Centre to run an open workshop starting in July, teaching students to become critical listeners as well as contributors to Hong Kong’s soundscape. Participants will go on soundwalks, a guided listening activity, and in the end, they’ll all make their own podcasts of their individual “acoustic ecologies” – their world in sound. “You can actually train your ear to listen better,” says Maridet. “Just go outside, focus on individual sounds, and you’ll hear things you’ve never noticed before.” While doing just that experiment with a friend in deep Wan Chai, Maridet was surprised to hear a church bell peeling above the hum of Johnston Road, “It’s more of an attitude of listening that you have to develop.” For the really brave and experimental, Videotage’s Seidel suggests a more dangerous but certainly more effective method: “I’m sure that if you close your eyes, you could find your way through this city just by listening – by acoustic orientation.” Give it a go. A few near-fatal accidents should sharpen your senses pretty quickly.

http://www.asia-city.com

Baubaus Workshop Party

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This is my second 3"cdr "Stalemate" (also limited 50 copies)

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Release date : 24 April 2006

This is the most experimental work ever , Stalemate is my 2nd release in this 3"cdr series.
File Under : Electronic, Clicks n' cuts, Avant Garde
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TRACKLISTING :
01. Stalemate re-configured (5:35)
02. Hard reset (6:42)
03. Discarding your White Napkin Records (0:43)
04. Digital dweller (2:02)
05. Now is as good a time as any to listen again (3:26)
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Demo Submissions
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http://lona-records.blogspot.com/2006/01/demo-submissions.html

YMCA Live Band Show :『當我們還可以珍惜時』音樂會

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表演樂隊中不約而同有多位90年代出頭的樂隊成員再走在一起或栽培新血創造更新更動人心弦的音樂。
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Hardpack 近來也新加入了前Anodize的阿肥，深信更能推前他們勁力十足的音樂更能震懾全場。
新晉樂隊The Dummy則被Primary Shapes甚為賞識及栽培力薦努力大玩飄渺音樂。
the Darlings的吉他及主唱小邦曾是獨立樂隊Love Motel、Kind People等的主音吉他手，低音吉他手Gary曾是香港傳奇Hardrock樂隊Jackal's Dream的成員。
人頭馬四成員中有前AMK的關勁松和另一獨立創作人Alok。
Dear Jane除了有分別從美國及加拿大學成返港的Tim、Adam和Howie，也有本地薑Sanskrit的Jackal。
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日期Date : 21/4/06 ( Friday)
時間Time : 7:45pm
地點Venue : 尖沙咀港青四樓禮堂 ( 香港文化中心對面 )
Bands : Hardpack + The Dummy + the Darlings + 人頭馬 + Dear Jane
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*場刊更有樂隊／音樂人獨家客席投稿及場外將售賣獨立自資出版的CD．　
門票Tickets : $50 ( 全日制學生 ) , $70 ( 其他人士 )
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Outlets:
港青( 尖沙咀MTR E出口) / Zoo Records / the PANIC(太子) / 阿貓地攤
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(本活動由油尖旺區議會及YMCA Young Entrepreneurs Incubation Fund部份資助)
( 由“九音陣”及zyzzvya union youth band societies @ 港青協助製作 )
查詢 : Sandy 22687714 / 73025633 / sandychan@ymcahk.org.hk / www.s-o-f-a.org
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