I’ve said it before…I’ll no doubt say it again: thank God for The Wire magazine. Whilst some people hit their thirties and go down the route of monthly glossies that focus on stuff that’s already happened before, The Wire is constantly investigating new boundaries. Whilst I would love NME to be giving covers to stuff like Antony and the Johnsons, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Sunn o))), they don’t seem to, at least not as much as I think they should.
And it’s thanks to them that I’ve discovered a fantastic Chinese band called White who hail from Beijing. The two piece are Shou Wang (guitar, organ, theremin, analogue pedals, drums, vocals, toys, effects) and Shenggy (analogue synthesizers, samplers, tape manipulation, drums, percussion, vocals, effects). Their self-titled debut LP will be released in May on OpenNote, the label set up by Einsturzende Neubaten mainman Blixa Bargeld. The album was recorded at Neubaten’s Berlin studio with Bargeld as producer.
Einsturzende Neubauten are certainly an influence, and they also cite the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Glenn Branca, The Boredoms,Steve Reich, and The Residents ‘and a million others.’ They’ve taken perhaps self-consciously ‘weirder strands of western music, and produced something fantastic. They are the perfect meeting point for the likes of minimalists like Terry Riley and classic German ‘Krautrock’ like Can and Neu!
The Wire are giving away an mp3 called ‘Build A Link.’ It and other tracks can also be streamed at White’s MySpace site.
I can’t wait for the album.
White -‘Build A Link.’ mp3