Lonely China Day - s/t EP

Lonely China Day
s/t EP
Tag Team Records
Grade: A-

In the world of absurdly good, this is fucking absurdly brilliant! Lonely China Day are a four-piece from Beijing that play ambient, gorgeous indie rock soundscapes thanks to the instrumental feel of Explosions in the Sky, the slight electronics of the Album Leaf, and the perfectly apropos vocals of Deng Pei. Deng Pei is Lonely China Day’s anchor as he’s the songwriter, programmer and, most importantly, vocalist. Thankfully, LCD don’t try to sing in English and instead sing in their native Chinese – which you might think would sound strange to Western ears. Yet, Deng Pei sings in almost phonetics that match the music so perfect, not unlike a number of Scandinavian artists, that you barely notice it’s not just some drawn-out English. Of course, one has no idea what the hell his singing about, but usually that’s the case anyway. Joined by Wang Dongtao on guitars, He Feng on bass, and Luo Hao, the band offers five songs on the debut EP. The EP starts out on “Thou” with low volume drums and electronics as a simple spacey guitar riff leads the way to vocals. “Thou” also probably has the most sampling and programming, and it narrowly avoids messing up the picture. Yet, “Thou” simply serves as an appetizer to the magical “Red Blossom of Plum and Me” – one of the best songs I’ve heard all year. “Red Blossom” starts in a similar fashion to “Thou,” but LCD seem to find all the right pieces to make the seven-minute song a stunner – particularly Deng Pei’s vocals are right on. Like Explosions’ “Your Hands in Mine,” “Red Blossom” stays with you for a very long time as it brings chills and brings hope for a better tomorrow. This is what music should do! For some reason, LCD move to a more pop sound on “Beijing, Realise” and it somewhat distracts from the previous experience. The world is corrected on “Sorrow” as the band pursues slightly more traditional music with electronic updates, and is neatly followed by the ten-minute “Untitled.” “Untitled” is slow, haunting number with lo-end noise piercing throughout. You can’t imagine that LCD have a lot of leverage in China to pursue their whimsical indie rock fantasies, but they’ve helped me towards mine. If Lonely China Day gets to the states for a show, be there yesterday.