Culture

New album taps into creative brainwaves

By Han Bingbin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-20 08:23

The members of Guaili. Photos provided to China Daily

Here comes, here comes the monster; keep away from the hospital; he goes, he goes, he goes with the monster; give me, give me injections; keep further away from the hospital.

These are some of the unusual lyrics of Hospital, a song by an equally peculiar punk and rock band called Guaili.

Taken from a well-known Confucian saying, "Guaili luanshen", the name refers to weird forces and unexplainable supernatural phenomena.

Though Confucius never advised the public to blindly believe in unexplainable weirdness, the band certainly does - they have created sufficient levels of oddity and discomfort in their music and sing highly of it.

In their much-anticipated debut album, Flight of Delusion, released in September, this twisted sense is heard not just in the grammatical chaos but also in the complex music arrangements.

Their most recent album, Flight of Delusion, uses low frequency waves to help fans become more creative. Photos provided to China Daily

As a double-guitar band, Guaili is renowned for its daring spirit in musical structure. In this album, they've proven a maturing ambition to master the tools of their trade by playing multiple guitars and drums in a single piece. To top that off, they have also shaken up a stunning mixture of celesta, electronic keyboard and artificial industrial noises.

But there is more depth than even critics will be aware of. A 20-Hertz sound wave, lower than the frequency that humans can hear, has been added into the tracks to provoke alpha brainwaves and stimulate creativity.

As a result, Guaili's production company Maybe Mars Records is confident that "the album could instantly beat all the other local albums in terms of music and concept", according to its press release.

However, Wen Jun, lead vocalist and the only female member of the Beijing-based band, disagrees with the promotional discourse.

"There is no point to compare our music with that of others," she told METRO.

"In terms of music and concept, we are using eccentric and unreasonable melodies and lyrics to depict an abstract journey."

There is one point that both Maybe Mars Records and Wen agree on though - the fact that both the album and the band are a little strange.

"Since music is an extension of our characters, it will surely be quite unique," she said.

Indeed, anyone who has seen Guaili either in print or person can tell immediately they are not a mainstream band.

On the poster for Flight of Delusion, Wen stands among the four male band members, who are all naked from the top up except for bow ties and the singular use of a pair of braces. They are outside and it looks cold. Stubbornness burns in their eyes, conveying the message that they will never drift with the tide.

Though she is neither sexy on photos nor passionate on stage, Wen, who said she is not waiting to be famous and prefers to wear cheap clothes, has a mature look that impresses. Some say she is reminiscent of Patti Smith, the talented American rocker, or NaNa, the punk singer and lead character of a popular Japanese comic.

Despite the public perception that she was born to rock, Wen said she did not grow up with the same belief.

When she formed her first band in college, named The Dirty One, with college classmate Liu Yue (Guaili's guitarist) and high school friend He Yifan (Guaili's bassist), she also wanted to play the bass.

However, she forced herself to start singing and quickly found that she really enjoys it.

The changeover is paying off. Since the release of the album, Guaili has traveled to 14 cities to perform and plans to go even further.

The challenge remains though as to how best to maintain their unique style.

"Each of us has an extremely distinct music taste; He likes heavy and noisy music like punk while Liu prefers new wave bands such as Television," Wen said. "When the five of us came together, we formed a new style."

But as to whether they will maintain their current style, Wen gave a slightly more obscure answer by adding that "it's hard to say".

China Daily

(China Daily 10/20/2010)