Yin: Beijing Post-Punks Snapline Return with Elliptical “Answer”

Yin (音, “music”) is a weekly RADII feature that looks at Chinese songs spanning hip hop to folk to modern experimental, and everything in between. Drop us a line if you have a suggestion.

Six years in the making, Beijing post-punk originals Snapline have finally delivered their 3rd studio album, Shou Hua. Or 3.5th album I guess. Anyway their first since a long dormancy following the April 2012 release of their brilliant Phenomena.

Shou Hua sees the band regrouping following the move of singer Chen Xi out of Beijing, the city that defined their early, turbid sound. Recorded well over a year ago, bits and bytes of the album have been dripping out online for the last few months, including this recently-released (and rather gory) MV for plodding album-ender “TheAnswer#3,” shot by decade-deep Snapline followers Geek Shoot Jack (see GSJ’s duo of retro-futuristic Phenomena MV’s here):

My personal highlight on the album is “Ironhead,” where guitarist/bassist (respectively) Li Qing and Li Weisi circle around each other in cascading minor chords as Chen’s lyrics drive deep into our current technological dystopia with crisp, abstract precision:

ease, empty, fake, frown, socket, pipe, tin, can, stand, amp, vibrator, turbulence, turbulence, turbulence / a man with an ironhead

Stream/buy the album here.

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