The album takes no prisoners from the word go and Monkey Insane goes straight for the jugular with a sterling nasty piece of hardcore hybrid hip hop/nu-metal titled Come On, on which the band's two guitars collide in a nauseating feeding frenzy.
What follows are a dozen tunes that pack an equal punch and prove that at least one studio engineer in Taiwan knows where the "oomph" button is on the mixing desk. Along with the fantastic opener, other tunes worthy of mention include the grinding Mendacious (虛假) the audacious My Style (自我意識), the jerky And I Know (我知道) and the highlight of the organized chaos, Self Disguise (偽裝自己), a number that is not as harsh as others, but is still executed with precision.
Various
China Very Coll 很牛逼
Scream
While several of Avex Trax's recent string of releases featuring Chinese bands have given Taiwanese listeners the chance to hear plenty of new and interesting material, if the bands on China Very Cool (很牛逼) are any indication of the direction in which Chinese indie rock is heading, then it's looking at a pretty dismal future.
Hanging in a Box's (掛在盒子) two sad attempts at power-pop, I'm Mine and Leave Me, make it obvious that something is amiss. The musical smarts of China's groundbreaking rock icons, Cui Jian (崔健) and Tang Dynasty (唐朝), appear to have been forgotten and instead have been replaced by nonsensical, non-musical and downright tardy tat.
China Very Cool is not cool. Post-rock act Thin Man (瘦人) tries hard, but dodgy vocals and weak guitar leave it coming away with less-than-pleasing results. Goth metal combo, Silver Dirt (銀色灰塵) should change its image and stick to pop and rap acts. Disguise (隱藏) should stay masked and gagged.
The album's only saving grace, and it's a small one, comes from the mohawked ska/punk combo Hey! (哎吆), which manages to hit nearly all the right notes with a couple of decent high-energy numbers.
RSS