In the past there seemed to be a firm divide between electronica and rock, with fans of either genre often opposed to the other. Since the late 1980s there have been crossovers — think Pet Shop Boys and Willie Nelson’s versions of Always on My Mind. But never before have the distinctions blurred so much between different genres of music than in our modern age of mashups and fusion bands.
This weekend’s lineup at VU Live House is no exception. None of the bands playing at tomorrow’s Hungry Ear party stick to one recognizable genre. The closest to doing so is Collider, with a brooding post-rock sensibility that has lost none of its dark beauty with the addition of bassist Thomas Squires. Vocalist Leon LaPointe is no longer with the band, which is now entirely instrumental. That’s not a big change as LaPointe was inclined to use his voice like an instrument anyway.
Space Funk fuses electro, disco and funk, and as if that weren’t enough variety, composer Viba Paul Gouriet has also been delving into swing music, albeit electro-swing.
Plover’s sound is ambient, with pretty guitar riffs and spacey effects in some songs, while others are more like metal ballads with gothic wailing and tonnes of feedback.
Roughhausen’s Jeff Stoddard adds to his industrial past working with Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly and gets with the times by merging a live breakcore set suffused with hard chemical beats, break beats and techno. Molly Lin (林孟珊) from Nekojam joins in on bass.
Stoddard is brave to be playing at VU again after his last two shows there suffered crippling sound problems. The issues seem to stem more from a lack of trained staff than from equipment, and detract from Roughhausen’s signature hard-core sound. Hopefully that will be sorted out for the show this time so the audience can get the full effect of the music.
Relatively new on the scene is 80s revival, synth pop/punk, hip-hop band Sunset Rollercoaster, which plays a monthly gig at The Wall. The musicians have now also begun including blues and rock in their sets: “It definitely surprised some people,” said Kevin Lee (李柏澔) who plays bass and keyboard. We later found out that some fans expecting our electronica set that night had posted on The Wall’s Web site forum,” he said. “Something along the lines of ‘What happened to Sunset Rollercoaster?’” — though failing to mention whether or not they had liked the show.”
Lee and bandmate Kuo Kuo (曾國宏), who plays guitar and bass and “likes to fool around on his laptop,” says Kuo, are both still in college, while drummer Sonoko (羅尊龍) teaches drumming at various schools in Taipei.
“At times it’s impossible to stick a label on the music we make,” said Lee. “People who have come and seen our shows know that it’s almost completely different every time around. In a way, it’s because our musicality is constantly evolving, and we’re still looking for that single spot on which to settle down.”
Bands used to get together to rehearse in garages, basements and studios, but modern collaboration has evolved into a more solitary pursuit. “Our songs start out as ideas that we usually create individually at home which later find completion when the three of us get a chance to put it together,” said Lee. “It’s a really collective setup we have going, and working together to complete songs that we start at home leads to some exciting new ideas.”
He adds that regularly writing new music keeps the process fresh for the band and phases out old songs for new ideas. “The best aspect about this method is that it keeps us interested in our own music,” he said.
One of the benefits of artist’s freedom in dabbling in any genre they choose is that the style — while perhaps lacking polish — is always new, which appeals to a generation used to the Internet, YouTube and Facebook.
“It’s impossible to predict which set we’ll be using — electronica or rock,” said Lee. “It depends entirely upon our mood the day of the show.”
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