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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Hong Kong post rock : keep the fragile flame burning brightly




Hidden Agenda :Fragile Album Release Party
Performing bands
Fragile (Hong Kong) Post Rock
No One Remains Virgin (Hong Kong) Indie Alternative
LasDawn (Guangzhou) Post Rock
Just like beautiful diamonds shining brightly in the dark....
Hidden Agenda was more packed on Saturday than I've seen the venue for a long time.
Why?
It was the release party for local postrock heroes Fragile's debut album and the band are one of Hong Kong's best live bands in that genre.
I reached the mysteriously inaccessible venue and ascended by its Victorian lift just in time  to catch  the end of Lasdawn's set which had some great tunes of the kind popularised by bands like God is an Astronaut. and then settled down to decipher the more opaque sounds of No One Remains Virgin,a style of post rock more like Canadian postrockers GodSpeedYouBlackEmperor.


There was a real buzz of excitement when headliners Fragile took to the stage to debut songs from their album 'White Shadows'
Fragile is a 6-piece post-rock outfit who  create atmospheric postrock  music that moves and elevates  you with its epic ,cinematic beauty. Formed in Hong Kong in the summer of 2006, as a dreampop outfit, Fragile has since changed lineup and played numerous regional shows as well as some shows in other cities in China including Guangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou and Macau
The band are Jacqueline, Sing (guitars), Tat (bass), Ho (drums), Kimberley (keyboard) and (intriguingly) Mono (laptop).
The band's sound is based around the delicate,shimmering guitars of Jacqueline and Sing and haunting keyboard melodies of Kimberley playing classic postrock with songs building slowly from keyboard and guitar based melodies spiralling into full power ,ear-splitting climaxes conveying emotions ranging from deep melancholy to exstatic joy.
Fragile are also playing support for Swedish postrock outfit PG Lost on 1st Oct @ Hidden Agenda.Postrock fans can buy a special price ticket for this show and local postrockers Elf fatima in support of mainland bands Ovum and Hualun on 2/10 

Fragile on Myspace