Asian beat-Kashiwa Daisuke, Desktop Error and Evade live in Hong Kong

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The Hong Kong indie music scene is healthy and just keeps growing in terms of new bands, venues and promoters.On Saturday we had at least 5 great shows to choose from (and even some others that were not as well publicised). Ok, Timeout looked good as did the Harbour records show.On the other hand there was Hidden Agenda with Reflector and The Lovesong and an Underground show in Rockschool.
Passing by all these very tempting but more obvious attractions, I headed for what looked like the most intriguing show, the Whitenoiserecords 'Movie-tone' with melodic local electro beat outfit Evade, Desktop Error, a shoegazy postrock outfit from Thailand and experimental but highly danceable Japanese electronica from the incredibly talented Kashiwa Daisuke.
First on stage @ HKICC were local band Evade with a mix of beautiful vocals and chilled out beats.The band are Sonia, Brandon, Yu Faye Jason and Miguel.
They formed in Macau on August 2004 and have been building their reputation since then, blending great tunes and beautiful vocals with complex dance beats.
http://myspace.com/evademacau
Desktop Error are a bright and energetic young band who grabbed the audience 's attention as soon as guitarist Bird struck up the opening chords of' Ticket to Home 'on his thai styled guitar.The band are inventive, energetic and fun and it was easy to see why they are hard to categorize but great to watch live.The sound is a mixtureof heavy, fuzzy guitar and beautiful melodies on songs like 'Tuk Tuk Wan', 'To Dream' and 'Illusionary Image', all played with high energy, and at the end of their set a more intimate moment when vocalist Lek invited us all to set in a circle with the band for some acoustic versions.
The band's sound is difficult to describe having influences from thai folk music, shoegaze and postrock but well worth checking out live.Sounds like M83 meets God is an Astronaut.
http://www.myspace.com/desktoperror
Kashiwa Daisuke may be influenced by progressive rock, but on '5 Dec 'and' Program Music 'the sounds are more experimental than that tag suggests. In any case he obviously decided to air his more danceable side, playing with a VJ and syncopating his mesmerisingly convolutesd electro beats with a psychedelic backdrop.
Despite my aversion to programmed beats (keep percussion live!) I must admit his set was pretty special. Thanks to Gary Ieong and Whitenoiserecords for bringing us an amazing show!
http://www.myspace.com/kashiwadaisuke




If you didn't make it to this show you can find all the bands' albums @ whitenoiserecords, Causeway Bay.
http://www.whitenoiserecords.org/

Desktop Error ' Ticket To Home ' live in Hong Kong

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Kashiwa Daisuke live in Hong Kong 'Program Music'

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Evade + live VJ @ Movie-tone Hong Kong

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Good Fellas 'Be With Me' (Hong Kong)

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For anyone who wants to check out new bands on the indie music scene in Hong Kong get your ass along to one of the Underground's fortnightly shows. Chris B has been organising shows here for the past five years or so and has given bands like Chochukmo, Innisfallen, Audiotraffic, Velvette Vendetta and Unixx a platform to reach a wider audience before releasing their debut albums.While there are other promoers like White Noise Records and The Peoples' Party who focus more on leftfield, experimental bands from Asia and international bands, this is still the best place to check out new local indie bands in Hong Kong who are not scene specific.
I arrived late at the show but was in time to catch the set by OneLastFall, a heavy fivepiece band led by guitarist Faro with vocals from Sheila, second guitarist Rob, bassist Charles and drummer Maijd. The sound ranges between metal and emo with aggressive vocals and high energy guitar, driven by the energetic rhythm section of the band.It didn 't take long for the band to galvanise the crowd into a frenzy of headbanging and arm waving.Some ragged edges but still a very good live band and one to watch out for.
GoodFellas is a four piece band with Cheng Po Kei (Keith) on guitar and vocals, Egg Lo bass and vocals, and Angus Leung on rhythm guitar.
The band play in an infectious Britpop-influenced style.and the slightly differing vocal styles of Keith and Egg work well in their set blending fan favourites like 'Be With You', 'Move On' and some newer material that shows the band with a slightly more electro feel.Is this a move to a more MGMT sound?

Kings of Convenience (Norwegian Wowed )!

Nordic duo Kings of Convenience were in town for 1 night to wow a select audience at a sell out show at Hong Kong's HITEC with a bunch of songs about love and longing, relationships and creativity.Nordic melancholy and the hyperactive Hong Kong spirit may seem like an odd mix but it really combusted in this show.When we turned up on the night about 2 hours early there was already a long line of fans with tickets waiting in line
Hailed as amabassadors of The New Folk, the band had summed up their music creed in the album title 'Quiet is the New Loud' and in fact their playing style is so quiet at times that they requested photographers to minimise the clicking of their cameras in the early part of the show (although typical of this lens mad city some of us couldn't resist taking one or two pix).
Playing material from all 3 albums, the band quickly established an awesome rapport with the crowd, especially when Erlend discovered that Hong Kong fans really knew all the KOC songs by heart and could sing along at will.The ensuing band / audience singalong had all the warmth of a huge house party rather than a concert.
The duo held us spellbound with their delicately beautiful melodies, intricate guitar harmonies, some lovely keyboard and a playful sense of not taking themselves too seriously, typified by Erlend's geeky but fun dance moves in 'Just Want to Dance With You'. The band's formula may appear simple but the rhythms move intricately and efforlessly between pop, bossa nova and folk.

CityU Band Soc-SONIC BLOOM!!!!


In this annual show of City University Hong Kong at The Hangout we had a crazy evening of reggae, postrock, mathrock and the highly indefinable sweet sounds of Chochukmo.
Crazy Lion opened the show @ The Hangout with their reggae beat which soon had heads nodding and bodies moving to their infectious dub-heavy sounds.

Crazy Lion @ Sonic Bloom


Vocalist Mouse was more like a friendly lion as the band recreated the infectious, melodic sounds of a musical genre that originated in DJ sound systems and ska influenced interpretations of R & B and was popularised in the west by legends like Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff and by record labels like Trojan and Island.The packed hall was soon grooving to their sweet Jamaican-flavoured rhythms.
Wangwen live @ Sonic Bloom in Hong Kong

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Wangwen took us to a more introspective, post-rock space with beautiful, soaring melodies reminiscent of Explosions in the Sky and Mono.This is the band's 3rd visit to Hong Kong recently and for anyone who doesn't believe that post rock bands can rock hard, you must see this band.

                                   



Chochukmo can turn any show into a party and with seemingly effortless ease they charmed the mainly student audience with songs from their recently released 'The King Has Lost His Pink'. They played a jazzy, latin-tinged indie rock set full of leftfield melodies, jangly guitars and Jan's delicate yet passionate vocals on songs like the slightly retro 'Tell Her (Laura I Love Her) the infectious-and-should-be-released-as-a-single' Head to Toe 'and the darkly humorous' Something Special 'and' Number One '.
Te live @ Sonic Bloom


I think something may have been lost in translation in the facebook description stating that Te would make our 'blood boil'. I guess they meant something like 'induce euphoria, ecstasy and warm waves of love between band and audience.' Those of us who only knew about the band by listening to their albums and read descriptions like 'celebral band' may have been expecting an outfit in the style of Japanese bands like Mono or Toe who seem to ooze music from their every nerve cell and  almost discorporate into the music.
Te are consummate musicians too but also had the greatest audience interaction of any band in the show.I was just annoyed that I missed the bassist's stage jump especially as he landed right in front of me !(OK I was too busy changing batteries for my camera but I did  help him back on stage).
Te live @ The Hangout Hong Kong


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