10, White+, Hot & Cold @ D-22 (26 June 2010)

Finally, a review! Huzzah! Sorry it’s been so long coming. Last weekend saw those singular, operatic noise artists 10 play their first show in Beijing in quite a while. In support were the cream of Beijing’s noise makers; The Offset:Spectacles, Hot & Cold, and White+. It’s been a little too long since I travelled over to D-22, so it’s good to see they are continuing to put on these excellent nights.

I turned up just as The Offset:Spectacles were leaving the stage, so no review of them. Fortunately though, I did get to see Hot & Cold. I remembering seeing Hot & Cold a number of times last year. I wasn’t too impressed and chalked them up as Suicide wannabes spurting out atonal noise (as opposed to a more interesting dissonance) over stock standard drum machine loops. After releasing a free, downloadable single in January this year, Hot & Cold dropped off the radar for a bit. Now either they have totally redefined their style while they were away, or (possibly) I’ve redefined my tastes. Either way, I was blown away by Hot & Cold this time around. They still sound like Suicide for sure, but now they have condensed the wondering jam sessions into tight, furious pop songs. Simon Frank’s vocal performance was particularly impressive; the sort of shamanic drawl, reminiscent of Nick Cave or David Byrne, that sits well with the thrash-disco sound of Hot & Cold. Subsequently they have quickly gone from the Maybe Mars I rated least to the one I am most excited about.

White+ followed on from Hot & Cold. They are a side project of Carsick Cars’ Shou Wang and The Gar drummer Wang Xu – the plus being added due to Wang Xu replacing (temporarily?) former drummer Shenggy. White+ were a little more subdued than Hot & Cold, but no less impressive. Shou Wang swapped guitar for keyboard, vocals, and an impressive looking amount of pedals which he used to alter his voice into an instrument of its own. Wang Xu seems an inspired choice to fill Shenggy’s shoes. He constantly had an eye on the master conductor Shou Wang and his beats subtly reflected the shifting sounds of his partner.

The last act were 10. Even in Beijing’s rather avant-garde rock community, 10 are quite an oddity. The big haired Itta performs a sort of freestlye pseudo-opera while bashing on a keytar, while Japanese expat Marqido provide a solid base for Itta’s wanderings. It’s a little hard to put the sound of 10 into words, but it was clearly a little to ‘out there’ for a few patrons who started to thin out (or perhaps they were just Americans off to watch their new found love of football killed off at the hands/feet of Asamoah Gyan). The rest of crowd, however, was drawn into the swirling highs and lows of Itta’s vocals, with the hypnotic effect being punctuated only by the bashing of her keytar. While their music can get a little same-ish after a while, it is unique enough to keep you attentive for the whole set.

Artists
Hot & Cold
White+
10