Coming straight from the vaults of the Obama years (remember those?), here are two fresh, fast & loud melting-pot blasters from defunct San Francisco “Canto-core” duo Say Bok Gwai. Chinese Jesus and TRIO were recorded prior to Say Bok Gwai’s disbanding in 2010, simpler times when more people were less mired in a constant state of anger and anxiety. Well, desperate cultural times call for desperate cultural measures, and for Say Bok Gwai’s Alex Yeung (also of internationally distributed anarcho-hardcore unit Conquest for Death) that means unearthing these long-buried, screamed screeds on “Chinese and American culture, society, politics, history and identity”.
Well, all of these things are in a pretty fuckin’ intense high-pressure mashup at the present moment, aren’t they? Chinese Jesus presents four tracks bouncing from purely pentatonic technical shred-muck (“Kiss The Goat”), to some discomfiting smooth-jazz/no-wave riffing (“Do Some Job!”, “Jazz Guitars For Few”), to, finally, doom creeping — wafting, really — like bong coughs shared around the room on closing track “Stoner Chino”, which might have the slowest drum solo in recorded human history.
[Visit full site to view media]Chinese Jesus by Say Bok Gwai
All that is left in the dust on TRIO, a more straightforward weirdo-grind long-player. This one’s recommended for multiple plays in immediate succession next time you’re power-scrolling through your fury-signaling Twitter echofeed. “Fuck Your Ancient Chinese Secret” and “Culture Not Borders” feel more aggressively necessary than ever, even if they were hastily recorded the better part of a decade ago, and the one sonic reprieve we get on TRIO — a brief ska interlude on mid-album track “Lazier” — is kinda the most downer part. “Lazier from lack of hunger… is this what America has to offer?” Yeung asks between Cantonese polemics.
Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
[Visit full site to view media]Trio by Say Bok Gwai