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About Phantom Rhythm Remixed
Beijing duo Gong Gong Gong 工工工’s raucous debut LP, Phantom Rhythm 幽靈節奏, was recorded live in a room, on open-reel tape, with little more than vocalist and guitarist Tom Ng’s 60-year-old Italian pawn shop guitar and bassist Joshua Frank’s 1970s imitation P-bass. The minimalist group created a drummer-less sound that was more than the sum of its parts, inspired by back-porch blues, Sahelian guitar music, New York no-wave, Cantonese lion dance percussion, and, seemingly most incongruously, techno.
Electronic music and psychedelic rock might seem worlds apart. But Gong Gong Gong’s aggressively minimal instrumentation, exploration of locked-grooved repetition, and use of simple, undeniable melodic hooks combined to produce an unexpected aura of drum machines and sequencers with an excitable, human pulse.
On Phantom Rhythm Remixed, Gong Gong Gong bring to life a concept they’ve planned since the release of their acclaimed debut, curating their favourite China-connected electronic music producers to remix Phantom Rhythm in its entirety. The globe-spanning collaboration features Yu Su (Vancouver/Kaifeng), Zaliva-D, Simon Frank, Howie Lee (Beijing), Mong Tong, Scattered Purgatory (Taipei), Knopha (Xiamen), Wu Zhuoling (Chengdu), Angel Wei (Copenhagen), and P.E. (Brooklyn).
Phantom Rhythm Remixed traces a common thread, organically expanding the palette of Gong Gong Gong into ambient club tracks, thumping dance music, cinematic soundscapes, and bit-crushed psych. With their ambitious assembly of producers from the global Chinese underground, the duo pursues their ultimate goal of building a cross-cultural scene that disregards genres and borders, creating a community unified by a sense of hybridity, experimentation, and fun. True to this concept, the LP will be released by Wharf Cat Records in collaboration with Beijing’s bié Records.
For fans of Gong Gong Gong, some of these names will be familiar; Danish-Chinese musician Angel Wei (First Hate) performs on 2020’s Rytme og Drone tape, while P.E.’s Jonathan Schenke recorded and co-produced Phantom Rhythm. Producer and DJ Yu Su operates between China and Canada; she and bassist Joshua Frank recently collaborated on a track for Su’s 2021 Yellow River Blue LP. And Simon Frank, who performs hardware synth music and DJs under his own name, is Joshua’s brother and bandmate in the duo Hot & Cold.
The LP also features Howie Lee and Zaliva-D, two Beijing experimental electronic producers known for their idiosyncratic, off-kilter club music, while Taipei contingent Mong Tong and Scattered Purgatory bring in primal rhythms and elements of sample-based psychedelia and sci-fi soundtracks. Finally, Gong Gong Gong presents two renowned producers from cities non-Chinese audiences may not have on their radar: Xiamen’s Knopha, whose dubby grooves maintain a sense of constant evolution, and Chengdu’s Wu Zhuoling, whose take on Phantom Rhythm standout “Wei Wei Wei” brings in the energy of high-tempo breakbeats.
Phantom Rhythm Remixed Tracklist
1 - Ride Your Horse 騎你的馬 (P.E. Remix)
2 - Inner Reaches III 慾望的暗角三 (Zaliva-D Remix)
3 - Notes Underground 地下日記 (Mong Tong Remix)
4 - Moonshadows 月後殘影 (Simon Frank Remix)
5 - The Last Note 最後的音符 (Angel Wei Remix)
6 - Sound of Love 愛歌 (Knopha Remix)
7 - Gong Gong Gong Blues 工工工布魯斯 (Howie Lee Remix)
8 - Some Kind of Demon 某一種惡魔 (Yu Su Remix)
9 - Hotpot (Chongqing) 火鍋（重慶) (Scattered Purgatory Remix)
10 - Wei Wei Wei 喂喂喂 (Wu Zhuoling Remix)
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