/mu/ - The South Will Rise Again
Chinese (the official name of the band, but I’m categorising it along with /mu/) is an online artist collective consisting of a number gifted musicians and a few talentless hacks. Formed on 4chan's /mu/ board the night of July 21, 2018, their first major release, an LP titled The South Will Rise Again, was released on July 22, 2018. Their works mostly blend major release songs with unnecessary amounts of clutter and distortion; when it works, it works surprisingly well… too bad it doesn’t work often.
Goddamnnit blends an obnoxious beat with delirious vocal samples over Built to Spill’s Kicked in the Sun. The song sounds as awful as it does in theory, but somehow it works. Perhaps it’s because the song doesn’t take itself seriously, or perhaps because Doug Martsch’s masterpiece is still identifiable in the background. The elements of Deconstruction Club are also ahead of their time. Beijing, 1989’s distorted aesthetic and large variety of sampling makes it enjoyable, though the track is sadly directionless and repetitive. Furthermore, while Built to Spill’s sample sounded tasteful in the first song, here the Kanye West samples are lazy.
The South Will Rise Again will have 8 tracks, because 8 is the luckiest number in Chinese culture is the name of the third song. A rather simple midi ballad, the song adds flavour to the remaining tracklisting. Furthermore, the writer clearly has skill. A very enjoyable track, though one might question what it was doing on this tracklisting. Unfortunately, the remaining track-listing is lazy. Bella / Untitled (a.k.a. "Yellow Man") / http://i.4cdn.org/mu/1532231603487.jpg is somewhat of an irreverent field recording. If you dont fap to overwatch babes the libs win attempts to be funny but is not as funny as the title itself. Much could be said about She puked on my dick. Lastly, The Vuvuzela Song successfully makes one’s ears bleed with its abhorrently loud wall of noise, and Mire High Crub mocks one on the way out. Had it not been for these awful final songs, the album may have scrapped a recommendation.
The South Will Rise Again demonstrates that when a bunch of autists come together on an anonymous online internet forum, they’re somehow capable of producing material that is more interesting than half the rubbish forced upon us via record labels. Unfortunately, the album was rushed and lacks quality control. Moreover, the disorienting and uneven tracklisting makes very little sense, and the second half of the album ruins the first half. Despite its flaws, though, the album concurrently boasts a lot of charm and quite a surprising amount of innovation. Here’s hoping these anons kept contact with one another and worked on another project in the meantime. With quality control, they may actually be capable of releasing something truly remarkable.
Really Bad
Listen to it here:
https://chinese.bandcamp.com/album/the-south-will-rise-again
/mu/ - The South Will Rise Again
