Glow Curve - Invisible History / Jef（New Noise）
Glow Curve - Invisible History / Jef（New Noise）
Almost six years after their second album “Dedicated to Mind” /《迷航》, Beijing based Glow Curve returns with their follow up "Invisible History" / 《荒野星》
First track on the record “Dedicate to Mind”/《来临》， immediately sets a new tone and shows a very mature band pushing new boundaries. The track futures great new additions of synths and sample with an almost mesmerising Chinese background speech.
The album only really kicks off with second track “Invisible History”/《灰烬霓虹》，bassist Nini’s vocals really is one of the highlights on this album, a very well crafted and mixed song that shows various sides of Glow Curve and has an amazing amount of musical layers to it. Guitar player Xue Ran’s vocal’s mix very well with Nini’s voice and you have a great electronic layer at the background with hints of trumpet sounds.
“Money Never Sleeps”/《金钱不眠》 is a great track that takes the listener to another side of Glow Curve, a song that really stands out live because of the krautrock rhythms used and the excellent synths layered over it make it one of the better works on this album that reminds me of bands like Neu and Can.
Tonight I don’t care for the entire world drops the tempo again and gives the listener space, again what really sticks out is the well thought out mix of the song, this song might not work the best live, but definitely has a place on the album.
“ Wilderness, Ashes, Volition”/《荒野星》 can be seen as the title track of the album and features one of China’s most popular folk singers Song Dongye, this track might become one of the most popular tracks on the album due to the popularity of their guest vocal, but in my opinion is the least strong album on the album, the vocals only start to work when Nini and Xue Ran’s vocals start to blend in as well.
“Silver Salts Dream”/《银盐之梦》 also doesn’t really can match up with the quality presented in the opening songs, mainly due a different drum sounds which makes the whole song sounds a bit weak as well as the tempo that drags the flow out of the whole listening experience.
Next song “Neuromancer”/《无限引擎》 brings up the tempo again and show that Glow Curve can also really rock out as a great indie band with a song that reminds me on Foals.
Closer on the album is “Everybody is Pretend to Sleep”/《假寐史》 which is a great closer of the album because it once again shows how much Glow Curve have stepped up their game showing all facets of indierock, electronica and ending with an epic noisy outro.
Having been a fan of the band since their early start when the band released their self titled EP, having seen their progress throughout the years has been a wonderful experience. When they started and were put into the postrock corner, Glow Curve has proved that they are so much more than this. Combining multiple genres such as indierock, electronica, krautrock and the now show on Invisible History that they have much grown as a band, putting out a record that is really thought provoking, fascinating and interesting throughout the whole album. Glow Curve should be considered as one of the most interesting bands to come out of China and this album might just as well deserve the award for best Chinese Album of the year.
Jef Vreys / June 13, 2019
演出主办方New Noise来自成都，自2009年起便致力于将优质的海外音乐现场带到中国，迄今为止，New Noise 在中国的30多个城市，以及亚洲多个国家和地区都举办过演出，所合作乐队中既有陪伴一代人成长的国际大牌Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Iron & Wine,也有世界级传奇乐队The Notwist, Tortoise, American Football以及日本最优秀的地下/独立乐团MONO, TOE, envy等.2018年夏New Noise成功主办室内音乐节After Hours.
