The last week of September 2017 will be forever remembered as a particularly significant point in world history. Not because various madmen who somehow became world leaders threatened to blow up the world, again. Not because climate catastrophes almost certainly caused by human beings wreaked havoc and misery around the globe while factories and oil refineries chugged along like it’s business as usual. Not because Australia announced it would be creating its own space agency. No, it will be remembered because Nasty Wizard Recordings released a split tape between Liquid Palace and (((connection_error))), a dual EP that dived to new depths of audio depravity and presented some of the weirdest electronic soundscapes being crafted in Asia. Like a faulty radio transmission between Beijing and Singapore, this tape skirted the boundary between orchestrated chaos and apocalyptic epiphany. Truth is often stranger than fiction, and the contents of this tape hinted at the truths of our strange world.
The release is available for streaming right now on the Nasty Wizard Recordings bandcamp page: https://nastywizardrecordings.
On side A Liquid Palace comes out blaring hard. Officially a noise band (unofficially a supergroup for people who really dig nerding out to recordings of white noise and feedback on Soundcloud) the group consists of electronic producers/synth makers/artists Meng Qi, Doctor Xiin (also half of Liberate Haze), Zpax, and Chen Zhe. It should come as little surprise that no two Liquid Palace performances include the same sounds or set up, yet what might come as a revelation to more skeptical listeners is the amount of space in their sound — rather than being an explosion of harsh noise Liquid Palace is very much a journey. This is a journey that Nasty Wizard Recordings are proud to commit to tape because when extraterrestrial life forms are allowed to set up Taobao accounts these babies are going to sell like hot cakes.
Side B gifts (((connection_error))) to your face: either a collaboration between three Singaporean noise musicians or a trio of international crime fighting men of mystery, who choose to conceal their true identities from villains and scalawags by making ear-bleedingly harsh soundscapes. Each member is a solo noise head/warrior for justice in his own right, consisting of drone/bass/Shaolin master s*i*n; effects/noise maker/ninja NZSDLX; and guitarist/cybernetically enhanced playboy Schizophrenic Wonderland. Individually they strike fear into the hearts of sound men and underworld kingpins alike, combined they represent humanity’s last hope of salvation. For instance the time NZSDLX snuck into the temple of The All Seeing Hand and single handedly took on their entire army of drug enhanced warriors. Or that other time when Schizophrenic Wonderland saved Singapore from the dastardly android legions of the insane Dr. Segway. Or perhaps that other other time when s*i*n defeated the dragon prince Gorbo in a tournament on a mystery island that seemed vaguely similar to one depicted in Enter The Dragon … Regardless of whether you appreciate noise music you should know the name (((connection_error))) because without their efforts you most likely would be dead by now. In (((connection_error))) we trust!
The cover of the tape is adorned with a cryptic representation courtesy of Liquid Palace’s Doctor Xiin, who is also a renowned visual artist and film maker as well as noise assailant. All of this combines to make a tape that is without doubt one of the most culturally significant releases from not just Nasty Wizard Recordings, but any label in the known galaxy. With a physical release show scheduled for September 30, 2017 at DDC in Beijing featuring a who’s who of Chinese experimental and electronic musicians the Liquid Palace and (((connection_error))) split is destined to change lives. So please, let it change yours.
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