On The Scene: XP 11-10-2012

Slowly catching up with shows over here at homebase….slowly, but surely. A couple Thursdays back I stopped by XP to check out Li Yan (Lucifer of Rustic) and his solo work. The man was one of my first acquaintances on the music scene here, a nice fully rounded guy who’s full of curiosity and stories, and well it’d been a while since I saw him last. However, the real treat of the night was catching the electro-acoustic folk duo Red.

I love films, plain and simple – and by the theorem of film loving, I must then love movie scores and soundtracks. When I say that the duo Red could take just about any moving pictures and inject some serious pathos into them I mean it.

Playing with some crazy electronic gizmos (courtesy of Meng Qi), all the whilst keeping that dusty folk feel with the guitar, the duo create some vast soundscapes which have a true thematic feel of film.

I can just imagine this over a epic neo Western – kickstart this bitch already Chinawood.

It was greatly satisfying to see Li Yan behind the mic again – what can I say – the man has this sweet yet playful voice that gives his music this naïve undercurrent.

The whole joint took on this lonely pub feel halfway through his set, due to dwindling numbers of outcasts and the melancholic tone the songs were inhabiting. Nevertheless, by the time Li Yan covered Adam Green’s “Friends of Mine” and “Dreamlover”, I was ready to throw roses at the man.

Li Yan’s alive and well folks – I’ll be curious to see how he attacks the scene here in the near future. Check out another tune of his below.