Lonely China Day
Lonely China Day EP
(Tag Team Records) 2006

Lonely China Day is, appropriately, from Beijing, China - yet makes music that sounds more grounded in the accomplishments of the mid-90's San Diego scene or the well-quaffed art schools of modern-day Britain. Their self-titled debut EP draws heavily on shimmering, latter-day indie rock à la Radiohead, Sigur Rós and Múm. The hallmarks of that earnest sub-genre are all there: clean, bright guitar arpeggios, faux tape manipulations, and all manners of subtle synthesized bleeps and blips.

Opener "Thou" starts out with an icy guitar vamp before pleasant, heavily processed vocals carry the song through a pleasant drone. "Red Blossom of Plum and Me" follows through with more droney hypnotism, only adding some much appreciated melodic lifts and some quality crooning by head man Deng Pei. "Beijing, Realise" is probably the least effective track on the EP - it opens with a tencho riff before giving way to unweildy wah pedal-induced noises and a sub-melodic warble from Pei that's more talent show Soundgarden than Thom Yorke. "Sorrow", however, brings the band back into its nice, dreamy frozen niche, even incorporating some cool guitar/drums syncopation à la Pinback. Closer "Untitled" builds slowly from with more clean guitars, yet focuses more on Pei's vocals, resulting in the most emotionally effective song on the EP. All in all - Lonely China Day is a very good, if not terribly original, debut that could find a home with many a fan of brainy, blippy indie rock.

Rooney! :: (on thee June of O'Six)