(2023) mui zyu - Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century
Review:
The opening track on Mui Zyu’s debut album is a gentle statement of intent. ‘Rotten Bun’ is influenced by the writings of Pu Songling and its dream-pop synth washes are broken by the weeping solo of an erhu, a Chinese two-stringed fiddle. These set the scene for an album that explores and celebrates the Hong Kong heritage of Eva Liu, the woman behind the solo project who’s best known for fronting art-rock trio Dama Scout. Across 12 lo-fi tracks she combines tradition with modern instruments and DIY recording sensibilities. This approach incorporates her father narrating a family recipe over a cheap drum machine on ‘Ho Bao Daan (Interlude)’, and seemingly drawing on wuxia films on the drifting ‘Eggless Century’, on which her voice is blossom soft. Her choice of instrument is knowingly used to complement her lyrics. The droning ‘Paw Paw, inspired by her grand-mother, features of an erhu, which her grandfather used to play. The heavily treated and cut up guzheng (Chinese plucked zither) on ‘Ghost with a Peach Skin’, meanwhile, is meant to emulate the fruit’s bruising. This is experimentation largely placed within a familiar indie setting of fluttering keyboards and blown-out drums, but Liu nonetheless approaches it from a singular angle. — loudandquiet.com
Track List:
01 - Rotten Bun
02 - Ghost with a Peach Skin
03 - Hotel Mini Soap
04 - Mother’s Tongue
05 - Dusty
06 - Ho Bao Daan (Interlude)
07 - Demon 01
08 - Dancing for Drinks
09 - Talk to Death
10 - Paw Paw
11 - Eggless Century
12 - Sore Bear
Media Report:
Genre: dream-pop, lo-fi
Country: London, UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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