For me, checking out local music is as much a part of preparing for a trip as reading Lonely Planet guides. Since my family is headed to Hong Kong in November, I have been keeping my ears peeled for music from Hong Kong. Bandcamp pickings are a little slim. By that I mean #hongkong is not a very active tag, not that the music is bad. But I still found a few things I like.
Herman Wong
I discovered Herman Wong ( 黃瑋中) in a tag-hopping Bandcamp Daily blog post. His album Let’s Be Real? caught my attention for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s guitar focused, and compared to the 90’s Cantopop I mostly associate with Hong Kong, it’s really mellow and pretty. That might be partly due to the fact that Wong sings in Mandarin instead of Cantonese. I was suspicious of the #Mandopop label at first, but thanks to Duo Lingo, I could pick out the word “gao xing” in the lyrics.
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Gong Gong Gong 工工工
Technically, Gong Gong Gong is a Beijing band. But one of the members of the guitar and bass duo is from Hong Kong. They cite inspirations ranging from Bo Diddley to Cantonese opera, West African desert blues, drone, and electronic music and the result on Phantom Rhythm 幽靈節奏 (幽霊リズム) is as weird as that sounds.
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tfvsjs
Don’t ask me how you’re supposed to pronounce tfvsjs, but their album is called zoi 在. I almost didn’t include tfvsjs because the first track on zoi appears to be 4 minutes of silence. Suspecting a failed upload, I almost moved on, but I tried another track and I’m glad I did. This is some seriously noodly, mathy guitar wrapped around Cantonese melodies that makes me feel like a cat chasing a laser pointer.
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Vanity Alive
I was starting to wonder, but then I found Samsara by Vanity Alive. There is heavy metal in Hong Kong. As you may have guessed from the title, Samsara has yogic themes. Less obviously, it’s filled with meaty riffs and the only words are in the titles. Language is no barrier when there are no lyrics.
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The Ancient Mental
The Ancient Mental is a little more djenty than I usually listen to, but I listened to their album Philomath and I liked it. I think it’s because there is also something vaguely classical about the guitar to my ear. (I also loved the subtley punny name.) Speaking of names, their most recent release is a single called Vanity of Vanities. I wonder what it means that Hong Kong metalheads are so focused on ‘vanity.’
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Noughts and Exes
And now for something completely different. The first song by Noughts and Exes that came up was “Heart” off of their self-titled album. How appropriate, because they could easily be mistaken for Seattle’s The Head and the Heart. I love that kind of straight-forward, emotional, folk with big harmonies.
If everything goes to plan, this post will publish on my first full day in Hong Kong. And I hope it feels as welcoming as Noughts and Exes.
