Guitar and bass duo Gong Gong Gong charge out from Beijing's underground scene with a distinct vision and uncompromising sense of purpose. The duo taps into a wavelength uniting musical cultures, drawing on inspirations as wide-ranging as Bo Diddley, Cantonese opera, West African desert blues, drone, and electronic music.
Despite the band's decision to eschew traditional rock percussion, on their debut LP Phantom Rythm, the locomotive chug of Tom Ng's guitar combines with Joshua Frank's thumping, harmonics-laden basslines to conjure an aura of ghostly snare hits and timpani overtones. Over Frank's enigmatic melodies, Ng sings in Cantonese, piecing together abstract tales of absurdity, doubt, desire, and lust. Synchronised to the point of near-telephathy, "the Gongs" use their minimalistic tools and idiosyncratic playing style to challenge the notions of rock n' roll and strip the form down to its bare essentials: rhythm, melody, and grit.
"The Beijing-based post-punk duo stack garage instrumentation, Ali Farka Touré melodies, and dissonance without a whiff of the baroque." Pitchfork 7.6/10
Tracklist
1. The Last Note 最後的音符
2. Notes Underground 地下日記
3. Ride Your Horse 騎你的馬
4. Moonshadows 月後殘影
5. Inner Reaches 慾望的暗角二
6. Gong Gong Gong Blues 工工工布魯斯
7. Wei Wei Wei 喂喂喂
8. Some Kind of Demon 某一種惡魔
9. Night's Colour (Chongqing) 夜色（重慶）
10. Sound of Love 愛歌