维新噩梦工厂 – 催眠疗法
Recommendation: ☀☁☁
催眠疗法1 is the debut album by 维新噩梦工厂2 and the inaugural release of German-Chinese label Beijing Tapes, Inc. Into plunderphonics but find the hyper-experimental works of broken transmission artists such as fuji grid tv and Television Experience to be a bit too much? Then this is an album for you: 催眠疗法 is mostly edited television, popular music, and advertisement jingles mixed together into a concise suite of fifteen tracks in nineteen minutes.
A few highlights: “你头被电脑疼的要命” is chopped and screwed to the point of turning Chinese into a language spoken within a Star Wars cantina. “和伴侣去海边晒黑” is your standard smooth jazz/easy listening vaporwave track, but it somehow works well following four jingle-screw and spoken word tracks. Its follow-up – “成人享受生活” – is a nigh-untouched translation from whatever pop song from which it’s sourced. “休息休息休息” refrain of “cherry ice, strawberry ice, lemon ice” is kind of awesome. Finally, “天气预报” has some fun with signalwave repetition of a single sound to deconstruct a song into a dissociated earworm.
You know, sometimes it’s nice not to listen to an “experimental” album, and I’d say that one could argue how critical focus on works that push boundaries is misplaced. Occasionally, you get albums like this that are just good at their genre. 催眠疗法 is a sweet release, with enough skips and classic-style vaporwave production techniques to keep a listener mildly aroused, and it could be a good place to start for listeners who are interested in those more chaotic sounds of broken transmission and signalwave while still being quite “musical” in the traditional sense.
Tracklist
1. 前言 – (0:44)3
2. 你头被电脑疼的要命 – (0:48)4
3. 在外面人们都在跳舞 – (1:28)5
4. 你去啥地方? – (0:52)6
5. 和伴侣去海边晒黑 – (2:22)7
6. 成人享受生活 – (2:08)8
7. 最近日语好好儿流行 – (1:22)9
8. 奇妙未来的噩梦 – (0:54)10
9. 为何鲸鲨吃金枪鱼? – (1:42)11
10. 天气预报 – (1:19)12
11. 实际是我唱的这首歌! – (1:53)13
12. 我放心了 – (0:48)14
13. 休息休息休息 – (0:30)15
14. 最复杂的街机游戏 – (1:18)16
15. 结语 – (1:15)17
1Chinese translation: “Hypnotherapy”
2Chinese translation: “Nightmare factory”
3Chinese translation: “Introduction”
4Chinese translation: “Your head is a computer pain to death”
5Chinese translation: “Outside the people are dancing”
6Chinese translation: “Where are you going?”
7Chinese translation: “And your friends go to the beach and go tanning”
8Chinese translation: “Adult life”
9Chinese translation: “Recently popular with good Japanese children”
10Chinese translation: “Wonderful future nightmare”
11Chinese translation: “Why do whale sharks eat tuna?”
12Chinese translation: “Weather forecast”
13Chinese translation: “Actually I sing this song!”
14Chinese translation: “I’m at ease”
15Chinese translation: “Rest breaks”
16Chinese translation: “The most complex arcade game”
17Chinese translation: “Conclusion”
just saying, i believe the artist name translates to “Nightmare factory” rather than “Restoration Nighttime factory”. maybe “reborn nightmare factory”? i won’t say for certain unless the artist says differently 😛
Thanks for the fix! My translation skills are not the best, so I appreciate when I’m corrected!
I like to say it’s “Revolutionary Nightmare Factory”, but it actually translates to somewhat like “Reforming Nightmare Factory”… The 维新 is actually a name that I used for my old projects and art stuff, it’s more of a name, rather than an actual adjective/adverb! : )
Awesome! Thanks for clarifying!