Tongue Keeps It Interesting

By Jerry Chan

With a half open Beijing municipal sewer lid on the cover of their debut “Little Chicken Hatches”, Tongue makes defiantly weird music straight out of the Chinese rock underground.

Formed by a group of "former factory workers, farmers, and students" (all of Han ethnicity) from Urumqi, Xinjiang, this six man band pushes the envelope of modern Chinese music with their take on post-punk art rock.

Reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle’s Chris Carter, lead singer Wu Tun’s snide snarl and direct lyrics

"I guess its education,
I guess its law,
I guess its virtue,
I guess its limitations..."

are a fitting complement to Li Zhongtao’s stocatto beats and Zhu Xiaolong’s abrasively tweaked out guitar riffs. The overall effect is a cacophonous swirl of weird off timings, randomly interspersed melody snippets, and frantic keyboards courtesy of Guo Da Gang.

Unfortunately the intensity of the music is offset by the age old problem of poor production quality and ill suited recording techniques. Mainland producers do not seem to have caught on yet to the idea of burying the vocals in the mix. Likewise, the drums are terribly miked and the guitar parts are recorded way too low, completely washing out the true power of Xiao Long’s playing. So tragically for Tongue, this album, which was recorded on the Badhead label, sounds like it was a recorded in a padded room. Instead of the abrasive wall of noise that one encounters during their live performances "Little Chicken Hatches" comes across like a Canto-pop album.

The highly influential Chicago band Jesus Lizard experienced the same problem when critics panned their album “Down” for its poor production values after they released the Steve Albini produced “Liar”, which is widely acknowledged as their best album in large part because of its beautifully clear analogue sound. As the saying goes "location is everything" and this is especially true when it comes to placing mikes in a recording studio. To put it quite simply: Turn it UP!

In spite of these problems, Tongue remains a very cool band with a uniquely abrasive sound. Perhaps a live album would do a better job of representing the group's tight work.

To reach Jerry Chan: jchan@virtualchina.com