Review Summary: Haunting the Chinese plains.
This Chinese post-rock quartet inserted the traditional guqin, which you can usually hear in those classical types of ambient music or soundtracks to historical dramas, into a Mogwai-meets-Godspeed You! Black Emperor setting. They took the electric version of the respective instrument for a sharper tone and added several effects to enhance its sound. Inspired by nature again, Zhaoze’s fourth studio album,
No Answer Blowin’ in the Wind takes an artsy post-rock approach with occasional sonic bursts. The lengthier tracks share multiple movements, building haunting melodies and cinematic sound scapes along the way. Others seem to serve as preludes or interludes. For example, opener “Ask the Wind” gently steps in, using light piano and guitar leads. Ultimately, the dramatic guqin washes augment the tune, before seguing into “Standing in Wind”. Its main rhythm kicks in amid glockenspiel-like embellishes, producing this uneasy vibe, only to suddenly stop. The second half restarts the track, turning things louder. Two of the LP’s three epics, “2-Dimension (Turning Point)” & “Wind Knows Me” create a well-controlled tension by crafting minimal sonic textures between fleshed out segments. They reminisce early King Crimson moments such as “Moonchild”, but in a darker setting overall. “Wind Knows Me” especially features gorgeous alternating guqin leads. Whether they are percussive like Jambinai heavily use in their music or the cello type, both are very expressive.
Meanwhile, the most cinematic tune on the album, “Birds Are Not True”, showcases quite an interesting side of this project. You need a certain mood to lose yourself into its prolonged, lush ambiance. Otherwise, it might lose its grip on you. Minutes of breezy sounds and intertwining notes pass by, mimicking the sounds of nature, until a swinging groove develops over wandering piano chords. This is the coda of the first part, which unfortunately, does not enter a more dynamic territory in the second one. It chooses to end in a slow, soft fade out instead. A shame really, since it marks the end of the record and could have benefitted from a powerful way to conclude it. Nostalgic themes run throughout, occasionally asking for a harsher release. Nevertheless, this minor and perhaps subjective inconvenience doesn’t detract from the record’s beauty. Zhaoze definitely managed to create a lovely, immersive journey with
No Answer Blowin’ in the Wind, transposing you sonically into a different era.
