SoundTreks: "Rebuilding" Chinese Pop

Afterquake is the response of Liang (left) and Washburn (below) to the devastating earthquake that hit Sichuan province in May 2008, killing 88,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless. Almost a year later, Washburn, who had made several previous trips to China and recorded some songs in Mandarin, and Liang, who had also spent a good deal of time in China, took a trip to Sichuan to record an album that would draw attention to the quake's victims and raise funds for the rebuilding efforts. They played concerts in schools, where they met many children who were separated from their parents during the relocation process. Afterquake sets recordings of those kids telling stories and singing songs to electronic beats, with samples of sounds from the actual rebuilding work mixed in.

It's a heady concept that could collapse under its own weight under the wrong direction, but with the subtle, graceful touch of Liang and Washburn, the album winds up coming off moving, evocative and, most of all, incredibly listenable. "Song for Mama," for instance, is plaintive to the ears and absolutely heart-wrenching with the back story: spare, scratched-out beats (which sound as if they incorporate some ambient construction noises) accompany a recording of a husky-voiced teenage boy named Chen Honglin, singing a song for his mother. His school collapsed and he, like many students, was relocated to another school far away from his home village, where his parents struggle to rebuild their home. In a video about the making of the project, Washburn visits the boy's mother and plays her a video of his song, which brings her to tears.

The innovative elegance that governs Afterquake comes as no surprise if you're familiar with the Shanghai Restoration Project's oeuvre. Liang's fusion projects haven't always worked quite so well, especially early on, but his recent work finds the producer really coming into his own and making his concept work for him. Check out Rhapsody's review of this year's Zodiac:

The Shanghai Restoration Project have such a great concept: pairing bits of Chinese music with dance beats and an American urban pop aesthetic. But some S.R.P. albums have fallen flat, as if the whole construction is just weighed down by the concept. The latest Project buzzes with energy, however (though they go for a weighty concept double whammy with the cutesy Chinese zodiac theme), staging odd yet compelling collaborations (a cappella choir Virginia Sil'hooettes?), expertly melding the pipa with old-school hip-hop ("Top DOG") and working the electro-dance groove ("Deux TIGREs").

Afterquake isn't the Shanghai Restoration Project's first collaborative endeavor. In 2007, Liang took a more literal interest in the 1930s Shanghai jazz that inspired S.R.P., working with China Records (the government's label) to refurbish its collection of classic Chinese pop and jazz recordings. The result, Remixed and Restored: Vol. 1, is a treasure trove of sweet-voiced divas of yesteryear, including several of the Seven Great Singing Stars, a group of film and music stars who helped lay the foundation for Mandopop in 1930s Shanghai (before the communist P.R.C. denounced it as pornography and shut the industry down). The second half of the album features the original recordings, restored and remastered, while the first half works S.R.P.'s magic on the same tunes. Some of the remixes are so smooth they feel organic (like the jaunty "Rose, Rose, I Love You"), while others (such as "The Evening Primrose," featuring the pristine voice of Li Xianglan) overpower the vocal samples a bit. But all are fascinating new constructions of Chinese pop.