If you find yourself digging into the Chinese rock scene, you're no doubt going to be pointed to Beijing's ★HEDGEHOG. For a lover of pop, they're consistently one of the most interesting bands still running. They're also one of the few that has made an audience in America, and made the trek over to play. When I headed over for The World Underground, they were high on the list for bands I wanted to get together with. They invited me to Busy Bee studio as they recorded this new record. I also pushed to film a practice space session, and they agreed. What I shot was almost exclusively new songs. I can't remember the last time I was so choked up on simple pop songs.
The new record has quite a few slower songs, with frontman ZO and drummer ATOM trading off vocal duties. Any lengthy conversation about the group will eventually lead into how much everybody loves their tiny-but-potent female drummer. She hits hard while barely even able to hold the sticks. Atom has a few really great tracks all to herself with this new record, and this is one of them. As a fan of their music long before I visited China, I can say that their back in top form with this release. “DDDDDDreaMMMMMM” is a six minute long blast into space. The entire record is sung in Chinese, a departure from the mostly 50/50 split of previous outings. Their reasoning is to try to bring new fans in from mainland China.
Phantom Pop Star is due out 4/20. Just in time for you and your stoner buddies to get blitzed and dig in.
Listen to the track, and pre-order the record from their Bandcamp or Modern Sky.
