Sound Fragment
Under Life Is
(Modern Sky)
The band that should be known as Shards of Sound still hasn't come around to the English name that suits it best. They don't seem to have a taste for alliteration - they tried Break Sound for a while, too. Nor do they have a flair for English - the album title is closer to The Graceful Low Life.
Alas, translation isn't their thing. What does seem to be their thing is the synthesiser, which is the biggest difference between this, the band's sophomore release, and their staggeringly brilliant debut (The World Is a Garden of Noise).
After that record, you wouldn't expect them to wind up caught in the synth trap that continues to snag Beijing rock bands. And you want to think that they're just joking around with blatantly out-of-date keyboard sounds, but, for one, it'd be a bold move to joke around on the opening bars of your record, and for another, it happens too often for it not to have been a serious decision.
