Snapline – Shou Hua

What’s up guys. Welcome to the first Throwback Thursday post, since the first throwback album was actually posted on Tuesday. However, today we have a very interesting album that caught my eye recently on bandcamp’s main page. I saw an article about Chinese post-punk, and I was immediately intrigued. So, today we’ll be taking a look at the Beijing based band Snapline.

Snapline is essentially a three-member post-punk band drawing their inspiration on minimalist and noise musicians of the 70s and 80s. The two main instrumentalists first met at the Beijing Institute of Technology as students, and vocalist Chen Xi joined them later. This band was essentially a side project created by the two instrumentalists. Surprisingly, their discography is pretty long. With nine albums under their belts, Snapline came out with Shou Hua in 2018 as their tenth album.

They start it right away with hitting a small gong or pot for 16 seconds on Alarm. The vocals across the album are spoken in a noticeable Chinese accent, which is actually not bad for post-punk where words can be spoken in a very broken fashion. Song by song Analysis:

- What a Day – Very strangely beautiful description of some man, but at the same time it feels like they are criticizing him. A lot of ominous vibes with the higher pitched strumming guitar constantly being heard.

- Ironhead – Listing of things that a child would be learning: “alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes.” They go on to list objects that would be around them while creating this music along with some adjectives. The repeating of “cry” towards the end is weirdly catchy but a little cringy.

- N & N – Starts with a low bass guitar repeat that is dark and intriguing. The whole feel of this track is very Swans-industrial-era sounding. The repeated phrase “some found” with something different proceeding afterwards is very Swans-like. The song becomes hypnotic instructions on how to live life, and the vocalist expresses distaste for those instructions.

- Late Troubles – From the start the vibe differs from the previous track, beginning with the higher pitched guitar instead of the bass. We finally hear some Chinese (one of the few appearances of their language on this album) in the fourth line translated as “I have no idea!” This song has no clear message, just vaguely angsty lyrics about patronizing the inferior.

- Lynnwood – The squealing guitar here is amazing with the fast electric-guitar playing. Lyrical content is strange, surrounding the idea that “I can’t afford to wake up in Lynnwood.” The vocalist also keeps blaming his baby for something he is accused of doing.

- Fall – Vocals are in a head-voice for this song. I have a loose interpretation of this track as getting over a past relationship, blaming his partner for removing his solitude.

- Sad Song – Faster paced guitar playing that is loud and exciting. Only three different phrases are used in the track: “I’ll turn myself in,” “I’ve given it up,” and “on you.”

- Tent – One of the catchiest instrumental hooks on the album with the repeating of a single line for the whole song. That line is “OH it’s armed it’s gently softly armed.” He exclaims “armed” each time in a slightly more peculiar fashion. The overall audio starts distorting to end the track.

- Ran – This song definitely embodies running as the drums’ rhythm feels like it is constantly pushing one’s listening experience as the song progresses. Lyrical content is quite random, but the lyrics have the commonality that they can all occur when you’re running away (more like running away through a forest in a horror movie). Random years are yelled from 1805 to 2017 to end the track (no idea why).

- TheAnswer#3 – A more quiet ending. Voice augmentation is definitely used, making the vocalist sound almost demonic. Lyrical content is significantly similar to the lyrics fromWhat a Day. Coins rubbing together and a guitar hook that sounds like it would be used for some Shoegaze song is heard 2:20 into the track.

Harsh bass guitar, guitar-squealing, and conventional industrial mechanisms are essentially dripping out of this album. The influences that Snapline draw from are extremely clear and they do a great job creating something new from it. However, it is definitely not something extremely cutting edge or some never-heard-before music. Snapline definitely has a unique twist for my ears because of their Chinese accents, but otherwise these are just some good post-punk songs with convoluted lyrics and no real broad theme or concept.

Good Album: 7.2

Favorite Tracks: N & N

Least Favorite: none