Phantom Rhythm Remixed (Special Edition) vinyl

"Inspired by back-porch blues, Sahelian guitar music, New York no-wave, Cantonese lion dance percussion, and seemingly most incongruously, techno." We're not so sure about the incongruously part. Gong Gong Gong are certainly up their with the most urgent and obscure bands we have come across in some time, though. Blending the frenetic with the peaceful, future with the past, and winding up with something that doesn't quite sound like most other things we've heard this week/year/decade.

This, of course, is the remixes album, and it's one of the few we have stumbled upon wherein the original material itself creates innumerable musical channels. Then you get the other influences involved, which veer from the bouncy, workshop electro-punk of 'Wei Wei Wei (Wu Zhuoling remix), to the beguiling folk-opera-skudge of 'The Last Note (Knopha remix). Exceptional.