On the Record: Looking at the Future of Future Orients
On the Record is your guide to the past, present, and future of Beijing's music scene.
Future Orients
Name: Future Orients
Current Lineup: Guo Zhen (Guitar), A Yong (Vocals/Guitar), Peng Chao (Bass), Xiao Guo (Drums)
Established: 2013
Record(s): 1 full-length + 1 EP
Label(s): Maybe Mars
Influences: Mogwai, DIIV, P.K. 14, Foals
Stream: Bandcamp (Maybe Mars) / Bandcamp (Future Orients), Facebook, Douban, Weibo
Who are they: To talk about Future Orients is to talk about Foals. The former readily admits in both lyrics and interviews that their sound is inescapably linked to the UK-based indie quartet. Simply put, they aren’t shy about it, nor do they pretend like it’s all in the ear of the beholder. So taking that as a point of departure, Future Orients’ 2016 debut, Eat or Die is an unabashed homage to Foals’ 2008 debut, Antidotes, and to be entirely sure, it’s an homage that is flawlessly executed. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that Foals are equally indebted to bands like Minus the Bear, whose Highly Refined Pirates (2002) set the stage for so much of what came after. (Not to mention Wuhan-based act, Chinese Football, a sendup to American Football in both sound and name.) All of which is to say that lineages and family trees exist between bands. It’s what makes music’s historical record so richly fascinating and worthy of hours and hours of research on the part of the listener. Thus, it’s always helpful to discuss both those relationships as well as the merits of a band as a standalone entity.
As such, Eat or Die is something of a self-contained cosmos, a universe of crisp, intricate riffs drenched in ethereality where notes seemingly defy gravity, floating like stars in the night sky. Against this backdrop is a rhythm section that carves out solid pop grooves. If guitarists Guo Zhen and A Yong create the space in which the record exists, bassist Peng Chao and drummer Xiao Guo doubtlessly act as a spaceship propelling the listener on their cosmic journey.
Conversely, the band’s latest release, a six-song EP entitled Dream Like a Buffalo does in fact depart from their Foals-ish roots. While retaining the same dark disco-pop sensibilities, they trade in some of those signature airy guitar tones for an overall crunchier aesthetic. Likewise, if Eat or Die presented the band as astronauts navigating the vastness of space, Dream Like a Buffalo is significantly more grounded. And in a sure sign that the band is no longer relying on past idols, they abandoned the exclusively
English language lyrics that made up the first record for more tunes in their mother tongue.
Needless to say, while Eat or Die is an incredibly strong record, it doesn’t define Future Orients, and as their name suggests, the band is constantly looking ahead and forging their own path.
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Images: Future Orients
