DBG #8 Residence A | 送春

Posted on January 31, 2012

Location: Beijing, China

Watch elsewhere: 土豆网 [中文] | youtube | vimeo

Translation: 年轻帮Satan
Cover Art: Nini Sum @ Idlebeats

Another shoot beginning on a sharp Winter morning in Beijing, this time at 7am. The practice space leased by Residence A is well past the 5th ring road, in a district called Tongzhou, which only just scrapes into the capital’s city limits. With a little bit of imagination, the pokey enclosure becomes a safari hut, retrofitted to the baron rooftop plains of a semi-abandoned commercial building.

It’s dark inside the tiny room. We could be camping in the middle of the countryside under the fluorescent light of a rectangular moon. The warm glow of the fire emanates from the center of the room as Zhaozhao strums his acoustic guitar, supported by his band of brothers Xiao Bing and Chen Shao, as he wails into the darkness. Panning around the camp circle, the familiar patterns of wildlife reveal themselves, then retreat again and the song loops over and over like a campfire favourite.

After almost 10 minutes the song comes to a close. The last chord is absorbed by the artificial night sky and a soft exhale of satisfaction pierces the deathly silence.

We’ll be watching with interest as this very young Beijing outfit becomes a fixture of the city’s prolific independent music scene. Stay tuned to their douban page for new tracks from their debut album.

Andy & Charles
DaBaoGe