Born in the shadow of post-Tiananmen nihilism, the collapse of state run industry and a desert that will someday swallow their city whole, Cut Off!, the first E.P. from pioneering Beijing-based post-punks Rebuilding the Rights of Statues delivers explosive, danceable, unsettling energy that leaves you unsure whether you want to take your clothes off and shake the spiders out, or go look for a rope, a closet and a copy of Iggy Pop's The Idiot.
This is visceral music built from the bones up, think ubermench rather than Frankenstein's monster: beautiful, brilliant and brooding.
Drummer Ma Hui's rhythms still hold the echo of the earthquake that wiped his birth city off the map in 1976, while Liu Min's irresistible bass lines and staccato, strangely sensual yelps make you remember why you first fell in love with Blonde Redhead. Standing over it all, Hua Dong's shattering vocals and addictive open-fisted guitar stitch the flesh to the muscle like some demented monkey king. Even legendary composer/producer Brian Eno was so blown away he stood in on guest keyboards (we couldnt even make this stuff up, seriously).
You ever play 'seven minutes in heaven'? Cut Off! is like that stretched out for half an hour: tangible sweat-soaked darkness, blood-pumping atmospherics ...and they never open the door.
