Wang Lei

Wang Lei

Xin

(Bailong Music)

From his Guangzhou headquarters, Wang Lei has been pushing the boundaries of each form of music he's produced in his almost 15 years as a musician.

After his evolution through pop-rock that got progressively more experimental (documented on Scream Records' four-CD set), Wang went industrial, releasing an abrasive album with Pump in 2002.

Just as we were recovering from Pump's aural assault, Wang went the other way on his debut electronic release, Belleville (2003), an album that represented a dub-licious new direction for the cutting-edge artist. Xin picks up where Belleville left off, and demonstrates Wang's maturation behind his Roland 808s. The record expands on Wang's judicious and intelligent use of Chinese operatic samples atop the bass-heavy rhythms of stripped-down reggae. All too often, the prospect of sampling gets producers over-excited and with all the layers competing for attention, one can't hear the tune for the tidbits. Not so here, although this isn't to say each track isn't a complex creation.

The snippets of opera singing evoke images of the mask-changing antics of a Sichuanese teahouse, and may even have you chanting and moaning. All the while, in contrast to other electronic attempts to bring traditional Chinese instruments into the modern era, Wang's minimal additions of classical string samples meld perfectly with his phat-but-never-heavy beats.

He moves between experiments with blips and crackles (Again, Spring Apricot) into more danceable beats (Thousand, Wood); from head shop theme music (Earth, Speech) to the soundtrack for a romantic evening (Super Vision, Fragrance).